<![CDATA[
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#000099" VLINK="#FF0000" ALINK="#009900"><basefont size="4">
<CENTER>
<IMG SRC="images/logo.gif" ALT="Hanford
Reach: Save the Reach" ALIGN=TEXTTOP WIDTH="385" HEIGHT="93" BORDER="0"><BR>
<FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Charcoal, Gadget, Helvetica, Arial">Use our new website address <A HREF="http://www.hanfordreach.org/">http://www.hanfordreach.org/</A></FONT>
<P>
<font color="#FF0000" size=+2>Click <A HREF="hr_hot/1.html">HERE</A> to read
"What's New in the News" about ... The Hanford Reach?</font>
<p>
<a href="bluff_tour/index.html">Take a Visual Tour of the White Bluffs Devastation.</a>
<p>
<font face="Helvetica">
<font size=+3><b>What is the Hanford Reach?</b></font><br>
</CENTER>
<hr size=6 noshade>
The Hanford Reach of the Columbia River is located in south central Washington state. It begins at the foot of the Priest Rapids Dam and extends 51 miles to the slack waters of McNary Dam, just north of the City of Richland. The Reach is the only free flowing, non-tidal stretch of the Columbia River in the U.S. It flows through a spectacular landscape of towering cliffs, shifting sand dunes and sweeping vistas across an arid shrub-steppe. As the rest of the Columbia River and Eastern Washington's shrub-steppe ecosystem were lost to development, the Hanford Reach has survived intact as an accidental by-product of the security requirements of the Department of Energy's Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
<br>
<br>
<center>
<a href="extras/hr_map.htm">Click here to see a map of the Hanford Reach and surrounding area.</a>
</center><br>
<br>
The Wahluke Slope, public land north and east of the Hanford Reach, consists of 90,000 acres of rare shrub-steppe habitat. Presently, about one third of this area is managed by the <a href="http://www.fws.gov/">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a> as the Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge and the other half by the <a href="http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/home.html">Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife</a> as the <A HREF="extras/wwa.htm">Wahluke Wildlife Recreation Area</A>.
<p>
Currently, both the Hanford Reach and the Wahluke Slope are within the Hanford Nuclear Reservation which is administered by the <a href="http://www.doe.gov/">U.S. Department of Energy</a>. The Department of Energy plans to release the Hanford Reach and the Wahluke Slope in the near future.
<p>
The Lower Columbia Basin chapter of the National Audubon Society (LCBAS) has
been defending the Hanford Reach for over 30 years. For the past ten years,
we have waged an intensive campaign to secure long term, formal protection
for the Reach as a segment of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system. Our chapter has developed <A HREF="extras/bioresourse.htm">biological resource goals, principles, and objectives</A> for the Hanford Reach.
<P>
The Hanford Reach has been threatened with destruction for over 30 years.
The Ben Franklin Dam proposal of the early 1960s would have drowned the
Reach under the slack waters of yet another reservoir. In the 1980s, the
Corps of Engineers proposed dredging a barge canal through the Reach. Both
proposals would have eliminated salmon spawning. Wahluke 2000, a group of
agribusiness supporters, has been advocating agricultural development of the
federal lands bordering the northern and eastern shore of the Reach for
several years. Congressman Richard Hastings has introduced legislation
(<a href="bills/hr1811.htm">H.R. 1811</a>) to transfer
those lands to the counties for agricultural development. His bill would also place the river corridor
under the management of a local control dominated commision.
<P>
The fragile White Bluffs along the Reach are
threatened by irrigation runoff, and are subject to massive slumping.
Further agricultural development would almost certainly degrade the Reach's
enviable water quality, and bury the salmon spawning beds in sediment. Two
of the Reach's islands are also threatened with agricultural development.
The Grant County Public Utility District nearly leased some of its Reach
shoreline to a gold mining company in 1991.
<P>
We have managed to protect the Reach thus far by focusing public attention on
the threats to it, but the threats are coming faster and are backed by
powerful, well-financed political forces. Real, long-term protection can
only be achieved by amending the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to include the
Hanford Reach. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced the Hanford Reach Wild
and Scenic River Act (<a href="bills/s715.htm">S. 715</a>)
in December, 1995, in January, 1997 (<A HREF="bills/s200.htm">S. 200</A>), and again in March, 1999.
<P>
In April 1997 (<A HREF="bills/hr1477.htm">H.R. 1477</A>) and again in March, 1999, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Bremerton) introduced a companion bill (<a href="bills/hr1314.htm">H.R. 1314</a>)
to Senator Murray's Bill (<a href="bills/s715.htm">S. 715</a>)
<P>
The Hanford Reach of the Columbia River is listed as NUMBER 1 of America's Most Endangered Rivers of 1998 by the <A HREF="http://www.amrivers.org/" TARGET=_BLANK>American Rivers Organization</a>. Read the full report <A HREF="http://www.amrivers.org/mostendangered/mer1998report.htm" TARGET=_BLANK>here</a>.
<br>
<hr>
<center>
<blockquote>
<font size=1>
<a href="/hanford_reach/index.html" target="_top">Homepage</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/hr_hot/1.html">What's New</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/extras/debunking_hastings.htm">Debunking Hastings'Claims</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/bluff_tour/index.html">Visual Tour of the White Bluffs Devastation</a>
|
<A HREF="/extras/FinalAgreement.html">Agreement On the Future of the Hanford Reach
</A> |
<a href="/hanford_reach/extras/tour.htm">River Tour Guide for Rafters</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/extras/wild.htm">Q & A - Wild & Scenic Rivers</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/extras/wwa.htm">Wahluke Wildlife Area</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/where/info.htm">Contact us</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/why/info.htm">Why you should care</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/how/info.htm">How you can help</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/news/info.htm">Newsletters</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/signbook.lasso">Guestbook</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/links/info.htm">Related Links</a>
|
<a href="/hanford_reach/about/info.htm">About This Website</a>
</font>
</blockquote>
</center>
<br>
<hr>
]]>