The Illegal Dam Blocking the Yakima River
A local resident exposes how a private timber dam is choking off fish runs and violating state law near Easton.
As one of your subscribers, I should like to ask if there is no way of compelling lawbreakers to respect the law of this state concerning the damming of rivers and stopping fish from running up our mountain streams. In the Yakima river, one mile west of Easton station, a man has put in a dam, made of hewed timbers, across a rock gorge in the river, in such a shape that fish cannot get up in any numbers. The fish commissioner at Vancouver was written to more than two months ago, and he promised to give the matter attention. The county attorney was notified, but the river is still blocked. No use is made of this dam, and it is not likely any ever will be, as it is simply put in to hold a water right that someone else might make use of at some future time. Fish can (if permitted) go twelve to fifteen miles further up the main river, besides up many small streams and into Lake Keechelus. In addition, the Indians have built a line of willow netting in front of this dam and are taking the fish in great numbers. It seems a shame that hundreds of people must be deprived of sporting on these streams and lakes by the refusal of one man to obey the law and put in a fish ladder, but what can we expect when the officers of the law will not compel a compliance therewith.
“It seems a shame that hundreds of people must be deprived of sporting on these streams and lakes by the refusal of one man to obey the law.”
The struggle to balance private water rights with the preservation of salmon runs has been a central conflict in Washington State for over a century. Today, the removal of dams and the restoration of fish passage remain critical, high-stakes environmental issues in the Yakima River basin.
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