Save Our Wild Salmon

The following viewpoint argues that salmon are endangered due to habitat loss caused by dams, logging, and agriculture. Save Our Wild Salmon—a coalition of commercial fishing associations, recreational fishing groups, fishing businesses, and conservation organizations from across the Northwest—maintains that corporations that benefit from the region’s cheap electricity and abundant irrigation water will not support plans to save salmon from extinction without the force of law behind the Endangered Species Act. The economic survival of the region depends upon the survival of the salmon, the organization contends, and thus the ESA will save jobs as it protects species from extinction.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How many sockeye salmon returned to the Snake River to spawn in 1994, according to Save...