Dear Friends,

I want to thank everyone who joined my virtual conversation with Congressman Mike Simpson this past week on his proposal to address an unsustainable cycle of conflicts over salmon and energy in the Columbia-Snake River Basin. We discussed the critical opportunity to end this cycle of conflict, degradation, and regional uncertainty.

If you missed it, you can watch the full discussion here.

You can also read our joint op-ed in today’s Oregonian about the importance of Northwest discussions – and solutions – and where we go from here.

I’m hopeful we can have more conversations like the one we had on Tuesday, rising above partisan differences to think about the long-term and areas that unite us.

I also hope that everyone who tuned in can take a moment to reflect on what we discussed, offer up additional questions and have their own conversations on the challenges we discussed yesterday afternoon. As always, I’m eager to hear your thoughts. You can contact me here.

As we wrote in the Oregonian today:

Right now, we have an unprecedented opportunity to create our own future for the Northwest and define what it will look like for generations to come. We may never again have a chance like this to craft a solution by the Northwest and for the Northwest, to protect our waters, salmon, communities, and way of life.

It will require unprecedented cooperation, innovation, and investment, but we are convinced that this is the time to convene the people of the Pacific Northwest to make this critical effort a reality.

You can read the rest of our op-ed here.

Again, thank you to everyone who joined our recent virtual conversation and to all those committed to solving this problem together.