Graduation Year
2025
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Second Department
Politics and International Relations
Reader 1
Nancy Neiman
Reader 2
Susan Phillips
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2025 Marin Plut
Abstract
In December 2023, the Biden Administration signed the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, pausing more than 30 years of litigation over the decline of salmon in the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia and Snake Rivers. A huge win for the groups fighting for salmon recovery, the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement intends to breach the Lower Snake River dams, the first large federal dams ever earnestly recommended for removal in the United States. The struggle over the Lower Snake River dams offers a case study that explores how groups who have historically been prevented from getting their concerns on the political agenda, including Tribes and environmental groups, can use formal institutions and discursive power to reframe the debate over progress versus the environment. Using historical research and qualitative coding, my research explores how a movement to breach the Lower Snake River dams has been able to win approval for the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement despite private interests, politicians, and federal agencies working to preserve the dams.
Recommended Citation
Plut, Marin, "Reframing Progress: The battle over the Lower Snake River dams" (2025). Scripps Senior Theses. 2592.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2592
