Fish passage | Addressing impacts
Declining fish populations due to the impact of dams have been put under the spotlight in new reports from the US and China
AFTER TEN YEARS OF rapidly intensifying drought and extreme weather, California Governor Gavin Newsom has launched the state’s first strategy to restore and protect populations of salmon for generations to come. Salmon are described as being central to religions,
Top: Pictured are the Fishheart fishway system in the Santee Dam and Spillway site and (above) fish inside the system’s pipeline
creation stories, the health and subsistence of California’s Native Tribes, plus a multi-million-dollar fishing industry. However, historic crashing salmon populations led to the Newsom Administration requesting a Federal Fishery Disaster to support impacted communities at the end of 2023, with Tribes having to cancel their religious and cultural harvests for the first time ever A multitude of factors have led to a decline in salmon
populations, from climate change and its impact on ocean temperatures, to drastic alteration of river habitat and flows by dams and water diversions. Specifying six priorities and 71 actions, the state’s new Salmon Strategy aims to:
Remove barriers and modernise infrastructure for salmon migration Restore habitat Protect water flows in key rivers at the right times Modernise hatcheries Transform technology and management systems Strengthen partnerships Relying on strong partnerships with tribal nations, the strategy is described as driving policy and science critical to rebuilding California’s salmon populations, building upon existing partnerships in tribally led restoration work, beaver reintroductions, and returning salmon to their ancestral homes.
26 | September 2024 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
Devastating impact As part of the US government’s efforts to restore wild
salmon in the Columbia River Basin, the Department of the Interior released a report documenting the historic, ongoing and cumulative impacts of federal Columbia River dams on Columbia River Basin Tribes. The report also provides recommendations for how the federal government can acknowledge and integrate these impacts in future actions, marking the first time that the US government has comprehensively detailed the harms that federal dams have and continue to inflict on Tribes in the Pacific Northwest. “Since time immemorial, Tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries have relied on Pacific salmon, steelhead and other native fish species for sustenance and their cultural and spiritual ways of life. Acknowledging the devastating impact of federal hydropower dams on Tribal communities is essential to our efforts to heal and ensure that salmon are restored to their ancestral waters,” said Secretary of State for the Interior Deb Haaland. “As part of our ongoing commitment to honouring our federal commitments to Tribal Nations, the Interior Department will continue to pursue comprehensive and collaborative basin-wide solutions to restore native fish populations, empower Tribes, and meet the many resilience needs of communities across the region.” Despite acknowledging that federal dams and
reservoirs in the Columbia River Basin have impacted all of the Basin Tribes, a limited timeframe to complete the report necessitated a narrowed scope which
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