The Pacific Northwest is a land rich with natural recourses and adventure. The area is arguably home to the best recreation opportunities available.
One of the most pervasive and important recourses that the PNW has are the pacific salmonids, one of the most controversial and conflict-ridden recourses that we manage today.
These charismatic, anadromous fish, from an ecological standpoint, provide a very important ecosystem function. The adult fish, in the last steps of the salmon lifecycle, swim from the ocean up fresh water rivers and streams to the place they were spawned, providing nourishment for a plethora of other species along the way.
At their destination, they begin to reproduce. The challenges of the journey are too much for their bodies to handle, and they die sacrificing themselves for future generations.
These fish’s sacrifice provides the river systems they inhabit with nutrients from the ocean otherwise unavailable, allowing their young and other species in the ecosystem the opportunity to flourish.
One of the largest salmon runs in the Northwest is the Columbia River watershed, which drains many native Idaho waters, including the Snake River, Salmon, Clearwater and all of their respective tributaries. Spanning all the way to Yellowstone National Park, this waterway is the only access point for countless miles worth of prime salmon pawning grounds.
This mighty river also happens to be an outstanding water passage for shipping. This passage is home to a complex system of dams and locks, making river navigation inland relatively hassle-free all the way to the Port of Lewiston. This makes transpor- tation costs for the region very low. This river passage is a huge economic recourse.
One large conflict that arises with salmon runs and the Columbia River is the dams themselves. While they ease transport, they also create a large barrier and alter the free flowing river, both of which cause hardship and confusion for the fish.
After spending a few weeks in the cool mountain streams and rivers, the juvenile fish head out on their journey to the ocean. When they reach the large calm reservoirs built on the river, they can become disoriented by the slow flows and sudden temperature changes associated with dams. However, fish still exit the river system in troves, hundreds of thousands, even millions of fish swimming out to sea to traverse the Pacific.
The returning adults must navigate the same channels back up-stream from the ocean, relying on memory to guide them to the place that they were spawned. A creative way to overcome these large concrete obstructions in the water is a system called a fish ladder, which have been employed with arguable success through the years.
An often talked about strategy to alleviate the pressure on the fish as they go about their travels is to remove the four dams on the lower Snake River. Though this would solve a good number of problems for the fish that utilize the largest tributary of the Columbia River, this plan is by no means perfect.
The damns provide Lewiston and the greater Palouse with an effective and reliable means to transport the goods of the area, and removal of the dams would alter that ability. Proposed alternatives to barging have been made, such as railroad transport to the confluence of the Columbia and Snake, but none are as economically viable as the existing waterways.
These challenges have vast and far-reaching effects on a large part of not only this country, but also the continent.
There will probably not be an easy solution for these challenges. However, one thing is certain: inaction will only make things worse.
Spencer Colvin can be reached at [email protected]