Your help is needed urgently. Please add your voice against the proposed Shanker’s Bend Dam in Washington State. Unless we stop it, this U.S.dam will flood one of the most imperiled ecosystems in Canada – B.C.’s Similkameen Valley.
- The B.C. government, Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen, and Okanagan Nation Alliance publicly oppose this dam.
- The federal government has done nothing to stop it.
Map of the proposed dam flooding area
Click here to enlarge the image
Please take a minute to write or e-mail Jim Prentice, Canada’s Environment Minister. Ask him to tell U.S. authorities that Canada will never allow this dam to proceed.
E-mail: Jim.Prentice@ec.gc.ca
The Honourable Jim Prentice
Minister of the Environment
Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
10 Wellington Street, 28th Floor
Gatineau, Quebec
K1A 0H3
The proposed high dam in Washington State could:
- flood a major part of one of the rarest ecosystems in Canada;
- flood the habitat of at least 16 species at risk;
- flood the site of the proposed National Park;
- have a major impact on First Nations’ interests, including loss of land and cultural sites in B.C. and Washington State; and
- take the agricultural heart out of the Similkameen Valley in B.C.
Current biodiversity science indicates this portion of British Columbia is both a rarity and a richness hotspot. Over one-third of all British Columbian endangered species are dependant on this landscape and the region is one of the top three endangered ecosystems in Canada.
The Similkameen Valley ecosystem is home to species at risk that are protected by the Canadian Species at Risk Act. These species include the following:
Birds:
- Yellow-breasted chat
- Western screech owl (macfarlanei)
- Lewis's woodpecker
- Long-billed curlew
Mammals:
- American badger (jeffersoni)
- Nuttal's cottontail
Amphibians:
- Tiger salamander
- Great Basin spadefoot toad
Fish:
- Umatilla dace
- Columbia mottled sculpin
Insect:
- Mormon metalmark (butterfly)
Snakes:
- Rubber boa
- Nightsnake
- Great Basin Gophersnake
- Western rattlesnake
- Western Yellowbellied Racer
From the preliminary permit application by Public Utility District No. 1 of Okanogan County:
Click here to enlarge the image
View the map as PDF
Go to the permit application online at Okanogan County PUD (off the CPAWS-BC site)
Links:
Vancouver Sun: Province opposes U.S. plan to flood Similkameen Valley
Vancouver Sun: Dam would flood delicate ecosystem
Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune: PUD comes to Oroville to discuss Enloe dam and potential high dam
Okanogan Public Utility District web site (Applicant)
Application of Okanogan Public Utility District for Preliminary Permit (pdf)
White Paper by Washington Department of Ecology (pdf)
Mountain Equipment Co-op is has made a generous grant supporting work to preserve the South Okanagan-Similkameen ecosystems from being flooded by the Shanker's Bend Dam project. CPAWS-BC would like to thank Mountain Equipment Co-op for their support for this project.
CPAWS - British Columbia Chapter