ENVIRONMENT
TOO HOT TO HANDLE Salmon face deadly hot waters along Columbia and Snake rivers as the call for dam removal grows
Two sockeye salmon are seen with lesions as they swim in the Little White Salmon River on July 16, 2021. CONRAD GOWEL PHOTO/COURTESY OF COLUMBIA RIVERKEEPER
BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL
A
complex web of ecosystems and economic drivers depends on the river systems that flow from cool Inland Northwest elevations on out to sea. Farmers use Snake River dam reservoirs to enable barging of their grains from as far inland as Lewiston, Idaho. Native American tribes that could once rely on abundant fish runs worry about their future and that of wolves, grizzly bears, trees and other parts of nature that historically received nutrients from fish that now struggle to survive. Salmon and steelhead rely on the cool mountain waters of spring to usher them out through the Snake and lower Columbia River to the sea, where commercial fishermen and guides depend on their return years later. The adult fish need those same upriver waters to provide a cool refuge for spawning when they return to their home grounds in the spring, summer or fall. But the window of survivability is getting shorter and shorter for those already endangered fish as climate change and placid waters slowed by eight different dams create warmer and deadlier conditions. Anadromous fish — those that switch between fresh and saltwater — struggle in water that’s hotter than 68 degrees Fahrenheit, and at 70 degrees they start to die. This summer, water behind all eight dams on the lower Columbia and Snake rivers hit that mark, with some getting as high as 73 degrees. The effects are being felt everywhere. Bob Rees has been a professional fishing guide in Or-
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egon for 25 years. Speaking from his boat outside Astoria in late August, he notes that spring Chinook, prized for their quality and high price at market, used to return to the rivers in early spring, spending summers there before spawning at their home grounds in September. “Typically they run in April and May into Portland and even Idaho, but we’re catching them in August because they know they can’t survive up in those hotter watersheds,” Rees says between catching fish with customers on his guide boat. “So they’re holding down here where the estuary is cooler.” Along the Deschutes River, a cold water refuge from the lower Columbia, fly fishing guides Alysia and Elke Littleleaf say they’ve seen the changes over the years, too. Descendants of the Wasco Tribe of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the couple has not only seen hotter river temperatures and restrictions affect fishing times but also algae blooms that impact the tribe’s freshwater resources. Personally, they’ve switched to gathering their own natural spring water as those issues continue impacting them. “We know the feeling of climate change,” Elke Littleleaf says. “We see the fish getting smaller, the diseases they’re facing, and it’s not just in our river. It’s scary times.” The time has come to plan with people in floodplains for dam breaching that can help fish runs recover, Alysia Littleleaf says. “This ‘hurry and wait’ scenario, we’re tired of hear-
ing that. As Native people we hear that too much,” Alysia Littleleaf says. “It’s time to honor the treaties. It’s too late, almost.” For 20 years, the public has heard that salmon and steelhead could be helped by breaching the four lower Snake River dams. Now, with several species in crisis, many worry there aren’t another 20 years to prevent them from becoming memories. But the question remains, who will take the lead?
VIGIL FOR THE DEAD AND DYING
The overall picture for 2021 isn’t complete yet, but hot water exacerbated by a historic heat wave has harmed some of the more than one dozen endangered fish species along the Columbia and Snake rivers. Northwest tribes and environmental groups worried this year could be a repeat of 2015, when the region saw more than a quarter million sockeye salmon die off. In late June, air temperatures in parts of the Pacific Northwest hit as high as 116 degrees, which was deadly for hundreds of people. With the heat rapidly melting the remaining mountain snowpack that would usually keep rivers cool later into the summer, water temperatures also rose. In weekly reports, environmental groups have tracked reservoir temperatures. All four Snake River dams had waters above 68 degrees for at least 39 to 60 days this year as of Aug. 24; the four lower Columbia River dams saw temperatures exceeding 68 for at least 58
