A FARMER AND HIS UPSTREAM FIGHT

Farmer Tom Flint is a man who is running petitions against dam removal but at the same time he wants to save salmon from extinction in the northwest.He made his own website that gathers thousands of dam supporters. Flint had been hearing stories of removing the four lower Snake River dams.

The nationwide average cost of power is 9 cents per kilowatt hour.Today PUD officials say that 94 to 97 % of fish safely pass through Washington dams.

Flint started another petition in the newspaper called "Save our Dams. On December 17, 2000, that petition gathered 100,000 signatures from people who are against taking down the dams.
Each week Flint sends out about 700 e-mails to people who sign up on the "Save our Dams" petition.

graphic credit: http://www.semagroup.com/m&t/hydro/hydroelectric.htm

LOCKE CHALLENGED ON DAMS

As the governor of Oregon was about to take down the four lower Snake River dams governor Gary Locke stands in the way."Taking down the dams isn't guaranteed to bring back the salmon,"Locke said.

Tribe leaders say that Locke hasn't offered other alternatives for the salmon and are accusing him for lack of leadership.

Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon, and Locke have helped each other come up with solutions for the salmon.

"What scientific experiment is needed to prove that salmon do better on a free flowing river than a river with dams," Kitzhaber says.

In the office of Montana Governor Marc Racicot will force other officials to take a stand on dam removal without enough study."He has sort of forced people to lay down their cards,"sais John Etchart,one of two delagates to the northwest Power Planning Council,an advisory group to the four northwestern governors that guides fish and wildlife recovery in the Columbia Basin.

U.S. former senator Slade Gorton vowed that he wouldn't let the Snake River dams be taken down.

 NORTHWEST TRIBES SEE THREATS TO TREATY

PUD officials are against taking the dams down. Some Native Americans are against taking the dams down, but on the other hand most of the Native Americans want the salmon alive because they use salmon as a food source. This fall 23 northwest Indian tribes expected 72,000 Chinook salmon to come downstream, but only 28,000 made it. Judge George Boldt granted the northwest Indian tribes half of the salmon harvest last year.

When it comes to actually saving the salmon, PUD and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) officials don't help.Truly by keeping the dams up they kill salmon. But in other newspaper articles they say that they are helping salmon by making different stairs for salmon to climb up and pass through the dams safely. Only 51% of the salmon pass up the stairs without falling back down because of the water rushing against them.

Lots of cases in court have given restrictions to Native American fishing and have given advantages to keeping the dams up.Taxes are increasing because of acts to save the salmon. Communities are trying to save the salmon by having fund raisers to raise money for the salmon. In spite of this, dams are still staying up.