In the wake of the historic closure of all salmon fishing in California and Oregon, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer today has spot-on op-ed on the subject.
A recent report by local and national conservation groups laid out a comprehensive strategy for recovering federally listed salmon in the region's Columbia and Snake River Basin (LightInTheRiver.org). The principles identified in this report can easily be applied to all of Washington, Oregon and California's struggling salmon stocks: First, we must curb greenhouse gas emissions; second, we need to invest in solutions such as reconnecting salmon to high headwater habitats and protecting health flows and cool waters in headwater areas to help those species cope with changes already under way.
While the piece praises a regional carbon emission cap and trade plan, it does not go into significant detail on the second phase: fish passage to pristine headwater spawning habitat. Join me after the jump to explore the dam removal issue on the Snake river system.
Last year, just four sockeye salmon returned to spawn in Redfish Lake in Idaho. Four Fish. To a lake named for its abundance of spawning Salmon. The Coho Salmon that historically spawned in the Snake River are already extinct. The leading contributor to the catastrophic decline in salmon runs in this watershed: Four Lower Snake River Dams.
These four dams have the lowest economic benefit for the region, and the highest fish mortality. Built mainly for barge transportation to and from Lewiston, Idaho, these dams do not provide much in the way of other benefits for the region. The dams are run of the river dams, and do not offer significant water storage, flood control, or even irrigation. In fact, the only irrigation drawn from the four dams is off of Ice Harbor Dam, the lowest of the four. Of, Washington's total cropland of about 6,500,000 acres, the 35,000 irrigated acres which use Ice Harbor water amount to roughly 1/2 of 1% of that total. And since all of these irrigators are using pumps, they could continue to draw water off of a free-flowing river.
Their combined total hydro-power capacity is roughly 3000 MW. By contrast, Grand Coulee Dam alone (which is not being considered for removal), on the Columbia river generates over twice that. The NW Energy Coalition, a partner in the movement for dam removal is actively working to find clean, renewable alternatives to offset the generating capacity that will be lost.
Replacing the barge capacity is as simple as investing in rail lines that already exist along the river, but have fallen into disrepair since the opening of the dams. This is a common sense solution, that could have benefits to the entire region's economy for shipment of both agricultural products and other goods.
What these dams definitely do create is almost 150 miles of slack water that pose major threats, primarily to out-migrating juvenile salmon smolts. First of all, smolts are adapted to migrate in free flowing rivers. The equivalent of a several hundred mile long water-slide to the ocean. The fish do not have the instinct to swim through that much standing water. These impoundments warm the water, which places further stress on the fish. Combined with the introduction of invasive predators such as bass and walleye, fish kills associated with dam passage can reach upwards of 90%.
Furthermore, removing these dams will be the cheapest long-term solution to the crisis facing wild salmon stocks in the Snake and Columbia system. The Federal Government You and I are paying 7 Billion dollars per decade on failed salmon management programs. These programs involve Rube Goldberg inspired systems of chutes and pipes for fish passage. Barging and trucking smolts around these obstacles is also a common practice. Recall the statistic of four fish in Redfish lake. Clearly these measures are failing. By contrast, one-time costs associated with dam removal are estimated at 1 Billion. (PDF)
Removing the 4 Lower Snake River dams is the only long-term solution to restore wild salmon. The waters these dams block access to include the largest swaths of wilderness in the lower 48. These are pristine, cold, clean rivers that only need access by fish to become salmon spawning powerhouses.
This year Save Our Wild Salmon (my current employer, see disclosure below) is taking this message to the entire country. Two weeks ago we kicked off our 2008 Salmon Recovery Road Show. Over the next two months we will be traveling the country, educating people about this issue, and putting pressure on congress to show some leadership. Check out our itinerary, follow our progress or find a link to sign the online petition at our blog.
I'll continue posting about the fight for dam removal, especially the history the Federal Court case, and updates from the road in the coming weeks.
Disclosure: In this diary and comment thread I am posting in my capacity as Road Show Organizer for Save Our Wild Salmon. Unless noted otherwise, other diaries and comments posted under this username are strictly my own, and do not reflect the views of Save Our Wild Salmon.