Snake River Dam Removal

The Snake River Should Be Home to Abundant, Harvestable Salmon Runs

Historically, the Snake River produced between one-third and one-half of the Columbia’s salmon, including millions of Chinook, steelhead, coho, and sockeye. The headwaters of the Snake River, high in the Idaho mountains, remain some of the largest and best salmon breeding areas in the Lower 48. 

Nevertheless, Snake River salmon populations have collapsed; some runs are close to extinction.

The Problem: Lower Snake River Dams

After leaving the  Idaho mountains, the Snake flows roughly 150 miles through eastern Washington to join the Columbia near Tri-Cities. This stretch of water is called the Lower Snake River. 

In the 1960s and 70s, the Army Corps of Engineers built four dams on the Lower Snake River to allow barging and generate a small amount of electricity. 

These four dams decimated the Snake River’s salmon runs, transforming the Lower Snake River into a series of warm, shallow lakes where predators, dam turbines, and hot water kill too many migrating salmon.

How We Can Restore the Lower Snake River

We must unite around solutions to remove the four Lower Snake River Dams and re-invest in regional transportation, irrigation, and energy infrastructure. Working together, we can have a future that includes salmon, agriculture, and clean energy.

We have made real progress towards this goal! Our States, Tribes, NGOs, and federal agencies have begun making plans to replace the services that the Lower Snake River dams currently provide.

How We Know Dam Removal Works

There’s still time to restore the Snake River’s once-mighty salmon runs. Recent dam removals on the Kalamath, Elwha, and other rivers show that salmon quickly return. And the existing, healthy run of wild fall Chinook salmon in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River is proof that—when we give salmon a place to spawn—these incredible fish can still recover in abundance.