The Grande Ronde (note: this is the correct spelling) is a perfect example of the issues related to salmon decline. I have worked there my entire professional career (4 years) on salmon issues. I have walked and floated much of its extent and flown over the entire system in a helicopter.

Today, coho and sockey are extinct in the Grande Ronde. Spring chinnok have not returned to the upper river for three years... big bummer. Minam/Wallowa spring chinook are at all time lows and the slope in still negative. Serious declining numbers of returning adults occurred during the period of Snake River dam construction and persist today. I can pull the numbers... they paint a clear picture of hydro impacts.

But, the Grande Ronde is an area with many other habitat and water problems. Mining, forestry and agriculture have had (and still do) massive negative impacts in the basin. In Grande Ronde valley 28 miles of river was straightened in to 6 miles. In this same area, all of the water is diverted from the river... problem? Yes. 40-60 Pushup dams are built along the river to make the river deep enough to get the pumps submerged… and create fish barriers. Summertime water temperatures often exceed 80*F… salmon start to die around 70*F.

I can tell you with certainty that the Grande Ronde fish face a bleak future until ALL of the problems are addressed... including Snake River dams. Elevating one issue above the others is silly. All of these problems are equal: they are lethal to salmon. Breach the dams… great, now leave some trees along the river and water in the river.

Here’s a quote from an early settler passing through the Grande Ronde Valley.

We descend a very steep hill in coming into Grande Ronde, at the foot of which is a beautiful cluster of pitch and spruce pine trees, but no white pine like that I have been accustomed to see at home. Grande Ronde is indeed a beautiful place. It is a circular plain, surrounded by lofty mountains, and has a beautiful stream coursing through it, skirted with quite large timber. The scenery while passing through it is quite delightful in some places. We nooned upon Grande Ronde river.

The Letters and Journals of Narcissa Whitman
August 28th, 1836