How can you go wrong with salmon—for its own sake, for the Native Americans who worship the fish and for future generations of gourmands? But after seeing “;Upstream Battle,”; I've discovered it is possible to go wrong.

By now, most people know about the declining numbers of wild salmon due to disease and loss of spawning grounds, the latter due in part to the dams that block their path. As a result, the adults die without ever reproducing.

This documentary follows Native American tribes, from California to the Klamath River Basin, who are affected by the salmon loss. Their aim is a dam-removal project that will take out four dams impeding the salmon's journey.

Tribe members speak of frightening developments as a result of the low water levels, as fish die from lack of oxygen and parasites. Wendy George notes how 20 years ago, when cutting salmon open, “;We never saw something alive and moving, or salmon with half their gills missing.”;

It was also interesting to see some of the rituals involved with the salmon run, when the arrival of the first fish led to a sort of Olympian passing of the torch from village to village, in this case a piece of wood carved like a salmon, just to announce the fish were on their way.

But such moments of cultural insight are rare. Instead, the documentary takes viewers from boardrooms and corporate offices from Oregon to Glasgow, Scotland, filled with talking heads. Much is made of an attempt to crash a Berkshire Hathaway stockholders' meeting to confront Warren Buffett, owner of PacificCorp., who stands to make a difference. But little comes from the meeting.

Besides telling eco-lovers what we already know, the documentary winds up being something of a dry how-to for activists or those who simply enjoy the day-to-day tedium of the political process. Others can simply read about the continuing struggle at upstreambattle.com, where catching up with the movement will only take 15 minutes, versus 90 minutes of your time.