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Statement 

 of 



Jim Baker 



Northwest Salmon Campaign Coordinator 



Sierra Club 



before 

 the 



Bonneville Power Administration Task Force 

 Peter A. DeFazio, Chairman 



Committee on Natural Resources 

 U.S. House of Representatives 



Boise, Idaho 

 September 24, 1993 



Mr. Chairman and Honorable Members of the "msk Force, thank you 

 for the invitation to testify this morning on one of the critical environmental 

 crises of our Ume: the decline toward extinction of wild salmon stocks in 

 the Colimibia River Basin. For the record, my name is Jim Baker, and I am 

 the Northwest Salmon Campaign Coordinator for the Sierra Club, a national 

 conservation organization of 500.000 members. I staff an oflFice in Pullman, 

 Washington located about five miles from Lower Granite Dam — the first of 

 eight mainstem dams on the Lower Snake and Lower Columbia Rivers, 

 which are inevitably driving the remaining wild Snake Basin salmon runs 

 into extinction. 



Among other credentials to appear before the T&sk Force this 

 morning, I was a seated participant in the regional Salmon Simimit of 1990- 

 91. As do my colleagues in the Sierra Club, I still believe that the Pacific 

 Northwest can and should — through the process of the Salmon Summit and 

 the subsequent rule-makings by the Northwest Power Planning Council — 

 avert the public policy "train wreck" over salmon which we tragically 

 experienced over the spotted owl. We remain confident in the fundamental 

 wisdom contained in the Northwest Power Plaiming Act that this region can 

 and should — through integrated, comprehensive planning and equitable 

 treatment of both resources — operate the Colimibia Basin hydropower 

 system for maximtmi sustainable production of electricity and salmon. The 

 living symbol of our Northwest culture, these fish are simply too valuable — 

 both environmentally and economically — to lose forever. 



Siena Chib — Page 1 



