Don’t Dam Salmon Resource Page

The lack of Snake River chinook salmon, a primary food source for the Salish Seas’ southern resident orcas, has concurrently brought these orcas to the brink of extinction.

Scientists state that removal of the four lower Snake dams is the surest, quickest means of enabling species’ recoveries. Over 5000 miles of rivers and streams, Pacific Northwest indigenous and non-indigenous lifestyles, and local economies are negatively affected by the ongoing declines and potential extinctions of wild Snake River salmon, steelhead, and Salish Sea southern resident orcas.

A Deeper Look

Between 1962 and 1975, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built four dams on the Lower Snake River, creating tiers of slack water reservoirs with no free-flow for over 140 river miles. These dams were built to provide an inland freight transportation waterway, and “regional prosperity.” The navigable waterway failed to bring the region prosperity, but the dams and their slack warm water reservoirs did decimate Snake River wild salmon and steelhead runs. By 1997 all four extant Snake River salmon and steelhead runs had been ESA-listed as threatened or endangered. Coho runs had become extinct.

In 2005, the salmon dependent Southern Resident orcas, whose primary diet is Chinook, were listed as endangered. As of July 2023, largely due to lack of prey and periodic starvation, just 75 whales survive.

Over 20 years, federal judges have declared that five consecutive biological opinions on the Columbia-Snake hydropower system operations were illegal under the Endangered Species Act because they failed to adequately protect listed steelhead and salmon. Taxpayers and electricity ratepayers, meanwhile, have spent at least $17 billion dollars on fish recovery. Yet none of the recovery measures have worked to stop the species’ perilous decline.

The Great Old Broads for Wilderness and our partners are speaking up against the demise of these critically endangered species and supporting restoration of free-flow and a natural ecosystem on the Lower Snake.

Salmon, Steelhead, and Orcas

• Wild Snake River salmon populations, primarily chinook, have been reduced from a once annual return of 5–8 million adults to less than 12,000 in 2019.
• Dam and reservoir passage kills at least 50% of migrating Snake River juvenile salmon. Of those juveniles that survive all eight dams and reach the Columbia’s lowest stretches, delayed mortality, the result of accrued stresses and harms, kills an additional 30–40%. Adult salmon returning to natal streams are killed by the thousands due to a lack of a free-flowing river and lethally warm water temperatures exacerbated by climate change.
• Restoration to a free-flowing river is the only way to enable resilience for juveniles and adults and provide the food needed for the Southern Resident orcas.
• The Fish Passage Center and regional government oversight committee find that dramatic increases of returning Snake River salmon and steelhead is only likely with breaching the Lower Snake dams in combination with improved spill for juvenile fish passage at the 4 lower Columbia River dams.

Energy and Freight Transportation

•  The Lower Snake River dams generate only about 4% of the power produced in the Northwest, a region that is long on power. Meaning it has more than the region can use
• All Lower Snake dam-produced power is surplus and not needed by the Bonneville Power Administration to meet contracted customer needs.
• Breaching LSRD will free up transmission for thousands of megawatts of renewables.
• Freight transport on the Lower Snake has been in decline for 20 years and is heavily subsidized. Barges no longer carry paper, pulp, logs, lumber, and petroleum. The waterway has been largely abandoned in favor of truck and rail. Concurrently, costs of maintaining commercial navigation on the Lower Snake continues to rise.

Benefits of Dam Removal and a Restored, Resilient Lower Snake River

• Enables protection of endangered wild salmon and steelhead facing extinction.
• Saves American taxpayer and Northwest energy consumer dollars.
• Recovers and reinvigorates 15,000 acres of prime riverine habitat and agricultural land.
• Creates thousands of jobs regionally with further development of wind and solar infrastructure.
• Allows recovery of critically endangered Southern Resident Orcas.
• Helps ensure we meet Treaty obligations to Native American Tribes in the Columbia-Snake Basin.