Salmon in the Pacific Northwest are currently dying by the thousands. They cannot survive in warm water, and dams stem a river’s flow, causing the water to warm and exacerbating the effects of climate change. Besides their historical importance to the region’s indigenous nations, salmon are a “keystone species” — they are a major source of nutrition for large predators like bears, whose feces fertilize the soil and encourage growth of local flora. Without salmon, the entire local ecosystem would collapse.

Columbia Riverkeeper needed a simple, memorable graphic to raise awareness of this complex, urgent issue in support of their campaign pressuring local politicians to work towards removing the dams on the Snake River.