Wide ranging suggestions on the near-term direction of Columbia Basin
salmon recovery efforts were offered Thursday by witnesses called to
testify at a U.S. House of Representatives Resources Committee hearing
in Pasco. All but a few said dam breaching should be dropped from
consideration.
Breaching four Lower Snake River dams is not the answer for reviving
Columbia Basin salmon populations, a trio of Northwest lawmakers said
Tuesday at a Senate hearing at Bonneville Dam.
Two Northwest Republican senators this week said they suspect the delay
of federal agencies' recommendation for modifying or removing lower
Snake River dams to improve salmon recovery is aimed at helping Vice
President Al Gore's presidential campaign.
A proposed federal land management plan for roughly 63 million acres in
Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington is intended to leave a lighter
footprint both on the land and on the resource-based economies within
that territory.
Federal scientists conclude that drastic action must be taken soon to
head off extinction for Columbia Basin salmon runs in the worst shape,
and decision-makers must take that plunge without the certainty that
those actions will work.
The Bonneville Power Administration's top official admitted Tuesday that
ESA-spawned mandates may increase immediate Columbia Basin fish and
wildlife program needs, but she showed a reluctance to juggle funds from
one account to another to answer those needs.
Fishermen in Southeast Alaska have finally found unity on a salmon
management issue, thanks to federal consideration of Alaska harvest
cutbacks in order to restore chinook runs in the Snake River.
Juvenile salmon and steelhead passed through Bonneville Dam's No. 1
powerhouse fared better when encountering a newly designed turbine than
they did when passing through traditional turbines, according to results
from a recently completed $2.5 million biological study.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on Thursday met with Eastern Oregon
constituents for the first time since he publicly supported breaching
the four lower Snake River dams as a viable option for salmon recovery.
In an effort to drum up more public support for breaching federal dams
to "halt salmon extinction," a national conservation group has declared
the lower Snake River its most endangered river for the second year.
It was almost classic "East versus West" Tuesday as political officials
from Washington's "dry side" urged rejection of dam breaching as an option. More to follow.
Despite his controversial stand in favor of breaching Snake River dams,
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber this week continued to work with fellow
Northwest governors and members of Congress on how best to restore
salmon.
Major changes are foreseen for the region's hatchery operations as fish
managers make adjustments to protect a growing list of threatened salmon
and steelhead populations while still providing promised treaty, and
other, fisheries, according a National Marine Fisheries Service
official.
With Snake River and Columbia River dams in place, augmenting mainstem
flows with upstream water does not do much for achieving a natural river
hydrograph, nor does it have much of an effect on speeding smolts on
their journey downstream.
The Columbia River estuary offers the region an important opportunity to
improve salmon survival.
A new incarnation of a massive plan for federal lands in the Northwest
will be released for comment in the next month.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman on Thursday
proposed a new USDA Forest Service road management policy for the
380,000 miles of forest roads.
Nearly all speakers at the Federal Caucus' "All-H" hearing in Boise
Wednesday were in favor of taking measures that would lead to salmon
recovery, but they were split as to how to proceed.
Breaching Four Lower Snake River dams is not the only way, but it's the
best way to start rebuilding threatened and endangered Columbia Basin
salmon and steelhead stocks, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber said last Friday
afternoon (Feb. 18).
U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., criticized two presidential candidates
and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber for supporting or refusing to rule out
the dam breaching option for Columbia-Snake salmon recovery.
A coalition of conservation and fishing groups on Tuesday asked
Portland's U.S. District Court to order federal agencies to comply with
their own directives to provide Columbia Basin water flows to aid
migration of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species
Act.
A comprehensive Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery plan that
includes the breaching of the four lower Snake River dams is Oregon Gov.
John Kitzhaber's preferred option, according to notes from a speech he
was expected to deliver today in Eugene to the American Fisheries
Society.
Opponents of dam breaching, accusing federal officials of threatening
their livelihoods and Indians of overharvesting, came out in force
Thursday at an emotionally charged federal hearing in Pasco.
Federal officials were bombarded Tuesday with comments from tribal,
sport and commercial fishers who said their communities and cultures had
been plundered by hydrosystem development aimed at benefiting upstream
interests and by salmon recovery plans that ignore the obvious --
Federal officials who say decisions will be based on pure science and
economics were met with a flood of emotional pleas Tuesday during a
meeting in Spokane to discuss, among other things, dam breaching's
potential for aiding salmon and steelhead recovery.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
