the film
forum
library
tutorial
contact
Commentaries and editorials

Save Our Lakes

by Marvin J. Entel
Lewiston Tribune, February 3, 2019

he Lower Monumental Dam on the Snake River, near Kahlotus, Washington. It seems to me, having spent most of my life in eastern Washington and working throughout the area, that the people who want to destroy our existing water environment have little or no direct connection to the valley communities or the Palouse. All they talk about is the high cost of maintaining the dams and decline of the native fish population.

It is time to start talking about the huge benefits as done by Kristin Meria at the recent "Our Columbia Snake River System" luncheon.

None of the dam removal advocates grew up in the Wawawai-to-Lewiston Snake River Corridor. They have little firsthand knowledge of the river as it existed before Lower Granite Dam was completed. ...

I can, because my wife Linda and her relatives ... settled the fruit farms and grew up along the river corridor. I myself was on the river from Almota to Lewiston on the Whitman County side of the river from 1954 to 1961, the year I graduated from Washington State University, and then back again in 1967 until the present.

I have fished the Snake River during all of those years and can honestly say from 1954 until the pool raised, I did not see any Native Americans fishing. ...

Before the pool was raised to form the lake, you spent hours trying to catch a steelhead, salmon or sturgeon, and the fish were not plentiful. ...

We need to step up. Let people know we do not want our lakes destroyed. ...


Marvin J. Entel, Clarkston
Save Our Lakes
Lewiston Tribune, February 3, 2019

See what you can learn

learn more on topics covered in the film
see the video
read the script
learn the songs
discussion forum
salmon animation