salmon animated gif

  • Q. True or False?

    • In retrospect, the number of returning adult salmon was relatively level from 1938 through 1990. The precipitous loss of returning chinook entering the Snake River (Figure 20) accounts for a major share of the decline that has occurred in total return to the Columbia -- Artificial Production Review, NW Power & Conservation Council

    1. Before the first LSR dam was built, salmon and steelhead numbered in the hundreds of thousands on the Snake River.

      True

      The Columbia Basin Partnership has gathered past studies to provide a Partnership agreed upon estimate of 1.5 million adult salmonids historically returning to their natal waters of the Snake River (671,000 Spring/Summer Chinook, 500,000 Fall Chinook, 150,000 Sockeye, 172,000 Summer Steelhead).

      The Northwest Power Planning Council (March 1986) arrived at a higher estimate based on a survey of available habitat to estimate 1.4 million Chinook returning annually to the Snake River basin. This would translate to well over 2 million Chinook at the Columbia River Mouth. Additionally, this March 1986 report estimated annual returns of 200,000 Coho and 150,000 Sockeye. See Benefits Question for details.

    2. After the first LSR dam was in place, these numbers began to decline and continued to so as each subsequent dam was added.

      True

      "In retrospect, the number of returning adult salmon was relatively level from 1938 through 1990. The precipitous loss of returning chinook entering the Snake River (Figure 20) accounts for a major share of the decline that has occurred in total return to the Columbia"
      -- Artificial Production Review, NW Power & Conservation Council (October 1999)

    Breaching is reversible, extinction and ecosystem collapse is not.

    The concept of sustainability has been increasingly brought into focus as we have become convinced that all systems on earth are interrelated and that many of today’s problems were the solutions of yesterday. Sustainability is, however, a very old concept. Most American Indian cultures understood the importance of sustainability and sustainable development, living in harmony with all things.

    Many people are familiar with the Seventh Generation philosophy commonly credited to the Iroquois Confederacy but practiced by many Native nations. The Seventh Generation philosophy mandated that tribal decision makers consider the effects of their actions and decisions for descendents seven generations into the future. There was a clear understanding that everything we do has consequences for something and someone else, reminding us that we are all ultimately connected to creation.

    salmon animated gif