I want to thank the Salmon Center, its members, partners, and board for the good work you do. I salute all of this year's nominees, and Oregon's Jay Nicholas especially, for his dedication and success working for wild salmon. All of you inspire and motivate me. The work we do together has never been more important, because salmon of the northwest are at a crossroads.

Many of you find your 'home waters' in or near Puget Sound. My home water is Idaho's Salmon River - the longest undammed river in the lower 48. In the wild salmon universe, the Salmon River is of historic proportions, a "mother lode." I'd like to tell you more about it.

The Columbia River Basin was once the largest producer of salmon on the planet. In the Columbia Basin, Idaho's Salmon River historically produced 40% of all the steelhead and 45% of all spring/summer chinook. So - here we have one astonishing tributary, producing close to half of all the steelhead and chinook in the planet's most productive salmon watershed. No other river comes close, in terms of its significance to wild salmon, and in terms of remaining high-quality habitat. When I first fished Idaho's Salmon River in the 1960s, near the end of an era in which over 400 dams were built in the Columbia Basin, it was still the most incredibly productive river I had ever seen.

Today, because that prime spawning and rearing habitat is protected by Wilderness, National Recreation Areas, Wild and Scenic Rivers, and roadless forests, this geography comprises perhaps 70% of the Northwest's salmon recovery potential. Restoring these salmon runs is probably the region's best chance to reverse the loss of wild salmon.

The importance of Snake River salmon recovery to widely-separated areas of the Pacific Northwest is becoming clear. As far away as Puget Sound, the future of Orcas depends in large part on Snake/Columbia salmon. The NMFS draft Orca recovery plan states, "Perhaps the single greatest change in food availability for resident killer whales since the late 1800s has been the decline of salmon in the Columbia River basin." With Snake River salmon the biggest single piece in the Columbia basin salmon picture, restoring salmon there is a key to saving Orcas in Puget Sound.

As of this writing, the outlook for Snake River salmon (including those that spawn in my home waters) is grim. Despite improvements elsewhere, wild salmon of the Snake (sockeye, spring/summer chinook, and steelhead, all spring migrants to the Pacific) are on an extinction path, suffering under a federal policy that brings eventual extinction for all. The question is not if those extinctions will occur in the Snake basin - it's only a question of when, as things now stand.

In early September, PNWSC board member Tom Flagg and I were in central Idaho for the release of hatchery-raised sockeye adults into Redfish Lake - part of an intensive-care program designed to buy time for that imperiled species. (Only 3 Snake Sockeye returned in 2006, so we don't have a lot of time.) Other Snake River wild salmon runs are on a similar path. Our government hasn't yet done enough, and hasn't done the right things, perhaps because our voices haven't yet been heard.

That's a call to action for me, and for all of us in the Northwest. If we lose the wild salmon of the Snake, we lose the largest remaining piece of our salmon heritage - and perhaps our best chance to reverse that loss. I see a leadership opportunity for a NW political leader, too. Who will it be?

To fix the problem, we need to focus on broken migratory habitat in the lower Snake River, opening up the bottleneck to the excellent spawning and nursery habitat in central Idaho. Success will benefit every NW State - from Sitka to Juneau, Astoria to Tri-Cities, and Clarkston to Stanley, Idaho. We mustn't fail in the Snake River, if we're serious about keeping wild salmon and jump-starting a new era of prosperity in the Northwest.

I love Tim Egan's definition, "The Northwest is any place a salmon can get to." Tim's words speak to our shared cultural identity, the jobs, families, and towns that depend on fisheries, the critical role wild salmon play in river and offshore ecology, and much more.

To protect wild salmon, we'll have to reverse current federal policy in the Snake River, insist that our government fix broken habitat, keep promises, and re-balance how we use that river.

Only then will we be able to celebrate a vision that includes our kids, grandkids, and wild salmon in my home waters and in yours.

Tom Stuart, Boise, Idaho