Backbone Campaign

After waiting over a year for Senator Murray and Governor Inslee to release an actionable Plan for stopping extinction of Snake River salmon, steelhead, and lamprey, a draft report for their Plan was released today.

The Report (access it HERE) is clear that the services the four Lower Snake River dams provide can be replaced—and with urgent action this year, we can prevent salmon extinction and honor tribal treaty obligations.

From an article by Lynda V. Mapes of the Seattle Times:

Shannon Wheeler, vice chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe, which has treaty fishing rights on the Lower Snake and Columbia, said the report did what the tribe hoped, in stating fairly and accurately the risks to salmon of the status quo, and possibility of an equitable dam removal strategy that benefits salmon and the region.

“It is saying what we have been saying all along, that salmon need help, and it is time for leadership to step up,” Wheeler said. “We can’t sit and wait and study this another three years with a task force, that is kicking the can down the road and that is leading to extinction.”

And Kat Brigham, Chair of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), says,

“As the draft Murray-Inslee report states, the Lower Snake River Dams have contributed to the current existential threat facing our salmon, an icon of the Northwest. The United States government must uphold its treaty obligations to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, and all the Columbia River Basin Tribes by immediately prioritizing salmon recovery. On this Treaty Day, we urge the federal government to uphold its trust responsibility to our nations by looking at the Columbia River Basin as a whole, which includes breaching the dams.

The entire Pacific Northwest region faces a critical choice: We act now to save our salmon or we sanction their extinction….

…As senior officials for the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Departments of the Interior, Energy, Army, and Commerce recently stated, ‘We cannot continue doing business as usual. Doing the right thing for salmon, tribal nations, and communities can bring us together. It is time for effective, creative solutions because if we don’t, what are we going to tell our children?’”

Backbone stands with Tribes. Our policymakers are sent to Washington to find solutions and to solve problems. To this end, we call on our NW congressional leaders and the Biden administration to work with Tribes, industry, and communities to take action in 2022 to prevent extinction, while meeting our energy and agriculture needs.

Please read the Plan and the news articles about it.  Ways to take action are forthcoming (see below), but as always, sending a message to policymakers is important. Go to SaveSalmon.org to use an easy communication tool to reach them.

To build momentum of support for dam breaching, we invite you to join Backbone and a coalition of over 40 groups on June 25th, at the Rally for Salmon: Flotilla and Land Rally in Portland, Oregon.

The flotilla begins around 10:00 am with a paddle from Willamette Park to Ross Island and back, about two-thirds of a mile roundtrip.

Not a paddler or boater?  There will be activities on land, too – including art creation, a Human Orca Mural, roving salmon and orca, and more!

Sign up HERE.  And register with Backbone so we know you’re going:

Together we’ll celebrate the gift of wild salmon and demonstrate strong public support for a decision by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee, other Northwest policymakers, and the Biden Administration to base their salmon restoration plans on breaching the Lower 4 Dams on the Snake.

SaveSalmon.org

#UnDamtheSnake

* Thank YOU for supporting the Backbone Campaign located in Vashon, WA. Backbone Campaign is registered with Washington State’s Charities Program as required by law and additional information is available by calling 800-332-4483 or visiting www.sos.wa.gov/charities.