Courtney Bourgoin, courtney.bourgoin@sierraclub.org
Alex Craven, Alex.Craven@sierraclub.org
Seattle, WA-- Tomorrow, advocates from conservation and local organizations will publicly call on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NWPCC) to include critical protections for orca and salmon at their public hearing seeking public comment on their latest five-year Fish and Wildlife Plan. Advocates from conservation organizations will testify -- stressing the need for a plan to ensure recovery of the region’s rapidly declining whale and fish populations. See full event details here.
WHAT: Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Public Hearing on Proposed Fish and Wildlife Plan.
WHO: Advocates and speakers include representatives from Earth Ministries, the Sierra Club, Save Our Wild Salmon, and Northwest Energy Coalition.
VISUALS: Activists with signs, in wildlife costume and testimony for recording.
WHERE: Hyatt Regency Seattle (Map)
808 Howell Street, Seattle, Washington 98101
Background:
Conservationists and biologists are calling on the NWPCC to develop and implement a new plan for the region’s struggling wildlife-- citing failed recovery efforts for the region’s critically-endangered Southern Resident orcas and Snake RIver salmon in the last several decades. In the Pacific Northwest today, just 73 whales remain and, this year, the Snake and Columbia Rivers experienced some of the lowest returns ever recorded of wild salmon and steelhead.
Every five years, the NWPCC updates their plans and priorities for protecting endangered salmon, steelhead and other fish and wildlife populations in an effort to minimize and address the damage the federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers inflict upon them. The NWPCC provides direction to the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the power from dams.
In its current draft form, the Council’s latest five-year Fish and Wildlife Plan repeats the mistakes of the past. It does little more than extend a strategy that is failing Northwest salmon and steelhead populations and the many benefits they deliver to the region economically and culturally.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.