the film forum library tutorial contact

New Northwest RiverPartners Leader Focuses on Facts, Science by Matthew Weaver Capital Press, July 5, 2024

"We're really focused on bringing facts to this conversation"
-- Clark Mather, new executive director of Northwest RiverPartners

The new executive director of Northwest RiverPartners said the organization will continue to bring a "holistic," science-based perspective to discussions about the future of the Columbia and Snake River System.

"We're really focused on bringing facts to this conversation, focusing on science and talking to policy makers about the value" of the Columbia-Snake system, Clark Mather told the Capital Press.

He stepped into the position April 1, after 11 years with Tacoma Public Utilities.

"The biggest need is always going to be education and advocacy," Mather said. "People are busy. We think it's really important they understand how important the hydropower system is from an electric perspective (and) have an opportunity to understand the multiple purposes of the system."

The organization serves not-for-profit, community-owned electric utilities in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada and Wyoming, and represents partners that support clean energy, low-carbon transportation and agricultural jobs.

Hydropower benefits

Mather pointed to reiteration by the Biden administration and Congress this year that breaching the four lower Snake River dams, or any federal dams, would require congressional authorization and appropriation.

The conversation will include the many climate-related positive attributes of the system, he said.

The hydropower system has helped to avoid millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions and benefitted air quality.

"As we're dealing with salmon survival, particularly the big impact that ocean conditions and rising sea surface temperatures are having on salmon survival, we think the hydropower system has to be part of that solution moving forward," Mather said.

Working with tribes

At the Tacoma utilities, Mather led a team that builds relationships with community leaders, government decision-makers and Native American Tribes.

RiverPartners has always worked to engage all sovereign tribes in the Columbia and Snake River basin, understand their perspectives and support ongoing work to reintroduce fish in the upper Columbia River, Mather said.

"We understand that each tribe is different, and so we want to continue those conversations," he said. "We're committed to that, I'm committed to that, and frankly I wouldn't have joined RiverPartners without that ethic built into the organization."

'Holistic' conversation

Mather also led a regional coalition that partnered with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Congress and the Biden administration to secure more than $220 million for downstream fish passage at Howard Hanson Dam on the Green River in Washington state, a critical salmon and orca recovery project in the Northwest.

It's a model that can be recreated, he said.

Working in Tacoma, Mather worked with a "broad coalition of stakeholders" to bring together business, environmental and local government interests to support "the largest salmon production opportunity that I know of in the Puget Sound area," he said.

"There are lots of things we can do to bring the region together to support salmon recovery and also support the people that depend on the resources, whether it's hydropower, drinking water or Marine Highway 84," the federal designation of the Columbia, Willamette and Snake rivers, he said.

He hopes for a "holistic" conversation around the Columbia River task force recently announced by the Biden administration, including electricity customers, agricultural and other river users.

"The settlement conversation excluded the people that we represent," Mather said. "In order to have an outcome that actually works for everyone in the Northwest, that works from a political standpoint, that everyone can buy into and feel good about moving forward, we have to have that broader conversation."