Here in Independence, on the banks of the beautiful Chehalis River, 2025 was full of returning salmon, wind, high waters and all the beauty of a landscape that both gives and takes away. While we didn’t experience the epic floods that so many did up in King, Skagit and Snohomish counties, I feel for all of those who lost everything in those disasters.

Today, the need to protect people, fish runs and the natural world we all depend on is stronger than ever. And while some wealthy Lewis County landowners think that means building an incredibly expensive mega-dam on the river I call home, my neighbors and I know better.

As a fishing guide who has watched decades of work to bring back salmon runs start to pay off, I know in my heart that sacrificing fish runs for a risky, untested dam makes no sense for our community. Especially not with a giant price tag and huge unanswered questions about construction, operations and where we’ll find the billions of dollars to build it.

My neighbors and I know what it means to live here, in the river’s floodplain. When it floods, we prepare. Our houses are on stilts, our weather radios are tuned in and we take care of each other. When floods come, the river rises beneath my home, and then subsides. We stay dry and fish runs stay healthy. All of us know that floods are part of life, and part of a healthy Chehalis River landscape.

None of us support putting a gigantic, incredibly expensive slab of concrete in the middle of the river. The proposed dam would primarily benefit the wealthy landowners of Centralia and Chehalis who want to keep building in the floodplain. It won’t help us with flooding downstream, and it will certainly create many more problems than it solves.

Those are the very reasons that cities and counties across our state and the nation are taking dams down. The era of dam building is over, and we can’t allow it to begin again here at home. Washington can make far better use of the at least $2 billion the mega-dam would cost us.

My work as a fishing guide means I see the success of tribal and state efforts to bring salmon back. The Chehalis is one of the last undammed rivers on the west side, and restoration is working. Here at home, the fish are returning, and with them my livelihood, the livelihoods of so many tribal fishermen, and our ability to restore these beautiful places for everyone to enjoy.

Let’s spend that $2 billion proposed for the dam to raise homes and businesses, elevate roads and bridges, invest in natural infrastructure upstream that reduces flood volumes, and ensure that people are protected as the superstorms fueled by climate change become more and more frequent.

Carson Churchill

Independence Valley