7089

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7089
• Author: Northwest Power Planning Council.
• Title: Strategy for Salmon
• USFW Year: 1992.
• USFW - Doc Type: Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.
• Copyright Material: NO

I \
State water agencies
also are urged to find
ways to ensure that
flows will be adequate
to prote~t fish. We call
for wateravaiiabilify
studies, establishment of
minimum streamflow.
levels, a halt to new wa-
ter appropriations that
could harm salmon and.
acquisition of existing
water rights on a "wil- . .
iing-seller'i basis to
improve river,flows. .

In our first fish and
wildlife program, we
called for screens and
bypass channels at all
Columbia and Snake
. river dams thaJ didn't
have them a:lrea,dy. Ini-
. tially, there was resis-
tance from the federal
Office of Management
and Budget. Screens
,for th~ big. dams are
big themselves, and
e~pensive.'Many;are
needed, The Dalles '
Dam, for example, will need more than 60
scree:t;lS to cover all of its turbine intakes, and
each screen is bigger than a billboard sign.
~ut the region and Congress support screen-
ing the dams, and the work should be com-
plete4 by M~rch 1998. '

N. . ex( We focus pn installing screens at
. . water di~ersions. Beca~se.t~ere are
. . so many unscreeneddiverSlOns~
literally thousands-"Ye-ask fishE;:ry manag-
ers to prioritize screening projects in areas
that support depleted salmon runs. This will
help, ensure timely construction and installa-
tion where the need is greatest. ,

~ young salmon
'.need'to move
...... quickly to th~
. ocean. Before
the dams,.
they did.

Fix dams and water diversions

O:t;le of the most effective actions to im-
prove the survival of young salmon is to
guide them .away from turbines and water
diversions. The, reason is simple: fish can die
or be stunned if they are drawn through the
turbines at dams, and they can become lost
and ~ie if they swi:qtdown w~ter diversion
. ~.
cha~els..Screens and bypass channels.are
the answer to this problem.
Withput screens, each Columbia and
, Snake river dam can kill between 10 percent
and 30 percent of the young salmon that
pass. thr<?ugh the turbines.

..'

. -

. -
, / 1912 '
'. Ocean commercial trolling for salmon begins off the mouth of the
Columbia. By 1919, there are more th~n 1 ,oqo trollinfl boats.

". ,

'1915
Washington and Oregon form Columbia River Fish
Compact to regulate commercial fishing in the river.

/