Another Dam Panel

January 27, 2010 | Dams & Dam Removal, Restoring Rivers

Caitlin Jennings
Communications Associate

Last Saturday, Michael Garrity, our Washington state conservation director, was a panelist on "Another Dam Panel" at the Orca Network's "Ways of Whales" workshop on Whidbey Island, WA. 

While the connection between orca whales and American Rivers may not be obvious at first, it becomes clear when you consider that Puget Sound's resident orca whales depend heavily on chinook salmon, which, in turn, depend on healthy rivers.  That is one reason we are advocating for a stronger plan on the Columbia and Snake rivers that will help restore salmon to abundance.

Coincidentally, ecologist Carl Safina published on op-ed in Sunday's LA Times about this orca-salmon connection as well as the Obama administration's decision to defend the Bush administration's weak plan for managing the salmon and dams of the Columbia and Snake rivers.

Along with Michael, "Another Dam Panel" featured Steve Mashuda of Earthjustice, who represents American Rivers and our partners in ongoing litigation over the Columbia-Snake salmon plan; Robert Elofson of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe; and Dean Butterworth of Olympic National Park. 

The latter two speakers focused on the upcoming removal of two dams on the Elwha River.  That dam removal project--which will begin in 2011 thanks in part to funding American Rivers helped secure through the federal stimulus--will be the second largest ecological restoration ever within a national park. The effort is expected to restore chinook salmon runs that will eventually number in the six digits.  That's good news for both salmon and orcas, icons of the Pacific Northwest.

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