Please thank your Congressperson for signing the 2009 Salmon Letter!

Last month, we asked you for help to encourage your member of Congress to join a bi-partisan letter to President Obama calling for leadership from his Administration to bring people together to end years of litigation and develop a legal, jobs-creating, and clean energy-promoting plan to restore wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

Your member of Congress was among the 72 signers from the U.S. House of Representatives! Please send a brief letter thanking him/her for joining this letter and being part of the solution to our Northwest salmon crisis.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Thank You For Signing the Salmon Recovery Letter!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing to thank you for signing the McDermott-Blumenauer-Petri Salmon Recovery Letter last month. The letter, which was sent to President Barack Obama with the signatures of 72 Members of Congress, comes at a crucial time both for salmon and the people and communities across the Pacific coast that rely on these remarkable fish for their livelihoods.

As you know, wild salmon and steelhead are a valuable economic resource and an irreplaceable national treasure. Today, however, many salmon populations in the Columbia-Snake River basin remain critically endangered. The fate of the latest Columbia-Snake federal salmon plan, issued last year, will soon be decided by a federal court in Portland. But as you and your colleagues acknowledged in the letter, regardless of the outcome of the current litigation, the time has come to resolve this long-standing problem by identifying and implementing science-based, common-sense solutions.

With President Obama's commitment to restore sound science to the government's decision-making processes and to bring people together to solve the problems that our country faces, we have perhaps our best opportunity to move beyond the failed, expensive practices of the past to finally recover endangered wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

I strongly support a science-based salmon restoration plan that includes removing the four costly dams on the lower Snake River in order to reconnect salmon and steelhead to the largest, wildest, and best-protected habitat remaining in the continental United States. Any plan that removes these dams must also replace their limited transportation and energy benefits with clean, affordable, and salmon-friendly alternatives.

The Salmon Recovery Letter sends a clear signal to President Obama that Congress stands ready to work with him to ensure that science and economics guide our nation?s salmon recovery efforts, and to bring together key stakeholders to craft a legal, science-based plan that will protect and restore wild salmon and steelhead populations and rebuild the businesses and the communities that rely upon them.

Thank you again for your support of the Salmon Recovery Letter.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
April 21, 2009


Background Information

Wild salmon and steelhead of the Columbia and Snake Rivers are a treasure to our nation and the Northwest. Theirs is an epic journey - traveling from a mountain stream to the far reaches of the Pacific Rim, only to return to that very stream in which they were born.

Yet these majestic fish more than mere symbols. Salmon are essential to the economy, culture, and ecosystem of the Northwest. For centuries, wild salmon have supported rural communities and tribal cultures, stable jobs, world-renowned fishing opportunities and healthy food along the Pacific Coast and the inland West.

Salmon also act as a barometer for the Northwest ecosystem - their abundance describes the health of rivers and forests in which they flourish - their decline points to the challenges we face in restoring our backyards. In the Columbia-Snake basin the barometer indicates crisis. Today, all remaining runs of salmon and steelhead on the Snake River are in danger of extinction. The clock is ticking for these fish.

Right now, four outdated dams on the lower Snake River are holding back solutions to the crisis affecting salmon, salmon-dependent communities, and taxpayers nationwide. These four dams severely limit access to thousands of miles of pristine habitat that provide salmon the best chance at survival in a warming climate. After over $8 billion in US taxpayer dollars wasted on ineffective and illegal programs, the effects of this crisis can be felt across the country. It is time to remove these costly dams to restore salmon, create new jobs, and promote the development of a much-needed clean energy economy.

It is not too late to restore a free-flowing Snake River and recover wild salmon. Congress needs to hear from you today! Urge your members of Congress to save our wild salmon by removing the four lower Snake River dams.