A concept floated by Republican Mike Simpson, a U.S. congressman from Idaho, holds the potential to loosen the intractable logjam that has persisted for years among lawmakers, community members and federal officials to find a way to save the dwindling salmon population in the Columbia River Basin before it is too late.
Columbia tributary Snake River contains some of the best habitat for spawning and nurseries for salmon on their migration out and back from the Pacific Ocean. At one time, this area sustained about 50% of the Chinook salmon and steelhead trout in the entire Columbia River Basin. Now, all of the salmon and steelhead populations in the region face potential extinction. Conservation groups and wildlife experts say hydroelectric dams are the culprit because they interrupt the normal migratory path for fish and raise water temperatures to uninhabitable levels.