Talk:Snake River

message: Anyone have comments on if this article is ready for GA yet? I'll wait until November 30 for a reply, then I'll put it on GAN myself. Shannontalk contribs sign!:) 00:23, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh, heh, I'm two weeks late in responding, so anyone who wants to object has until the Santa Ana River Ga review is done to comment. Shannontalk contribs 02:56, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[WP:GAN|GAN]]? 

message: The Clearwater River is the largest tributary of the Snake, not the Salmon. According to USGS, the mean flow of the Clearwater is about 15,000 cfs, and the mean flow of the Salmon is just under 12,000 cfs. Check out the wiki pages on both the salmon and the clearwater for the source link. I suggest changing this to be accurate.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.212.196.128 (talk) 22:34, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The USGS's water data for the Clearwater is only from 1914 to 1927 and there are a lot of years missing in between, so there were only five years recorded on the Lewiston gauge. Additionally, the early 20th century was a wet period. The Salmon River has data from 1911 to present and it's true that the average flow is around 12,000 cfs. The Salmon is also longer and drains more area. However, this may need some additional research. I've seen conflicting statements between whether the Salmon or Clearwater is the largest tributary, so this might need some further poking around. Shannontalk contribs 00:58, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Largest Tributary 

message: I've just uploaded an 1871 photo of the Snake River, see right. Feel free to use if useful. Dcoetzee 03:26, 16 April 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks. It looks like a nice replacement for the low res image in the exploration section. Shannontalk contribs 18:34, 17 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  New 1871 photo 

message: Something doesn't seem right about the discharge stats here. There appears to be two key sources used: 1) Snake River below Ice Harbor Dam, WA, 1963-2000 (footnote #7), a gauge below Ice Harbor dam that operated from 1963-2000). 2) Ice Harbor Lock and Dam Pertinent Data, USACE (footnote #8), the "Hydrologic Data" section of that page says it is "based on streamflow data for the Snake River near Clarkston, WA", "period of record 1915-1972"--that must be some other now discontinued gauge.
Data from the first source, [7]: "Summary statistics": highest daily mean 305,000 cfs (19 June 1974). "EXTREMES FOR PERIOD OF RECORD": Maximum discharge, 312,000 cfs (19 June 1974) (presumably something other than "max daily mean", perhaps "max instantaneous peak"). "Annual mean": 54,830 cfs. "Min daily mean": 2,700 cfs.
Data from the second source, [8]: "Instantaneous max": 369,000 cfs (29 May 1948); "Extreme outside period of record" (ie, estimated): 409,000 cfs ("flood of June 1894"); "Instantaneous minimum": 6,660 cfs (2 Sep 1958); "Average annual flow": 48,840 cfs.
Anyway, I have to go and can't say any more. But it looks like these two sources are both used but not described quite right. Pfly (talk) 21:01, 20 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Rivers of North America (p. 607) gives the mean discharge "below Ice Harbor Dam just before it enters the Columbia" as . This pretty much confirms the "annual mean" data from the first source. The discharge at Clarkston would naturally be smaller because Clarkston is quite a ways upstream from the mouth, and tributaries enter downstream of that gauge. Finetooth (talk) 21:47, 20 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Back. The main thing was that the Discharge section describes the 369,000 cfs peak as the "max daily" recorded at the Ice Harbor gauge. I've a bit of time now, so I'll just fix it up. Pfly (talk) 03:29, 21 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Discharge 

message: Idaho's Snake river once teemed with sockeye salmon. However, there are almost no wild sockeye salmon left in the river due to a number of factors. They are literally on the brink of extinction.
There are many reasons why Sockeye Salmon in the Snake River are going extinct. One reason is that the Snake river runs through 3 different states, and is over 1,000 miles long. Salmon swimming upstream in this river are faced with predators and dams. The Snake River has fifteen dams and is extremely difficult for salmon to access because of hydroelectric dams. Hell's Canyon Dam blocks passage to the entire upper Snake River. The Grand Cooley also blocks spawning grounds to the famous "June Hogs." (June Hogs were legendary Chinook Salmon that weighed over 100 pounds.)
Secondly, almost 160 years ago when settlers came into the Pacific Northwest, they exploited the rich natural resources of beaver pelts, gold, trees, and namely, the salmon. Technological advances in canning made shipping canned salmon meat possible all over the world. Overharvesting and habitat loss accounted for the mass majority of salmon becoming critically endangered, with the majority of salmon processing factories quickly shutting down and going out of business due to the decline.
The impacts of these salmon going extinct are unimaginable. Bears, plants, and numerous other wildlife would crumble and die because they depend on the salmon for food and nutrients. The fishing industry would collapse and so would the ecosystem, since salmon deposit nutrients to the environment after they spawn and die. Future generations of humans would only hear of these salmon as a legend, or story, and never get to see or taste these magnificent, mysterious creatures.
Between 1985 and 2007, only an average of 18 sockeye salmon returned to Idaho each year. Serious conservation efforts by wildlife biologists and fish hatcheries have captured the few remaining wild sockeye salmon, collected their sperm and eggs, and in a laboratory, have them spawn. Instead of spawning naturally, these sockeye begin their lives in an incubator in a fishery biologist's laboratory. These baby salmon then are transported by ship, bypassing the dams. (The dams can hurt juvenile baby sockeye salmon with their powerful tides and currents, which suck the baby salmon down.) Another conservation effort that has helped the salmon recover, is the destruction of old, outdated dams, such as the Savage Rapids Dam. After destroying the dam, salmon populations noticeably recovered.
Sources:
"Northwest Fisheries Science Center." Once Nearly Extinct, Endangered Idaho Sockeye Regaining Fitness Advantage -. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
 "Sockeye Salmon Facts." National Geographic. National Geographic,  11 Feb. 2012, Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
"Whooshh Innovations' "fish Gun" Shoots Salmon over Obstacles Small and Tall." Whooshh Innovations' "fish Gun" Shoots Salmon over Obstacles Small and Tall. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kxj5906 (talk • contribs) 19:52, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Salmon endangered in the Snake River 

message: # Origin of the name of the river is given (at the Name section) as "the name Snake River was derived from an S-shaped gesture the Shoshone tribe made with their hands to represent swimming salmon. Explorers misinterpreted it to represent a snake, giving the river its present-day name" or (at the Exploration and settling section) as "They also referred to the Shoshone Indians as the "Snake Indians", which became the present-day name of the river". Which version is the correct one? Maybe both are valid?
#It is stated (In the Exploration and settling section) that "One crossing the trail made over the Snake River was near the present-day site of Glenns Ferry." and that "Another place where pioneers crossed the Snake was further upstream, at a place called "Three Island Crossing", but according to Three Island Crossing on the Snake River site it is the same crossing.
#The statement "Another conservation effort that has helped the salmon recover, is the destruction of old, outdated dams, such as the Savage Rapids Dam. After destroying the dam, salmon populations noticeably recovered." is supported by a citation to an article called "Once nearly extinct, endangered Idaho sockeye regaining fitness advantage". Reading the this article I did not find any mention of Savage Rapids Dam destruction, so I search with Google to find out that the Savage Rapids Dam was indeed destroyed, but not on the Snake river! Savage Rapids dam was on Rogue River in Oregon. See Savage Rapids Dam Removal.
#The Salmon story is told in two sections. The first in the Dams sections starting from "There are many reasons why Sockeye Salmon in the Snake River are going extinct.", which continue to tell about Sockeye Salmon and not about dams, and the second under "Salmon and other anadromous fish". The first section should be merged with the second.
#The section "Lower Snake River dam removal" ends with the following statement "A final decision from Judge Redden is expected in the spring of 2011". It should be updated.  
אביהו (talk) 17:32, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: The source linked said it was the Shoshone name for themselves, so presumably both. This theory of mixing up the signs for "fish" and "snake" seems like mere speculation. The Yellowstone Nation Park website says: "The Snake name comes from sign language — a serpentine movement of the hand with the index finger extended — that referred to the weaving of baskets or grass lodges of the Snake or Shoshone Indians". The Indian sign language term for Shoshone given by W. P. Clark in 1885 is the same as the sign for "snake" (and is indeed quite similar to "fish"); he says he doesn't know how the Shoshone came to be called Snake Indians, but one old Shoshone man told them it was because they used to eat snakes. The name of the Snake Indians appears long before any European had reached the Snake River, AFAIK. The name appears in the journal of HBC explorer William Pink, on the Canadian Prairies in 1768, in both English and Cree, clearly from native sources. Granted it is not certain that the Snakes who terrorized the western plains in the 18th century were really the Shoshone, though surely they are the prime suspects. Megalophias (talk) 05:23, 17 August 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Several notes 

message: In the summer of 2013, more than 13,000 sockeye salmon returned to the spawning grounds.[93]
This comment is not substantiated by any evidence, and is likely being put here by people who have a strong interest in keeping the dams such as Bonneville Power or the Pacific Northwest Waterways association. The footnoted evidence links to an article by national geographic stating fish facts, not numbers. Again this number is NOT VERIFIED. Do not trust this fact until a source is connected.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.208.183.168 (talk) 00:38, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fish return 

message: The Columbia River Gorge is a great geographical location, and there should be a wikilink to it here. Such careless is somewhat shocking, and altogether too common in the Wikipedia!24.156.78.205 (talk) 19:27, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Columbia River Gorge !