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Summer for Salmon by Nicole Xiao Lewiston Tribune, June 5, 2022

This summer is the summer for salmon. I'm a senior at Moscow High School and a member of the Youth Salmon Protectors, a coalition of more than 2,000 young people from across the Northwest who are demanding removal of the four lower Snake River dams.

With a bill from Rep. Mike Simpson, new involvement from Washington politicians, pending litigation from Oregon and the Nez Perce Tribe, and indigenous groups across the country demanding justice, youth voices are being heard.

We are closer than ever to a free-flowing lower Snake River and restored abundant salmon runs that once defined our state. Despite historical bold action to defend the wild Idaho we all hold dear -- such as with the Owyhee Initiative and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area -- Sen. Mike Crapo has yet to act on the dam issue. And Idahoans are bearing the burden of his complacency.

These dams are costing taxpayers millions in annual subsidies. They are losing ratepayers money. They are not even real clean energy.

Worst of all, they are in violation of centuries-old indigenous treaty rights.

Crapo is 76 years old. It's time he starts thinking about his legacy.

How does he want to be remembered by today's youth? Will he take bold action or will he condemn our salmon and everything they mean to our communities and ecosystems to extinction.