||| FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES |||
Shaped by fire and ice, the Columbia River and its landscape have been forever changing.
Cataclysmic shifts of nature — massive eruptions, moving oceans and grinding tectonic plates — have formed this basin over millions of years.
But in just a blink of time, changes made by humans have pushed this river to the brink.
We’ve hammered the habitat. Overfished the salmon. Mismanaged hatcheries. And most of all, harnessed the immense power of this river, turning its cold, fast waters to miles of warm, slackwater reservoirs.
The Columbia is really many connected reaches and tributaries: the upper, middle and lower, the Yakima, the Snake and Salmon, the Clearwater and Deschutes and Willamette, and many more, draining a vast region, including parts of seven states and British Columbia, where the river rises.
The Columbia is not just one story. But there are trends, and with around 150 hydroelectric dams, the basin today in many places is hostile to native species.
People since the settlers’ arrival extensively dammed the Columbia and its tributaries, including its largest, the Snake, and exploited its fisheries, promising we could have it all. Abundant salmon and cheap hydropower, slackwater navigation from the Pacific Ocean all the way to Lewiston, Idaho, and irrigation for some of the region’s largest farms.
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