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Snake River dams: 'Inflection point' by Marjorie Millner Seattle Times, January 9, 2026

Breaching the four Lower Snake River Dams
must be accepted as an exigent necessity

A look back at 2025 should change any minds still set against breaching the four Lower Snake River Dams.

Orca mother Tahlequah ushered in 2025 by pushing another dead calf through the Salish Sea. Our southern resident orcas remain on the brink of extinction, as do the Snake River Chinook salmon on which they depend for food. We cannot sit by and watch this, when we know what would help them the most: breaching the four Lower Snake River Dams.

In 2025, the hydro system panicked over the reduction in water flow caused by climate change. The 4% of the grid that the four Lower Snake River Dams provide is only going to decline. The costs, in money and wildlife deaths, exceed the benefits of these four dams.

In 2025, often the slack water behind the four Lower Snake River Dams reached temperatures harmful or deadly to salmon. This trend, caused by climate change, will only worsen.

We are at an inflection point. In 2026, breaching the four Lower Snake River Dams must be accepted as an exigent necessity. We can save our salmon and our ecosystem, while making our electrical grid more resilient in the face of climate change.

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