Salmon Advocates Take It to the House
Posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009
Today a group of salmon stakeholders from across the nation will take to the halls of Congress to urge representatives to support the Salmon Solutions and Planning Act. The bill would provide Congress and federal agencies with up-to-date, thorough information about how best to protect and restore wild salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia and Snake River Basin.
“We’re talking about much more than a fish here. This is my job and thousands of others. It’s an iconic species and a way of life,” said Jeff Hickman, a Northwest steelhead guide and regional conservation organizer for the Sierra Club. “The Obama administration missed a great opportunity to restore a river, recover healthy salmon and steelhead populations, and protect countless jobs and a strong salmon economy. We’re disappointed, but we have hope and that’s why we’re here. There is strong support in the region for a bold solution to this crisis, and we don’t have the time for more political side-stepping. We need to meet this challenge head on, and that starts with the studies and actions in this bill.”
Hickman joined more than 115 outdoor and fishing business leaders this summer in a letter asking Congress to act on legislation that will help bring about a durable resolution to the longstanding challenge of salmon recovery. Patagonia helped spearhead the letter.
“Conservation is a core priority for the outdoor industry, and wild salmon play an important role in the recreation economy. We simply can’t afford to lose them,” said Lisa Pike-Sheehy, Patagonia’s director of environmental initiatives. “We need updated, comprehensive and unbiased information so we can evaluate, on a level playing field, all potential salmon recovery options, including lower Snake River dam removal. We applaud the members of Congress supporting this bill.” Patagonia has long supported restoring a free-flowing Snake River to recover salmon and steelhead, including sockeye salmon, which the company recently featured in its Freedom to Roam Campaign.
The solutions legislation comes at an opportune time. Last month, the Obama administration adopted a flawed Bush administration Columbia-Snake salmon plan that does nothing to recover endangered fish. While the fate of that plan lies in the hands of a U.S. District Court judge, the salmon community is not waiting to push for Congressional solutions to protect and recover Snake River populations.
Follow Save Our Wild Salmon on Twitter to keep up to date on salmon solutions from Washington, D.C. Save Our Wild Salmon will be live-blogging and tweeting from Capitol Hill next week.
Emily Nuchols sometimes can be found modeling in a salmon suit, but spends the majority of her time working to remove the four lower Snake River dams in eastern Washington to give both salmon and people a river to run in. Visit www.wildsalmon.org.
