by Anne Kilgannon – Environmental journalist Steven Hawley published this important study of the trials and tribulations of the Snake River and its tributaries in 2011, and since then the issues he raises and the condition of the river have only become more dire, more tangled in obfuscation and chicanery, and more in need of our attention and activism than ever. We will have an opportunity to hear about his ongoing work to uncover what has happened to the river and to salmon and what we might do about helping save endangered salmon and revitalize an entire ecosystem and region when Hawley joins us as our Speaker at the Annual Black Hills Dinner in March.
After publication, Hawley went on to co-produce a documentary film with Michael Peterson aptly titled “Dammed to Extinction” that dramatizes the plight of salmon—and all the wildlife that depend upon them as a food source, most especially the orcas that live in Puget Sound—as they confront the colossal cement barriers that block passage to and from their spawning streams. The river, once choked with salmon, is now nearly empty and bereft of the life that had sustained thriving cultures and food webs for countless years. As the salmon face total collapse and extinction, Hawley warns us the time is now, as his subtitle suggests, to remove the offending dams, to rewild salmon and give up the notion that hatcheries, barging smolts around dams, and other makeshift arrangements will “save” the fish. And that in so doing, communities downstream will be revitalized through their reconnection to free-running rivers. A tall order, but not an impossible dream.
Hawley has done his homework; he has mastered the biological imperatives of salmon life, the geography and hydrology of the Northwest region, and even more arcane, the politics of power generation, dam building, irrigation projects and their interlocking relationships with elective offices locally, statewide and federally. He has followed the river, followed the fish, and followed the money. He names names, he calls out those who connive, who line their pockets, who are indifferent. Hawley also finds heroes, dedicated researchers, activists, and people who love the river for what it was and who work to bring it back to health. The book sometimes reads like a David-and-Goliath struggle, but his persistence and patience to uncover the story, find the information, and give voice to some who need to be heard in the service of the river and salmon, keep the reader enthralled instead of wanting to give in to the impulse to throw the book against the wall. It is not an easy read or a pretty story, but it is necessary and in the end, uplifting and inspiring.
Hawley doesn’t hesitate to choose sides; there is little of the “both sides” type of journalism here. He is relentless and creative in chasing down just the how the river came to be so tied up with dams that all its pristine wildness and abundant life was strangled into a series of near stagnant pools overheating in the summer sun. But he is funny too, and not shy about his own visceral love of the river. He can also be caustic and bracing and appalled, but the condition of the river and the spiraling death of its fish warrants that kind of honest appraisal; anything less would be a travesty.
Reading Hawley, you will learn a great deal about salmon and the politics of willfully not knowing salmon and the consequences of that choice. Astoundingly, saving salmon comes down to what is obvious but so layered with years’ worth of looking everywhere but the obvious. Salmon need clean, free-flowing rivers where they can safely spawn, where the next generation can hatch and grow in strength, swim to the ocean and then return and repeat the endless cycle of their lives. The salmon would save themselves if we would just remove the most obvious obstacles—the Snake River dams—and get out of the way. It makes for a riveting story and charts a clear path forward to success. For encouragement, Hawley reports where dam removal has already proven itself to be the one big thing that makes all the difference between survival and revival and extinction. It will be up to us to find ways to clear away the silted up mess our society has made and then let the river heal and the salmon run.
