On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives will begin deliberations on a bill that seeks to undermine Court orders requiring federal agencies to reevaluate failing plans to restore endangered salmon populations in the Columbia and Snake Rivers.
For Idaho, the passage of this bill would ensure the demise our salmon and steelhead fisheries, destroying our natural legacy of incredible salmon runs, and negatively impact our community fishing and river economies statewide.
In June 2017, U.S. Representative Cath McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) introduced H.R. 3144, a bill indented to overturn two recent decisions by the U.S. District Court, that found current recovery plans to be inadequate to save salmon from extinction and in violation of the Endangered Species Act. As part of its decision, the Court required federal agencies in charge of the Columbia-Snake River hydro system to consider new alternatives in a publically involved process that is already underway. If passed this bill would halt efforts to aid Idaho’s endangered salmon and prevent the agencies from even studying possible alternatives.
The Sierra Club has been advocating for salmon and steelhead by weighing in with comments and turning out hundreds of folks at regional hearings to demand our federal agencies to look at the removal of the four Lower Snake River Dams. More recently, the Sierra Club and a coalition of other actors sent letters to Idaho's U.S. Representatvies asking them to oppose H.R. 3114.
Science informs us that removing the four Lower Snake River Dams is single best way to ensure a path towards recovery for these incredible species, and so does empirical evidence. We have already spent more than $10 billion dollars on status-quo salmon recovery plans without recovering any endangered salmon population.
Business as usual is a costly death certificate for these miraculous creatures, and H.R. 3144 would be the signature on that certificate. Its passage assures that salmon and steelhead fisheries will continue to face insurmountable challenges that have devastated their populations to dangerously low levels.
This fall devastatingly low numbers of Idaho’s salmon and steelhead have returned home to spawn in Idaho’s pristine headwaters. On the heels of the worst salmon return in 20 years and the worst steelhead return in 50 years, scientists warn our anadromous fisheries might face increasingly hard times over the next few years. The passage of this bill creates a dangerous precedent that bypasses court rulings and prevents agencies from using best available science to improve failing recovery efforts, such as using increased spill over the dams.
Despite near record low returns, the bill is set to come before the U.S. House of Representatives this Thursday and Sierra Club is working with a coalition of advocates to ensure that it does not pass. To do our part in Idaho, we have to ensure that our members of Congress continue to do the right thing for Idaho. Thankfully, none of Idaho’s Representatives co-sponsored this ill-conceived legislation.
Now, as the bill moves to a hearing, the need for proactive stances against the bill is clear. The Sierra Club has been working on this issue for more than twenty years, and the stakes are higher than ever. We need you to help us make a case for salmon, steelhead, the Snake River and Idaho by asking our Representatives to come out against the bill publically.
Take Action
Please take a few moments and send a quick message to your Representatives and ask him help stop this dangerous legislation:
Download H.R. 3144 Factsheet
Sample talking points:
1. Thank your Congressman for not co-sponsoring this ill-conceived legislation;
2. Ask that he help stop this bill because the status quo is clearly broken and we need to let the public process move forward and consider alternatives.
3. Business as usual has already cost regional energy consumers and taxpayers more than $10 billion and has yet to recover a single endangered salmon population.
So we can track our efforts to generate grassroots engagement with our congressional efforts, please drop me a note at zack.waterman@sierraclub.org to let us know you weighed in. Thank you!