BOARDMAN — Transportation advocates are backing a campaign to ensure information about the Columbia-Snake River system continues to reach Pacific Northwest residents and decision makers.

“Opinion research consistently shows that the more people know about the Columbia-Snake River system, the more they approve of it and the more they support it,” said Scott Clemans, communications director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association. “Unfortunately, the conversation has tended to be dominated by very large, but not necessarily representative voices, including some voices that aren’t from the Pacific Northwest at all.”

Members asked the association to create the River Values campaign to highlight the roles and benefits of the river system.

The campaign includes digital advertising, social media, member opinion pieces, stories and letters to the editor in local media. The waterways association also plans to be proactive with community, stakeholder and government relations work, Clemans said.

“We want to help people from every corner of the Northwest understand how much they benefit from the Columbia-Snake River system,” he said. “We live here, we work here, we play here because of our waterways.”

Clemans pointed to clean hydropower, fuel-efficient barge transportation, the availability of municipal and irrigation water, the impact on recreation and tourism and the region’s role in global trade as examples.

The association contracted with Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, environmental engineering and consulting company Maul Foster Alongi for the campaign.

The association declined to give a cost figure for the campaign, as some of the members contributing to the campaign are private companies.

“Having seen what some activist groups and their corporate allies regularly spend attacking the river system, I can say ours is very modest in the grand scheme of regional communications efforts,” Clemans said.

Clemans said the biggest priority is reaching residents in the Puget Sound area and west of the Cascade Range.

“Because people in Puget Sound can’t see it, they don’t think about it,” he said.

The campaign is slated to run through 2020, through the release of a final federal environmental impact statement for the river system, Clemans said.

“We hope the work we’ve done so far has encouraged and equipped people who care about the river to participate in the public comment process,” he said. “Everyone who lives, works and plays along the river system has a role in educating others about the role and benefits, so we can increase the amount of knowledge and support for the Columbia-Snake system.”

https://www.pnwa.net/rivervalues/