A living document speaks to living waters
âThe Columbia River Watershed: Caring for Creation and the Common Good,â an international pastoral letter by the Catholic bishops of the Northwest, celebrates its 20th anniversary About 40% of all wheat produced in the United States is shipped in barges, pushed by tugboats, on the Columbia River to Portland, Vancouver, Kelso and Longview. It would take more than 500 trucks to transport the wheat a barge carries. Yet the dams that make the water route possible have devastated salmon runs on the Columbia. The Yakama people, who fished for centuries on the river, note that the United States signed treaties that promised fishing rights in perpetuity, rights that the dams make meaningless. The Catholic bishops, in writing the Columbia River pastoral letter, addressed this tragedy. (Courtesy Columbia River National Scenic Area)