206 



PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE SIERRA CLUB 



The Northwest Must Fix Columbia and 

 Snake River Dams to Save the Salmon 



SieiTa 

 Club 



PACIFIC NORTHWEST 

 WILD SALMON CAMPAIGN 



Northwest Office 



1516 Melrose Ave. 

 Seattle WA 98122 

 (206)621-1696 



Columbia Basin Branch Office 



Route 2, Box 303-A 

 Pullman WA 99163 

 (509)332-5173 



ReservoifS created by Columbia and Snake River darT\s 

 are much deeper, wider, and slower moving than the 

 original rivers. Migrating juvenile salmon drift aimlessly 

 in the slack water and die. 



Drawing down the water level o( a reservoir makes il 

 less deep and less wide — and more like a (lowing river 

 that young salmon need for safe migration to survive. 



EIGHT huge, hydropowcr dams 

 .icross (he Columbia anJ Snake 

 Riveis have brought many benefits to 

 the people and communities ot the 

 Northwest. But these eight concrete 

 barriers, and the slackwaier reservoirs 

 behind them, have also taken a devas- 

 tating toll on wild salmon. Biologists 

 estimate that these dams inflict at least 

 90% of the human-caused mortalities 

 to the endangered Snake River runs. 



And as the wild salmon have been 

 decimated, so have the Pacific North- 

 west economies and ecosystems that 

 depend upon them. 



Sierra Club along with other con- 

 servationists and state and Tribal fish- 

 eries agencies, believe 

 that it is completely 

 feasible to recover 

 healthy populations of 

 wild salmon — but 

 only by modifying the 

 dams and their opera- 

 tions. 



BECAUSE THE dams 

 account for so much 

 of the damage, conser- 

 vationists and fisheries 

 biologists want to fix 

 this single biggest 

 threat to wild salmon 

 in the Columbia and 

 Snake Rivers, and 

 have advocated a pro- 

 gram of reservoir 

 "drawdowns" and en- 

 hanced water "flows" 

 10 make the hydro- 

 power system work 

 for both salmon and 

 people. 



A faster moving river is the 

 key to saving wild salmon 



The dams h.n e proven so deadly to 

 wild salmon in large measure because 

 the dams have changed the (lowing 

 waters of the Columbia and Snake Riv- 

 ers into a 320-mile chain of big, deep, 

 slow-moving reservoirs Before con- 

 stniclion of the dams, juvenile salmon 

 were swept by strong river flows down 

 the Snake and Columbia all the way 

 from the Idaho border lo Portland in a 

 week or less. (Small, young salmon 

 don't actually swim to the ocean from 

 the streams and headwaters where they 

 are spawned; they depend on swiftly 

 (lowing river currents lo "tlush" them 

 out to sea.) Today due to the dams, the 

 journey lakes a month, sometimes 45 

 days or even more. 



The delay e.xposes the migrating 

 juvenile salmon, called "smolis," to 

 more predators, a higher incidence of 

 disease, and greater physical stress. 

 Those few fish that do finally reach the 

 ocean enter the sea physically weak- 

 ened and very unlikely to survive. 



All available scientific evidence 

 points 10 this important factor — 

 "(ravel-lime" to the ocean — as the 

 key problem that must be corrected if 

 we are to save wild salmon in the Co- 

 lumbia and Snake Rivers. Compiled 

 over a two decade time span, study af- 

 ter s(udy after study points (o (he same 

 scientific conclusion: Faster river 

 speeds for migrating smolts mean more 

 reluming adult salmon. 



For this reason, the Columbia Ba- 

 sin Fish and Wildlife Authority 

 (CBFWA), unanimously recommended 

 in 1991 that, to restore wild salmon in 



The Sierra Club Wild Salmon Campaign seeks lo proicci and restore wild salmon runs ihroughoul the Pacific Norihwcsl. The Northwest 

 Musi Fix Columbia and Snake River Dams to Save the Salman is one of a scries of Sierra Club discussion papers on rcsioralion of wild 

 salmon. Written by Jim Baker, Sierra Club Columbia Basin Branch Offic. and Julia Reitan, Sierra Club Northwest Office. DRAFT, 

 January 1995. Primed on reeyclcd paper. 



