Protecting Critical Habitats
Protecting and restoring riparian habitat along the Columbia River and its tributaries is essential to recovering sustainable runs of salmon and preserving the broad diversity of native aquatic species. CRK uses grassroots education, organizing, coalition building with non-traditional allies, and enforcement of state and federal laws to help protect key habitats along the Columbia River.
Grassroots Orgnanizing: Grassroots organizaing is a keystone of CRK's effort to protect habitat on the Columbia. In Hood River, for example, we used a combination of tactics, including two citizen ballot measures, to protect an important salmon rearing and migration area along the Hood River waterfront from a plan to develop hundreds of waterfront condos. After several years of community organizing, the six acre parcel was donated in 2005 to the City of Hood River for a waterfront park CRK is now helping to design and plan.
Coalition Building: CRK is currently working to protect the Columbia Estuary from proposals to build four Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) mega-ports on wetland habitats important for salmon and other native species. CRK has been a leading part of a broad coalition to educate the public about these proposals and we are working with rural landowners whose families would be put at serious risk by these proposals since even federal scientists have admitted that an LNG tanker accident could create a fireball that would devastate an area a mile or more surrounding an LNG tanker.
Legal Enforcement: Protecting the Columbia unique habitat often requires enforcing state and federal environmental laws. CRK consistently monitors and participates in federal and state commenting opportunities that impact Columbia River habitat. If necessary, CRK pursues court action to enforce environmental laws including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. CRK's legal enforcement actions on issues ranging from development of critical wetland habitat to stopping
