OPINION: Group won’t stop with the lower Snake River dams

We are being sold a bill of goods. We are being told that the four lower Snake River dams are the main reason for the disappearance of our anadromous fish runs and they should be torn out. David Welch and a team of scientists from Kintama Research Services Ltd., have determined that the survival of chinook salmon has fallen by 65% during the last 50 years on rivers along the whole North American West Coast from California to Alaska, not just the Snake River, and most of these rivers have no dams.

A time-proven, fish-tracking system with miniature implants allowed Welch’s team to closely track and study the outgoing juvenile smolts. To increase their understanding of the effects of dams on fish survival, the researchers compared the fate of chinook and steelhead migrants leaving the heavily dammed Columbia-Snake River system to those leaving the primitive and undeveloped Thompson-Fraser river system in south central British Columbia. According to an article published by PLOS Biology (October 2008, Volume 6, Issue 10), Welch says: “Surprisingly, smolts fared just as well negotiating the heavily dammed Columbia as they did going down the free-flowing Fraser. Comparing the rivers section by section, chinook smolts traversing the dammed system actually had higher survival rates than their cousins in the Fraser. Adjusting estimates to consider the distance and time smolts had to migrate to reach the river mouth revealed that average survival rates were much higher for both species from the Snake River than for those in the undammed Fraser. In fact, no matter how they analyzed the data, the researchers reported “survival is not worse in the Columbia despite the presence of an extensive network of dams. These results challenge long-held assumptions about the impact of dams and suggest that removing dams may not accelerate salmon recovery, as widely believed.”

In a December report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concluded that smolt-to-adult returns (SARs) were higher for transported than bypassed or spillway-passed fish. In other words, they concluded that barging smolts produces more adult returns. During the first 15 or so years of our present century, fish hatcheries and juvenile fish barging were rejuvenating our Snake River anadromous fish runs by threefold — until court ordered mass spilling decreased barging of smolts. Government figures show that barged smolts have a 98% survival rate. Now, with mass spilling and decreased barging, 50% of them are dying in the river.

The four lower Snake River dams have efficient bypass systems and affect only a small amount of fish spawning habitat. But there are thousands of miles of destroyed fish spawning habitat in Idaho behind Dworshak Dam and the three Hells Canyon dams, which have no fish bypass systems. And there are hundreds of miles of lost spawning habitat upstream of Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams in Washington state that have no fish bypass systems. The actual percentage of spawning grounds lost to these dams in Washington state, according to government figures, are 80% for fall chinook, 70%-plus for spring and summer chinook and 65% for steelhead. Why aren’t we talking about this?

Radical environmental groups are choosing their goals carefully. They are picking the easiest targets in their mission to destroy all dams. When tearing out these four lower Snake River dams does not achieve their stated goal — which it won’t — they will go after the other dams. And since they will have set a precedent for the preservation of fish over dams, it will pave the way for tearing out the rest of the dams.

Power blackouts for our region are predicted by the year 2026, even with all the dams intact. At the same time, President Joe Biden and the radical environmental groups are trying to force us to abandon our gas-powered automobiles and go to all-electric forms of transportation by 2030. Without the dams, the risk of blackouts will increase dramatically. We have invested billions of dollars into our present system. It is dependable and produces clean, renewable energy. Environmental extremists want us to spend billions of dollars to destroy what billions of dollars in investment created — and then spend many billions more on solar panels and windmills to replace the hydropower. They claim that their preferred sources of energy are cleaner and better, but that is a matter of opinion.

What do you prefer — a beautiful reservoir that produces vast amounts of clean, dependable power and brings almost unending forms of recreation, including fishing for salmon and steelhead? Or do you prefer huge ugly windmills that will cover tens or even hundreds of thousands of acres of land? The fan blades on these windmills are nonrecyclable and must be buried. The windmills also use some highly toxic chemicals that must be disposed of, and it is proven that the windmills kill large numbers of birds. Will any of these species become endangered or go extinct?

Solar power farms have many similar problems.

Remember, solar panels and windmills are not totally dependable like dams. They only produce power when the sun shines and when the wind blows. Are we going to do all of this on the belief that it “might” bring back our endangered salmon?

The four lower Snake River dams, with proper management, are not the problem. The decline in fish populations occurs in the ocean where the fish spend half or more of their life cycle and are subjected to multitudes of predators and intense fishing.

Citizens for the Preservation of Fish and Dams, Inc. is a local non-profit organization dedicated to saving both fish and dams. Our membership includes people with many decades of experience in all aspects of fish and dams, including several retired fisheries biologists, fish passage specialists, industry leaders, port commissioners, county commissioners and an Idaho outfitter.

Two fish biologists are giving presentations at the Latah County Fairgrounds at 7 p.m. April 30.

Please visit the Citizens for the Preservation of Fish and Dams website at cfpfd.org.

Dugger retired as a journeyman carpenter from Clearwater Paper. He lives in Lewiston.