Return to the river: strategies for salmon restoration in the Columbia River Basin.

Abstract

The Columbia River today is a great "organic machine" (White 1995) that dominates the economy of the Pacific Northwest. Even though natural attributes remain—for example, salmon production in Washington State's Hanford Reach, the only unimpounded reach of the mainstem Columbia River—the Columbia and Snake River mainstems are dominated by technological operations supporting the region's economy (e.g., hydropower production, irrigation systems, flood control, commercial barging). Operation of the river via the hydropower system is driven largely by economic considerations of water usage in the basin and constrains conservation and restoration efforts for anadromous and resident salmonid fishes (Snake River Salmon Recovery Team 1993; Petersen 1995; NRC 1996; ISG 1999; NOAA 2004).

Citation

Williams, Richard N.; Standford, Jack A.; Lichatowich, James A.; Liss, William J.; Coutant, Charles C.; McConnaha, Willis E.; Whitney, Richard R.; Mundy, Phillip R.; Bisson, Peter A.; Powell, Madison S. 2006. Return to the river: strategies for salmon restoration in the Columbia River Basin. In: Return to the River: 629-666