On the recordJune 29, 2010
I rise to speak to legislation I am introducing today, with my colleagues, Senator Crapo of Idaho, Senators Baucus and Tester of Montana, and Senator Wyden, from my home state of Oregon, to protect and restore the Columbia River Basin. The Columbia River Basin is the great river system that defines the Pacific Northwest. It runs 1,243 miles from Columbia Lake in British Columbia to its mouth at Astoria, OR, the first permanent European settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. Its basin drains 258,000 acres in seven states, including many of great geological provinces of the West: the Yellowstone Plateau; the Rocky Mountains; the volcanic Snake River Plain; Hells Canyon, America's deepest canyon; the basalt plains and high desert of eastern Oregon and Washington; the majestic Columbia River Gorge; the volcanic slopes of the Cascade Mountains; and the temperate rain forests of the Coast Range. The Columbia River's tributaries are the major rivers of the Northwest.
