'The river was stolen from us': a tribe's battle to retake the Skagit River

[Canoe52]

The Upper Skagit Indian tribe are fighting Seattle to remove the Gorge Dam

A century ago, Seattle’s public utility dammed the river in three spots, creating a hydroelectric complex that provides 18% of the city’s energy. On this particular two-mile stretch near the Canadian border, the entire river has been diverted into a hydroelectric tunnel, reducing this wide riverbed to a stretch of sleepy pools.

...fish stocks have clearly declined. The NMFS estimates that in the 19th century, nearly a million steelhead returned annually to the Puget Sound. This winter the Skagit River, which is Puget Sound’s largest river, had less than 4,000 steelhead migrate up the Skagit to spawn; Schuyler said his tribe’s allotment was only 75 individual fish.

emphasis mine, read more -

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/05/upper-skagit-tribe-gorge-dam-seattle

[Bayard]

1. The tribe has lived and fished along this river for 8,000 years

I think they have a pretty good handle on the environmental impact of the dam.