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

. Ch1tUenge.
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No single
. . element
of the Pacific

Northwest land-

sca pe is more

critic a! to this region's economic

prosperity than Jhe Columbia

River and its vast watershed-:-an
area larger than France~
Inexpensive electricity from the Colum-
bia's dams powers our homes, businesses
and industries. Much ofthe bountiful agri-
cultural industry of the Northwest depends
on the Columbia's irrigation and on its barge
lines to trimsport prodvcts t~ buyers. Com-
mercial and recreational fishing is not only
an industry, but also a culture along the
~Columbia and its tributaries. And thousands
of Northwesterners use the Columbia and
its tribl\taries for recreation.

, Our prosperity
has had a price\
dramatically .
reduced salmon,
runs. Salmon, our '
I I . most potent symbols
. of endur,ance and vigor, are now, ironically,
. among the regio!).' s most vulnerable species.
A century ago, between 10 million and
16 million salmon returned fothe Columbia
each year. Tuday, there are only ,abou.t -
2.5 million salmon, and most of those return
to hatcheries.
, We have lost not only numbers of fish,
, . but whole runs and more than a third-of
~ their original habitat. Additional runs could
disappear entirely, As recently as 1962, near-
ly 30,000 a4ult fall chinook salmon migrated
past Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake Riyer on
their way to spawn. Today, the Snake River
fall chinook populatioQ, hovers around 600
, fish.

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