We stopped first at Swiftwater Park. My brother, Greg, and I always start there when we fish the North Umpqua searching for summer steelhead. It’s not much of a park, really. Just some parking next to the river, along with his and her’s vault toilets. The river is the attraction. This is the final upstream spot before reaching the North’s famous fly-only water. We…
“The science is clear and has been clear for years. Snake River salmon and steelhead runs will not recover as long as there are four dams blocking their connection to the Pacific Ocean. We can’t recover these wild fish with hatcheries, fish cannons, fish barges or fish ladders. We’ve spent billions of dollars trying these ideas without success. We know that while the solution is both obvious and challenging, removing the Snake River dams is our best chance for restoring the famed salmon and steelhead runs of the Columbia basin.”
The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, just passed by the U.S. Senate, would deliver a major shot in the arm to trout and salmon conservation efforts across the country. This bill would rebuild, improve and restore America’s infrastructure through a variety of programs, many of which directly support TU’s water, restoration, forest health and mine remediation efforts.
There are hundreds of these great businesses who are proud to stand with us on this, and we’re grateful for them. They come in all sizes from the big names in fly fishing to small family businesses – Wall Street to Main Street. Some of them are the usual suspects – lodges, fly shops, outfitters, guides and others with a direct stake in fly angling. But a surprising number of them are outside that box – coffee roasters, financial advisors, engineering firms and brewers all bring their names and reputations to the conservation table when they stand in support of this proposal.
“Our lives are full of problems that have no clear answers. Often, the simple solution is hard to find, and the black and white is hidden somewhere in all the gray areas. This isn’t one of those situations. If we want to have wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin, the Snake River is the place. These fish are now at only 1 to 2 percent of their historic populations. Why? Dams. Vedavoo is proud to stand with our partners at Trout Unlimited in support of the proposal to Remove the Lower Four.”
“SweetWater supports our friends over at TU in their mission of conservation and recovery of salmon and steelhead on the lower Snake River. Protecting healthy river ecosystems and a diversity of fish species ultimately means protecting the source of clean, quality water that turns into the downstream beer we enjoy. Because protecting our great outdoors is in our DNA – you just can’t make good beer without clean water.”
“The headwaters of the Snake are our home waters,” said Dawkins. “We care passionately about this river from its high country beginnings all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The loss of salmon and steelhead runs in this iconic American river would be a tragedy for us all.”
