Re: “Biden administration guarantees $1 billion extra for salmon, clear vitality — however punts on Decrease Snake River dam elimination in main settlement” [Dec. 14, Local News]:
The Biden administration’s current announcement supporting eventual breaching of the 4 Snake River dams is a milestone in Pacific Northwest historical past. Federal companies pledge to cooperate with state governments, energy firms, environmental organizations, and most significantly Northwest tribes to revive almost extinct salmon runs and thus improve the meals provide for Puget Sound orcas.
Opponents will declare that it prioritizes fish and wildlife over human makes use of of the river, and that it’s a “victory” for radical environmentalists over everybody else. However this can be a harmful, false dichotomy that have to be rejected. Restoring the Snake River to its pure state is a victory for everybody within the Pacific Northwest. Eradicating the 4 dams will restore a world class fishery, ignite improvement of unpolluted rail transportation and electrical technology and honor — lastly! — treaties with a number of Northwest tribes that successive federal governments have violated for many years and, in some instances, centuries.
As Aldo Leopold argues in his essay “The Land Ethic,” an motion is true when it preserves the “integrity, stability, and fantastic thing about the biotic neighborhood.” The “biotic neighborhood” contains everybody, not simply “environmentalists”; and everybody will profit from reclaiming a wild Snake River.
Michael W. Shurgot, Seattle
