Commercial fishermen and friends are invited to meet and discuss ways to be involved in a Day of Action demanding removal of four dams on the Klamath River. The organizing meeting will be held at 6 p.m. today, at the Charleston RV Park meeting room. The PacifiCorp Day of Action will be held at noon on Thursday, Sept. 18, in downtown Portland.

The Sept. 18 PacifiCorp Day of Action is being planned by the Klamath Justice Coalition, a group of community activists from the Klamath River dedicated to restoring the Klamath, and also is co-sponsored by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, among other groups.

The Klamath Justice Coalition is inviting the public to assemble at Holladay Park at the corner of Northeast Multnomah and 11th Street in downtown Portland at noon on Sept 18. From there, the group will march to PacifiCorp’s headquarters for a rally featuring speakers from tribal, fishing and conservation communities.

The Klamath Justice Coalition asks that groups interested in engaging in acts of non-violent direct action or civil disobedience hold such actions on days before or after the march. The Klamath Justice Coalition asks that no groups engage in any acts of violence or property destruction.

“There is no better case for dam removal on the West Coast than the four small, obsolete and fish-killing dams in the Klamath River that currently block the river,” said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, in a press release. “By far, the best way to restore the Klamath-based salmon fisheries for northern California and southern Oregon would be to remove these dams. They have long since outlived their usefulness, and today they are nothing more than an ongoing disaster for large portions of the West Coast and its salmon.”

“Dam removal is a win-win for PacifiCorp’s customers and for commercial fishermen from Newport to San Francisco, and we hope to send that message loud and clear on the Sept. 18 Day of Action,” said Klamath Riverkeeper Outreach and Science Director Malena Marvin.

The PacifiCorp Ratepayer Campaign organizes citizens to write the Oregon Public Utility Commission asking that unreasonable rate hikes associated with keeping the Klamath dams not be passed along to ratepayers through “cost recovery.” The groups sent 20,000 mailers to coastal PacifiCorp ratepayers this spring, and held film nights in Astoria, Newport, Coos Bay and Brookings to educate ratepayers about Klamath dam removal.

More information is available online at: http://www.klamathriver.org; http://pacificorpdayofaction.org; http://www.salmonforsavings.com; and http://www.berkshireshareholders.org.