A federal government report calls for breaching four lower Snake River dams among other efforts to rebuild salmon and steelhead runs in the Pacific Northwest.
According to a news release, NOAA Fisheries, with input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has finalized the Rebuilding Interior Columbia Basin Salmon and Steelhead report. It identifies a comprehensive set of actions with the greatest likelihood of making progress toward rebuilding Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead to healthy and harvestable levels. The final report follows the draft, which was released in July, and incorporates feedback from state and tribal fishery co-managers.
The recommended actions to rebuild Columbia Basin stocks include: breaching dams, increasing habitat restoration, reintroducing salmon into blocked areas, managing predators, reforming fish hatcheries and harvest and reconnecting floodplain habitat.
In the release, the Columbia Basin Partnership expressed the hope that in 20 years, the people of the Columbia Basin would view the Partnership’s work and the resulting efforts as “a turning point for the return of healthy and abundant salmon and steelhead to the Columbia River.”
