Building Resilient Habitats Map

Pacific Northwest: Light In The River

The biggest, wildest, healthiest and best-protected salmon habitat left spans millions of acres and thousands of stream miles in central Idaho, eastern Oregon and southeast Washington in the headwaters of the Snake River.

It is a "Noah's Ark" for salmon - the haven they need to reach in order to survive and carry on.

But global warming is changing the waters of the Columbia and Snake Rivers and has emerged as a new over-arching threat to salmon as well as people. This threat cannot be ignored by federal agencies charged with salmon recovery. To save the salmon, two things must occur: the rise in greenhouse gases must first be curtailed as quickly as possible to secure our waters' health against the warming that has and will continue. The second part of the job is to unite environmentalists, biologists, sportsmen and anyone else who cares about preservation of the salmon.

Light in the River is a new project that seeks solutions to global warming in the Northwest that can serve as models for the nation. Light in the River offers hope by seeking practical steps to counter global warming while protecting the waters and wild salmon that bring us health, food, livelihood and endless inspiration.

The first big project of the campaign involves compiling a collection of reports that explore solutions to counter global warming and preserve healthy waters, fish, farms and communities. Each report is fact-based and tackles tough questions with the goal of finding new solutions to combat global warming and preserve the Northwest region that is so crucial to the survival of the salmon.

For more information about the Light in the River campaign and how you can get involved, please visit www.lightintheriver.org