Snake River Salmon Society
Restoring wild salmon in the Snake River Basin is the key to salmon recovery in the entire Columbia Basin, and in much of the northwest. The Snake River Salmon Society (SRSS) advances political leadership to restore wild salmon and steelhead in the Snake River Basin to healthy, self-sustaining levels, to benefit all who depend on them for economic, traditional, cultural, and ecological benefits.
Governmental salmon policies (including the direction, pace, and cost of federal salmon recovery plans) are created in the political arena – primarily in the US Congress, and by NW Governors. Accordingly, the SRSS seeks members, solicits donations, and contributes directly to candidates and office-holders in the Northwest who support actions that will restore wild salmon runs. Without the incentive provided by your dues and donations, politicians in the Northwest are likely to continue ignoring the loss of wild salmon in the Snake River Basin, and in other places. The Snake Basin is particularly important (as a key salmon stronghold), and the Columbia Basin’s primary recovery opportunity.
If we fail to restore wild salmon in the Snake River Basin, full recovery of Pacific coast salmon fisheries and Columbia River fisheries is impossible. Further, since the health of other native fish species depends on wild salmon runs (which provide a key building block in the food chain), the SRSS directly and indirectly helps all fisheries and species in the Columbia River watershed.
Join us today. Help us encourage political leaders in the region to restore healthy rivers and wild salmon to the Columbia/Snake Rivers. At the same time, you’ll be supporting all the jobs, families, and communities who depend on them – and perhaps, your own jobs, families, and towns.
Background: In the Columbia River Basin (historically the greatest producer of chinook salmon on Earth), the Snake River is the key to salmon recovery now. The Snake River once produced over half of all the chinook salmon and summer steelhead in the entire Columbia Basin. Today, with Northwest salmon runs in crisis, the Snake River now comprises the primary opportunity to recover salmon basin-wide in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, with benefits extending to California and Alaska. Biologists estimate that the Snake River Basin now contains 70% of the entire region’s salmon recovery potential – much of it intact – a consequence of vast river reaches in Oregon and Idaho already protected by Wilderness, Wild/Scenic River designations, and roadless areas. Many scientists say that these areas comprise the best salmon habitat remaining in the ‘lower 48,’ and are the best protected from global warming.
