Unite diverse stakeholders like local electeds, Nez Perce biologists, conservationists, media, farmers, and others to discuss the potential of removing the four lower Snake River dams.
The growing momentum to remove the lower four Snake River dams will restore 140 miles of river and over 14,000 acres of riparian habitat and bottomlands. It will cut dam-caused salmon mortality by at least 50% and restore productive access for wild salmon and steelhead to over 30,000 miles of contiguous, pristine, protected upriver habitat in northeast Oregon, central Idaho, and southeast Washington. This hydropower system was constructed on the homelands of 19 Tribes who have relied on salmon since time immemorial.
The economics of these four dams have long been in question; not in question is that Federal agencies have spent more than $24 billion on fish mitigation, but have yet to recover a single salmon or steelhead population. The dams produce about 925 megawatts of electricity each year - a service that can be replaced with effective alternatives like wind and solar, coupled with battery storage.
The Snake River provides for communities in this region and removing the four lower dams is necessary to restore a free-flowing lower Snake River, recover endangered wild salmon and steelhead facing extinction, save American taxpayer and Northwest energy consumer dollars, benefit struggling wildlife populations including endangered Southern Resident Orcas, and uphold our treaty and trust obligation and responsibilities to Native American Tribes in the Columbia Basin.
