Snake River Salmon Solutions
Submitted by Amber Powers on Thu, 2016-07-14 00:00
Today we got to hear from Bert Bowler from Snake River Salmon Solutions. He told us the story of the Srping Chinook and the Sockeye Salmon in Idaho and how important they are to our wildlife and forests. He was our "salmon Lorax" (he speaks for the salmon). It really helped me to see more clearly the other side of the "dam controversy." He explained to us that the problem with dams is not the adult fish coming back to spawn. It is detramental for the small fish riding the currents of the river to the ocean. When the fish are young it is important for them to be able to ride the currents to develop what they need to live in the salt water. Dams stop this process by creating "dead water." Not many survive. The dams are causing the endangerment of these fish to the point that one year only one made it back to Redfish Lake in Stanley, ID.
There are 8 major dams on the lower Snake River and the Columbia River. Bert believes that if we were able to take out the four dams on the Snake it would help the salmon immensly. However, the federal goverment refuses to even engage in coversation about this topic. The federal goverment wants the control the the dollars for the hydraulilc power and environmentalists are fighting to keep the salmon alive. To me it simply makes sense to take out the dams we don't need. Why can't we find a compromise?
If you are interested in seeing a good documentary on this topic, check out DamNation. Its a documentary on Netflix. Very facinating.
Comments
Salmon Lorax!
Love it, Amber!
Salmon
I feel like the Salmon issue has been going on for so long with no real solutions ever offered. I though in college they would be extinct by now. Just like with climate change I really don't see this issue ever getting resolved, I like the Lorax reference from above. I have seen DamNation and it was good, but we need the hydropower so until an amazing invention happens I don't see any real change.
Dams
To add a bit to Amber's post, the gentleman we heard from yesterday isn't in favor of removing all dams on the Columbia/Snake River systems, but particularly four dams on the lower Snake River. These four dams to generate some hydropower (at least some of them do), but according to Bert, the government is putting more money and subsidies into these dams then they are pulling services out of them. In other words, these dams are no longer economically feasible to operate, but due to entrenched business interests and the need of bureaucracy to keep and maintain "territory", the federal agencies in charge of these four dams are not very open to the idea of removing them. Most dams removed in recent years throughout the country have been privately owned dams.