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DERT formally announces support for Snake River dam removal organizations: A word from our Executive Director, Paige Anderson.
This month, DERT joined the coalition of environmental groups supporting the removal of the lower Snake River dams. As an affiliate of Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and the designated WaterKeeper of South Puget Sound, we have a duty to support our fellow WaterKeepers in our common fight to free rivers, for the health of the entire watershed and its historical and present inhabitants. Ecological restoration and free flowing rivers are important to us. For the last 2+ decades, Deschutes Estuary Restoration Team and are partners have been fighting a parallel fight to the coalition of organizations advocating for dam removal on the lower Snake River. The time is always NOW to firmly, unequivocally, send a message to our representatives here in Washington State: We do not condone dams that harm the ecosystem. Not on our beloved Deschutes, and not the lower Snake River.
Especially with the recent announcement of the Washington Department of Enterprise Service’s likely choosing the estuary (and dam removal) as the preferred alternative to the current Capitol Lake management Plan, we are at a unique moment to unite in regional dam advocacy.
We stand alongside Columbia Riverkeeper, Earth Justice, Thurston County Democratic Women, Endangered Species Coalition, Environment Washington, Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, Sierra Club (South Sound Chapter), Washington Environmental Council, Earth Ministry, Olympia Indivisible, and more.
On April 2nd, the above groups and supporters are getting together here in Olympia to make a statement. Join us at 10am at the Olympia Ballroom, followed by a processional to the Capitol Campus. Will you be joining us? We will send out more information, and a registration link, in a follow up email to our listserv- sign up for emails here, and you can also follow us on facebook and instagram.
To learn more about the quest to remove the lower Snake River Dams, read details at Columbia Riverkeeper and Earth Justice. Also, here’s a shareable quick fact sheet from Columbia Riverkeeper.
