Lawmakers: Don’t blame Snake dams for grieving mother orca

There has been commotion over the four lower Snake River dams, especially with the image of an endangered killer whale pushing her dead calf along the Washington coast. Opposition comes together to fight the dams. “There is no doubt that dams have caused salmon declines, but the operators of the dams have spent billions of dollars to improve the safety of their dams for salmon, and it is not certain the dams now cause higher mortality than would arise in a free-flowing river,” said Peter Kareiva, director of UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.