The Columbia River Basin was once among the greatest salmon-producing river systems in the world.

But all remaining salmon on its largest tributary, the Snake River, are facing extinction. Four aging dams in Washington state block passage along the lower Snake River, a major migration corridor linking pristine cold water streams in central Idaho to the mighty Columbia River and out to the Pacific Ocean.

Now, the operation of those four dams — Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, Lower Granite — is under reconsideration. Scientists say restoring the lower Snake River by taking out the dams is the single best thing we can do to save the salmon.

Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice Lower Granite Dam, one of the four dams on the Lower Snake River that are driving all remaining Snake River salmon toward extinction.

A Long Legal Fight for the River Over the past 25 years, conservation and fishing groups have gone to court challenging federal agency hydropower systems operation plans that failed to protect threatened and endangered salmon in the Columbia River basin. During that time, three different federal judges declared five different federal plans illegal. The most recent court decision, issued May 4, 2016, by Judge Michael H. Simon, rejected the foundation for prior salmon plans. Significantly, it dismantled the paradigm of trying to restore endangered Snake River salmon without considering major modification or removal of some dams. Of federal salmon recovery undertakings in the Columbia Basin thus far, the Court said, “These efforts have already cost billions of dollars, yet they are failing.” Some $15 billion has been spent. Not one species has recovered. The court granted the agencies five years to draft a new plan and change course. It gave them a unique opportunity to get it right: to save wild salmon by restoring the lower Snake River and removing four dams there, along with other actions and investments that would move the Northwest toward a cleaner energy future and restore the prosperity of fishers and farmers. When it came time to release their plan, however, the agencies once again dropped the ball. They opted to stick with status quo dam operations, without considering the opportunities and benefits a restored river would bring to the Northwest. Even though the agencies concede that removing the four lower Snake River dams is the single best action we can take to help recover endangered salmon, they wrongly claim that it would be too expensive. That conclusion relies on outdated information that is no longer relevant to today’s reality. Why is it different this time? Close Section Read More

The context for a decision about dam removal is dramatically different today than it was the last time the agencies looked at this issue in 2000.

Consider the following five things that have changed. And the one thing that has not.