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Dam Breaching: 'The Tide is Turning' by Marjorie Millner Seattle Times, September 13, 2024

Re: "Workers breach key Klamath dams, allowing salmon to swim freely for the first time in a century" [Aug. 28, Northwest]:

The article reported on the breaching of the last dams on the Klamath River. I celebrate this as a legacy of pioneering efforts by tribes and allies to free the Elwha River here in Washington state. The last dam on the Elwha was breached in 2014, and in the 10 years since, salmon have returned to the Elwha. The river is recovering.

There is another river in Washington that is in dire need of the same lifesaving treatment: the Lower Snake River. Tribes and allies have been working for decades, proving to judges and federal agencies that the largest runs of Chinook salmon in the world, with the best high-elevation spawning grounds to help survive climate change, are in imminent danger of extinction because of the four Lower Snake River Dams.

The 2022 report on the Snake dams issued by Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray describes the danger, but the report fails to state the urgency of the situation. The salmon and orcas have very little time left.

The Elwha proved that dam breaching works. The Klamath dam breaching shows that the tide is turning. Breach the four Lower Snake River Dams now, before time runs out.