I write in response to the article “National Resources Council initiative aims to bring Atlantic salmon back to Sandy River” (Feb. 4).

I always wonder when talking dam removal for fish passage (I do think fish passage is of paramount importance), why is it not feasible to restore fish passage and still have the renewable energy supplied from some or all of these dams?

The (assumed) carbon debt-free energy from hydroelectric or hydropower is also critical for a sustainable future, is it not? Surely the costs to create viable fish passage around these dams should be attainable if the priority is set, and perhaps forever lost acting in haste.

We as a species seem to be willing to throw untold billions of dollars at pie-in-the-sky space travel, but something like saving our own Earth ecology is too mundane?

Let’s get wiser now.

Richard Hesslein Jr., Bethel

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