In the latest MeatEater video, Ryan “Cal” Callaghan heads to the Snake River to investigate the four lower dams and what they mean to salmon, steelhead and local communities.
Anglers, farmers, blue collar guys just drinking their morning coffee — everyone has an opinion on what these dams mean. But here’s the simple truth: the benefits of the lower four can be replaced, and the cost of keeping the dams running continues to climb. Wild salmon and steelhead are disappearing, and once they are gone, there is no turning back.
As Shannon Wheeler of the Nez Perce Tribe puts it, these dams are “affecting our health, our economy, our way of life, who we are.”
Decades of fish ladders, screens and even barging smolt through the barriers have been slapped onto the dams like band-aids — desperate to increase abysmal survival rates. Despite these costly solutions, native salmon runs still plummet, while nonnative predators like walleye and smallmouth bass prey on smolt and worsen population declines.
We’ve seen what’s possible: places like the Elwha River show us that dam removal can bring life roaring back to rivers and communities, restoring populations of native salmon. And the science is clear—NOAA has confirmed that the Snake’s four lower dams are the single biggest obstacle to wild salmon recovery in the Columbia River Basin.
Fishing with Trout Unlimited’s Snake River director, Eric Crawford, Cal gets a powerful glimpse of what the Snake River could become if the dams come down. He lands a beautiful “20-pound” fall chinook—a stark reminder of what once was and what still could be.
With the right action, we can bring these iconic wild populations back to the Snake River basin.
The Nez Perce Tribe, Trout Unlimited and many others are working toward solutions to restore these iconic fish. Watch Cal’s investigation to see why this moment matters and what we can do about it.