Damn dams dammit

[Elkmagnet]

Sometimes we

Its not accurate in my view to say salmon behind these dams are gone. Salmon are very resilient and given their high fecundity and migratory capabilities - they could recolonize any habitat opened up. Steelhead maintain a resident life history and as soon as they had passage would resume an anadromous life cycle, so they would re-establish even more rapidly.

However, if we ignore the dams which have by far a greater impact on salmon and steelhead numbers in Idaho and only focus on dams downstream of Idaho's border (a preferred strategy for some of Idaho's politicians - and I don't mean this as a jab at you or others) - then any of the lower Columbia Dams have a substantially greater impact on Idaho's salmon than the lower Snake dams. Much higher predator concentrations on juvenile fish (avian and fish) and then add in sea lions feasting at Bonneville Dam...its difficult to provide quantitative estimates of the potential impact difference, but the bonus of targeting lower Columbia dams...you are now tackling dams that all 13 ESA listed stocks of salmon in the Columbia must navigate as opposed to the subset of 4 stocks that pass the Snake River dams.

The last part of your statement is true...when comparing lower Snake and lower Columbia dams, the Columbia dams produce much more hydropower benefits.

I agree in principle but we disagree in approach. I would be happy with starting...somewhere...

 

[JLS]

Given the fact the Lower Snake Dams are considered pretty much untouchable, the Lower Columbia Dams shouldn't even be a fleeting hope. I agree in principle that taking out a couple of those would have profound impacts for a greater number of fish stocks.

 

[marshman]

A really good look is the Elwha River on Washington's Olympic peninsula. After the removal of 2 dams the evidence is in the fish. All of the 5 Salmon species native to the river, and the sea run Cutthroat and Steelhead trout runs have come roaring back, even in a time of less than ideal ocean conditions, spawning in habitat for 30 miles inside the park unused for decades.
If given a chance nature can repair itself in short order. It would happen in the Snake river system also.

 

[Irrelevant]

A really good look is the Elwha River on Washington's Olympic peninsula. After the removal of 2 dams the evidence is in the fish. All of the 5 Salmon species native to the river, and the sea run Cutthroat and Steelhead trout runs have come roaring back, even in a time of less than ideal ocean conditions, spawning in habitat for 30 miles inside the park unused for decades.
If given a chance nature can repair itself in short order. It would happen in the Snake river system also.

I actually would contend that the Elwha provides better evidence that simply removing a dam does not fix all ills. "roaring back" is definitely not the term I've seen used. More like "some gains have been made", most surprisingly in sockeye.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Nothing would make me happier then to see the Columbia and the Snake flowing freely to the sea.
There have been some interesting arguments put forth to remove the dams and it probably won’t hurt salmon and steelhead smolt migration.
Returns are a different story. Back in the day, when I studied fisheries, I could tell you how many streams on the Oregon coast had historic runs of salmon and steelhead.
There are a bunch. A few had small dams, largely insignificant to spawning. Most had been significantly damaged by logging and farming.
Oregon made huge strides over the last forty years protecting the streams, the logging industry has been decimated, the forest practices act is actually enforced, sometimes. Most of the affected rivers have recovered beautifully, yet there are no salmon to speak of.
In every watershed from the Yukon to the Rouge, Chinook are in trouble. A significant number of those watersheds have nothing in the way of dams or dikes to impact the fish, but they aren’t there in anything approaching the numbers from a few decades ago.
My point being, why do we imagine the Snake will recover, in particular for Chinook?
I don’t have a dog in the fight when it comes to shipping wheat, or irrigation for the high desert, I’d sure hate to see another damn windmill along the Columbia.
I hope it works, no question regarding the positive impact on the economy a strong fishery will have.

 

[MTGomer]

It’s going to be a tough one to set renewable standards and remove the dams.
Washington politics have played a big part in how accelerated Colstrip’s inevitable downfall has been. The absence of Colstrip will make it that much harder to do away with another major energy producer in the PNW, especially considering that hydro is clean and renewable, in a time where many states and companies have set or will set renewable standards.

I’d prefer to have seen removal of the dams be prioritized much further up the environmental list than closing Colstrip.

Taking major sources of clean power off the grid today is going to be a real struggle I think.

 

[Salmonchaser]

The good news, ADFG Just announces the Kenai forecast will allow the river to open this year for the early run.

 

[jacinda]

My solution is cut the salmon waters up into units and put in a draw or points system for salmon fishing tags to cut down on fishing harvests. Charge like comparable to elk tags and rake in the dough.
But seriously like 500 million salmon are caught each year. That's not counting the regular fisherman just commercial fishing.

agree with you