Back in September, Michelle Hennings, executive director of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG), took part in a stakeholder interview held by a consulting team hired by the Washington State Governor’s Office to talk about the potential impacts of breaching the lower Snake River dams. The Washington State Legislature earmarked $750,000 in the 2019-21 operating budget to have the ... Read More »
From U.S. Wheat Associates U.S. Wheat Associates Assistant Director Michael Anderson recently spent a week on a tugboat that was pushing grain barges down the Snake, Columbia and Willamette rivers from Lewiston, Idaho, to Portland, Ore. Read More »
From DTN’s Progressive Farmer The Columbia-Snake River System in the Pacific Northwest is the nation’s single largest wheat export gateway, transporting over 50% of all U.S. wheat to markets overseas. That all came to a temporary, but very significant, stoppage at the Bonneville Lock and Dam, located about 40 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon. On Thursday, Sept. 5, the lock ... Read More »
By Michael Anderson U.S. Wheat Associates Assistant Director, West Coast Office Early in 2019, I attended a presentation given by the Executive Director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association (PNWA), Kristin Meira. In the audience were farmers eager to hear how U.S. legislators shared their interests regarding the ongoing navigability of the Columbia and Snake River systems. Open waterways are ... Read More »
By Trista Crossley As the debate around breaching the lower Snake River dams continues, the Washington state agricultural industry brought more than 3 dozen state legislators and aides on a boat tour last week in an effort to demonstrate how important the dams are to the region’s economy. Legislators boarded the boat at the Port of Kennewick. While headed upstream ... Read More »
By Randy Suess Many people have done a fine job explaining why removing the lower Snake River dams would hurt our farm economy and really not accomplish the goal of restoring the number of Southern Resident Killer Whales (orcas). There are a couple of issues that I believe need to be covered to help people understand that we need those ... Read More »
Editor’s note: This is an Op Ed the Washington Association of Wheat Growers submitted to regional newspapers in May. In agriculture, everything is cyclical. The same seems to be true of the lower Snake River dams. Every few years, advocates of breaching the dams start speaking out on why they should be torn down, and the communities and industries that ... Read More »
From the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association The Snake River dams have been in the news again this week. At an event hosted by Boise State University to examine efforts to balance hydropower, salmon, farming and the environment, the topic of dam breaching became the focus of the event. Some speakers called for forums to be created to look at the ... Read More »
The following letter was sent to the members of the Senate Ways & Means Committee on April 2, 2019. Twenty-six groups signed on in support of the letter, including the Washington Association of Wheat Growers, Washington Farm Bureau, transportation associations, electric groups and more. Members of the Senate Ways & Means Committee: We are urging you to remove the $750,000 ... Read More »
Seattle Times opinion piece by Don Britain, mayor of Kennewick; Matt Wakins, mayor of Pasco; Robert Thompson, mayor of Richland; and Brent Gerry, mayor of West Richland For more than 20 years. there has been an ongoing debate about the impact of the four Snake River dams on the Pacific Northwest’s salmon population. Since the 1970s, billions of dollars have been spent ... Read More »
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