Noah talks with Blaine Harden, of the Washington Post, about his new book "A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia." Harden was born in Moses Lake, in eastern Washington state, a town set amidst farmland irrigated by Columbia River water. He went back home to travel the length of the Columbia, to learn about the barges, the hydroelectric dams, and the disappearing salmon. Harden says the salmon of the Columbia are threatened with extinction because of the dams, and a way of life for local Native Americans has been ruined as well. A compromise is possible if the flow schedules on the river are reversed, allowing the baby salmon to get downstream in spring, but electric power rates would go up in the Pacific Northwest. (Published by W.W. Norton and Co.)
Copyright 1996 NPR