Shanker's Bend Dam Project

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.

Link to large map (.jpg, 254 kb)
Link to PDF (500kb)

Please take a minute to write or e-mail Peter Kent, Canada’s Environment Minister. Ask him to tell U.S. authorities that Canada will never allow this dam to proceed.

E-mail: Peter.Kent@ec.gc.ca

The Honourable Peter Kent
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' woodpecker
• Long-billed curlew

Mammals:

• American badger (jeffersoni)
• Nuttal's cottontail

Amphibians:

• Tiger salamander
• Great Basin spadefoot

Fish:

• Umatilla dace
• Columbia mottled sculpin

Insect:

• Mormon metalmark (butterfly)

Snakes:

• Rubber boa
• Nightsnake
• Great Basin Gophersnake
• Western rattlesnake
• Western Yellowbellied Racer

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.

Contact politicians today to tell them to help make the national park a reality!