Debra Ellers – Saving Salmon and Orcas

Debra Ellers grew up on a family farm growing crops and livestock, near the Chesapeake Bay in Eastern Virginia, where she developed a love of salt water and its creatures. She received her B.S. in Economics with High Honors from the University of Tennessee, where she was Phi Beta Kappa, and J.D. at the University of Virginia School of Law.

In 1985, Debra moved to Idaho, where she worked as a business attorney for 30 years. Her professional employers included a large regional law firm, a major technology company, and a public university. In Idaho, she was an avid skier and backpacker in Idaho’s pristine mountains, and involved with many conservation issues, including public lands grazing, wolf reintroduction, and salmon recovery. Debra has also been an adjunct instructor teaching introductory environmental law classes.

Debra and her spouse moved to Port Townsend in 2016, where she co-founded the orca advocacy group North Olympic Orca Pod. Regionally, Debra has attended many orca advocacy events and presented workshops about the importance of breaching the 4 Lower Snake River Dams to save salmon, orcas and more.

Port Townsend, WA
USA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/219205718581235/

Workshop(s)

Workshop 1: Saving Salmon, Orcas, Tribal Treaty Rights and More by Breaching the 4 Lower Snake River Dams

Salmon are the foundation of Northwest ecosystems and tribal cultures. However, salmon runs have severely declined. Local orcas in the Salish Sea, Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKWs), rely on salmon—mostly chinook—for their food. The fates of salmon and Southern Resident Orcas are intertwined. Both species risk extinction—particularly SRKWs, with just 74 remaining.

The Lower Snake River Dams (LSRDs) in Eastern Washington are a key reason for salmon’s decline. The LSRDs block salmon from pristine spawning habitat in Idaho. These dams kill salmon through their equipment (such as turbines and bypasses), and hot stagnant reservoirs. Moreover, “benefits” of these dams, hydropower and navigation, are in severe decline themselves.

This workshop will include a discussion of history, geography and politics of these dams, and benefits to salmon, orcas, tribal rights and more from breaching them.