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Snake River 1157 Wildlife Habitat Information to Inform the Plan- Ton, and Northeast Oregon

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Snake River 1157 Wildlife Habitat Information to Inform the Plan- Ton, and Northeast Oregon Snake River 1157 wildlife habitat information to inform the plan- ton, and northeast Oregon. +roughout its long ning decisions for renewable energy. history, volcanoes, flooding, and glaciers have Climate change impacts may be felt in the arid shaped the river and its shores. region; nitrogen deposits, atmospheric carbon +e Snake River plain was created by a volca- dioxide, and other changes will impact the grass- nic hotspot beneath Yellowstone National Park, lands. Climate change may impact the size of the which holds the headwaters and origin of the river. sagebrush areas, for example, which in turn con- Flooding as the glaciers retreated after the ice age stricts grouse and other birds and mammals liv- created the current landscape, including eroded ing in these habitats. canyons and valleys. Mountains and plains are typical terrain along the river. +e Snake River has P J. C more than 20 major tributaries, most of them in the mountains; Hells Canyon is the deepest river Further Reading gorge in North America. Cutright, Paul Russell. Lewis and Clark: Pioneering +e Snake River is home to salmon and steel- Naturalists . Lincoln: University of Nebraska head, which were central to the lives of the Nez Press, 2003. Perce and Shoshone, the dominant tribal nations Petersen, Keith C. River of Life, Channel of Death: before the Europeans came. People have lived Fish and Dams on the Lower Snake . Corvallis: along the Snake River for over 15,000 years. +e Oregon State University Press, 2001. Snake River may have been given its name by the Waring, Gwendolyn. L. A Natural History of Shoshones, as a hand signal made by the Shosho- the Intermountain West: Its Ecological and nes representing fish was misinterpreted by Euro- Evolutionary Story. Salt Lake City: University of peans to represent a snake. Utah Press, 2011. Flora and Fauna +e areas near the Snake River contain diverse flora, and the river basin itself was once home to broad shrub-steppe grassland. Riparian, wetland, Snake River and marsh habitats are found along the Snake River today, and thus a broad range of plants Category: Inland Aquatic Biomes. inhabit the area. At higher elevations, Ponderosa Geographic Location: North America. pine, Douglas fir, and other conifers are dominant. Summary: +e Snake River and its peoples In drier areas, sagebrush and desert plants are the are defined by fish, especially salmon, and the widely distributed dominant vegetation. struggle continues to provide safe, clean habitat Salmon remain perhaps the most important in the face of dams and climate change. animal species of the Snake River. Portions of the watershed have the largest, highest, and most +e mighty Columbia River in the Pacific North- intact salmon habitats in the continental United west region of the United States has more than States. Anadromous steelhead, chinook salmon, 60 tributaries, and the Snake River is its largest and sockeye salmon are born in the Snake River and most important. +e Snake River watershed watershed, swim downstream, grow and live in of 173,984 square miles (280,000 square kilo- the Pacific Ocean, and return to the river to breed, meters) is larger than the state of Idaho, with an spawn, and die. +e river is also home to the bull average discharge of over 53,000 cubic feet (1,500 trout, which overwinters there, and other year- cubic meters) per second. +e Snake River itself is round species of fish. approximately 1,078 miles (1,735 kilometers) long, +rough their life cycle and migrations, anadro- and flows through forests, mountains and plains mous fish like salmon and steelhead transfer nutri- in Wyoming, central Idaho, southeast Washing- ents from the oceans to inland rivers, tributaries, 1158 Snake River ington State. +ese dams became operational between 1961 and 1975. +ey are run-of-river facilities; this means the dams have limited stor- age capacity in their reservoirs, and water passes through the dam at about the same rate and vol- ume as it enters the reservoir. +e dams provide inexpensive hydropower, irrigation, navigation, and recreation to the region, but have had devas- tating impacts on fish and fish habitat. Dams affect salmon and steelhead in many ways: they flood spawning areas, change historic river flow patterns, and raise water temperatures. Dams block the passage of fish between their spawning and rearing habitat, and the Pacific Ocean. If no artificial fish passage is provided, that A researcher weighing a steelhead trout before tagging it at the Eagle Creek National Fish Hatchery in Oregon in 2010. blockage is permanent. Dams block the passage of The tracking tags help measure the success of restoration both adult and juvenile fish. Adult fish passage has efforts. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Tess McBride) more recently been addressed through the cre- ation of fish ladders. +e more significant problem is the need for juvenile fish to go through or around the dams. forests, and mountains. +ese fish also provide Juvenile fish that are drawn into the dam turbines one of the primary foods of killer whales in coastal can be killed or injured. +e intense water pres- waters, and of the grizzly bear, gray wolf, wolver- sure alone can kill the fish. If turbine passage is the ine, lynx, and other inland carnivores. More than only way past a dam, 10 to 15 percent of the fish 200 bird species also benefit from salmon, includ- that are go through each dam’s turbines will die. ing birds of prey such eagles and falcons. Other With that much mortality at each dam, fish that notable fauna in the Snake River biome include pass multiple dams, such as fish from the Snake several species of frogs such as the inland tailed River that must pass through up to eight dams, frog, Northern leopard frog, and Columbian spot- have a statistically high probability of dying before ted frog, as well as reptiles like the western toad. they reach the ocean. Environmental groups and scientists have Threats requested the federal government to remove the Pressures began to mount upon salmon in the four lower Snake River dams, arguing that mortal- 19th century, with the establishment of commer- ity of juvenile fish would significantly decrease, and cial fisheries and canneries on the river. Up until that overall fish populations would recover after the 1930s, native people continued to live on the this removal. +ey also argue that these species are river and fish year-round, moving with the sea- more likely to adapt to and survive climate change sonal and migratory patterns of the fish. if these dams are removed. Salmon and steelhead +e most significant impact occurred in the require clear, cold water. +e mountainous areas of 20th century, with the widespread construction the Snake River are likely to stay cool, and could be of hydroelectric dams along the Columbia River sanctuaries for salmon and steelhead populations and all its tributaries, including four dams on the throughout the region as global warming pushes lower Snake River. +e Lower Snake River Project up temperatures in the lower altitudes. resulted in four locks and dams—Ice Harbor Dam, +e dam removal could also be consistent Lower Monumental Dam, Little Goose Dam, and with federal government obligations with native Lower Granite Dam—being constructed in Wash- peoples in the Pacific Northwest. +ese groups Solomon Islands Rainforests 1159 signed treaties in the 19th century for rights to fish for salmon and steelhead in their usual and Solomon Islands accustomed places. Government mainly failed in Rainforests its obligation, as federal dams are the major cause in the decline of these fish. +erefore, the removal Category: Forest Biomes. of these dams would be consistent with fulfilling Geographic Location: Pacific Ocean. federal treaty obligations. Summary: +e Solomon Islands rainforests, Anticipated climate change impacts along the although home to a limited number of species Snake River are likely be felt mostly in the form of mammals, birds, and amphibians, have an reduced snowfall, which will decrease the amount unusually large proportion of endemic species. of water runoff into the river system. +is in turn may affect the availability of water, especially dur- +e Solomon Islands is a sovereign state con- ing the summer months, to keep habitats fully sisting of more than 1,000 islands located in the supportive of native plants and animals. Some Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea. Most research has found that recent, sharp increases of the Solomon Islands are part of the Solomon in the amount of zinc and other toxic metals in Islands Rainforest biome. Because of the isolation the upper Snake River streams—quite damaging of this island chain, and to both the rugged topog- to fish and other creatures—is apparently tied to raphy and the lushness of the habitats here, a full warmer average air temperatures. Scientists are range of endemic (found nowhere else) species of attempting to pinpoint the processes involved, but flora and fauna live in these tropical rainforests. suspect lower levels of water to filter out metals +e oceanic-equatorial climate here provides a is one aspect, as plants draw up more water when mean temperature of 80 degrees F (27 degrees C) evaporation rates increase. Besides lower filtration throughout the year, with few extremes of temper- rates, more rock surface exposed to sunlight, air, ature, although the June-through-August period and wind—because of lower stream levels—allows has slightly cooler weather than the rest of the year. faster weathering and movement of metals into While most of the Solomon Islands encompass the the water. Solomon Islands Rainforest biome, the Santa Cruz Islands group makes up part of the somewhat dif- M A.
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