I worked at one of the dams that are being considered for breaching as a means of increasing salmonid production on the Lower Snake river for 2 years. In that time period I was able to learn a couple of things. No one can honestly say that dams benefit salmon. There is not one stage in the life history of a salmon or steelhead where a dam is beneficial to their survival. However, there has been an incredible amount of money spent on research, data collection, and improving survival rates for these fish over the last couple of decades since the dams were constructed. As a fish biologist, I obviously want what is best for the fish. However, having moved to the eastside, I now realize how important the lower Snake river dams are to the people who live here. It is easy to sit in Seattle and say tear them out because they have a small effect on that person. But to the people that live and work on the eastside, the dams play a much greater role in their lives. I want what most all of us want; healthy fish populations of salmon and steelhead that we can go out and catch and occasionally harvest. But the issue of dam breaching on the lower Snake River is of such immense proportions, of such economic importance, of incredible ecological consequences that it makes my head hurt to think about it.

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