Broad coalition to rally on the lower Snake River in support of removing four deadbeat dams
WAWAWAI LANDING, WA—On Saturday, Oct. 3, salmon advocates, tribal members, anglers, kayakers, outfitters, orca lovers, and business owners will join forces to rally on the Snake River and unfurl a 100-foot banner with a singular message: Free the Snake.
This past summer, endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead died by the thousands due to hot water in the reservoirs behind these four dams. Less than 40 of Idaho’s iconic sockeye salmon survived to reach Redfish Lake. The four high-cost, low-value dams on the lower Snake River stand between salmon and their home rivers—and it’s time they came down. These aging dams cost taxpayers millions of dollars to maintain, while their benefits to the Northwest are in steep decline.
The Oct. 3 rally comes as part of a sustained campaign to Free the Snake led by conservation and fishing groups, orca advocates, recreation businesses, and supported by Patagonia and other national organizations. In January, a petition containing more than 70,000 signatures asking the Obama administration to remove the four lower Snake River dams was delivered to the President.
Where: Wawawai Landing – on the lower Snake River near Pullman, Wash.
When: Oct. 3 at 8 a.m.
8 a.m Coffee, snacks
9:30 a.m. Press conference with:
Paul Fish, President of Mountain Gear, Spokane WA
Rebecca Miles, Nez Perce Tribe Executive Director
Bryan Jones, Whitman County wheat farmer
Kevin Lewis, Idaho Rivers United
Dr. Deborah Giles, whale biologist
10 a.m. Rally on the River
7 p.m. Post-flotilla celebration, with speakers and music at the Belltower in Pullman (125 SE Spring Street)
For more details, visit freethesnake.com
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.