JoseCuervo
New member
Bush came campaigning up to Eastern Washinton yesterday, and invited 500 of his supporters to his "invitation only" photo op in front of one of the Fish Killing dams on the Lower Snake.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> ICE HARBOR DAM, Wash. _ President Bush defended the federal government's plan to save Pacific salmon on Friday, firmly rejecting the idea of dam breaching.
"We've got an energy problem in America," Bush said, speaking at the Ice Harbor Dam along the Snake River east of Pasco. "We don't need to be breaching any dams that produce electricity. And we won't."
Bush celebrated a rise in the Pacific salmon population, which has resulted in the largest spawning migrations in the Columbia Basin in 20 years.
That's evidence, he said, that salmon can recover without removing the dams, which provide irrigation, inland shipping corridors and power.
"We can have good, clean hydroelectric power and salmon restoration going on at the same time," Bush told a crowd of 500 invited guests.
But federal officials acknowledge the recovery has been buoyed by hundreds of thousands of hatchery-raised fish and that wild salmon still make up a small minority of the population.
Scientists also credit colder temperatures in the Pacific Ocean for bolstering the salmon's food supply. When ocean currents warm the water, they warn, the fish will need a strong, diverse population to survive.
"A few years of improved runs won't erase decades of decline," said John Kober of the National Wildlife Federation, an environmental group in Portland. "We're playing Russian roulette with our salmon population."
Bush's appearance Friday was far less contentious than his other stops in the Northwest. White House security kept several dozen protesters from the dam, but the protesters held signs along a road and chanted as Bush drove past.
The Northwest tour, designed to shore up Bush's environmental reputation, has been met by large-scale protests in Portland and Seattle.
His appearance was jolting in this remote, arid farmland in Central Washington. Snipers watched from water towers and Secret Service agents stood guard in the sagebrush.
In a folksy, 30-minute talk, he leaned an elbow against the podium and praised the crowd as "fine, down-to-earth, hard-working people." Hay bales hemmed in the podium and Bush wore a casual, gray shirt.
"We finally feel like we're being listened to," said Rick Mercer, a 59-year-old cattle rancher from the Columbia Basin. "I think he's trying to maintain a balance between the environment and the people who live here."
Bush's visit was the first to Oregon and Washington since the 2000 elections, when he lost both states by narrow margins. He appealed to moderate voters Friday, saying that successful compromises could be reached on controversial issues.
He lashed out at national environmental leaders, who have panned his policies on fisheries, forests and a host of other issues. A coalition of Northwest environmental groups gave the president an "F" for his efforts to protect salmon. They say he has implemented just one-third of the federal salmon restoration plan released in 2000, and funded only half of the projects.
Bush dismissed the most extreme environmentalists, who he said flock to urban areas like Washington, D.C., to promote Western land policies.
"There's a lot of experts on the environment back there," Bush said. "Or at least they think they are. They're constantly trying to tell people what to do -- people such as yourselves.
"They ought to come out and visit with the folks who actually protect the environment."
Virgil Lewis, a member of the Yakama Tribe, was cautious in his praise of the Bush administration's efforts to help salmon.
"It's the first step in the right direction," said Lewis, a tribal councilman and former hatchery manager. "It'd be great if someday we could rely on the wild stock. We have a long ways to go."
Some of the 11 species still hang on the verge of extinction. Last year, just 55 sockeye salmon made it past the last dam on the lower Snake River -- an improvement, scientists say, but still a dangerously low number.
Other populations, like the Oregon Coast Coho, have grown dramatically, tripling and quadrupling their numbers. Yet up to 90 percent of those fish are hatchery stock, born in buckets and raised in concrete pens.
Hundreds of scientists and environmental leaders have urged the federal government to consider breaching the dams to save the wild salmon.
Bush firmly opposed dam-breaching in the 2000 elections, and in the aftermath of the Northwest's energy crisis, the issue disappeared from the public view. But it returned this spring when a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to rethink its plan to save salmon, saying it was inadequate and violated the Endangered Species Act.
On Friday, Bush toured the dam, viewing fish ladders that help juvenile salmon move downstream and marveling at the facility's generation capability.
"It's an important part of the past, and I'm here to tell you it's going to be a crucial part of the future as well," Bush said.
The lower Snake River's four dams produce 1,100 megawatts per hour -- enough energy to continuously power the city of Seattle. They account for 4 percent of the Northwest's power generation.
Built in the 1960s and '70s, the dams provided a shipping route for wheat farmers and established Lewiston as the hub of inland shipping. The power production and irrigation pools were ancillary benefits.
But the dams created a biological barrier to migrating salmon that return to the Columbia and Snake rivers to spawn. They transformed the Snake and Columbia from swift, free-flowing rivers into wide, slow bodies of water.
When Lewis and Clark passed through the Columbia Basin in 1805, they found the water teeming with salmon.
"It must have been an unbelievable sight," Bush said.
The loss of salmon would be devastating to the Northwest, Bush said. He cast the federal government as a partner with local citizens in the effort to save salmon.
"There's no doubt in my mind you will accomplish that objective," Bush told the crowd. "There's no doubt in my mind we will help. We want to be helpers, not hinderers."
He urged citizens to volunteer their time or to make private donations.
More than $600 million will be spent this year to help the salmon population recover. Much of the money comes from ratepayers of the Bonneville Power Administration, which distributes electricity produced by the dams.
"It's a positive story," Bush said. "We have shown the world we can have a good quality of life and we can save the salmon."
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> ICE HARBOR DAM, Wash. _ President Bush defended the federal government's plan to save Pacific salmon on Friday, firmly rejecting the idea of dam breaching.
"We've got an energy problem in America," Bush said, speaking at the Ice Harbor Dam along the Snake River east of Pasco. "We don't need to be breaching any dams that produce electricity. And we won't."
Bush celebrated a rise in the Pacific salmon population, which has resulted in the largest spawning migrations in the Columbia Basin in 20 years.
That's evidence, he said, that salmon can recover without removing the dams, which provide irrigation, inland shipping corridors and power.
"We can have good, clean hydroelectric power and salmon restoration going on at the same time," Bush told a crowd of 500 invited guests.
But federal officials acknowledge the recovery has been buoyed by hundreds of thousands of hatchery-raised fish and that wild salmon still make up a small minority of the population.
Scientists also credit colder temperatures in the Pacific Ocean for bolstering the salmon's food supply. When ocean currents warm the water, they warn, the fish will need a strong, diverse population to survive.
"A few years of improved runs won't erase decades of decline," said John Kober of the National Wildlife Federation, an environmental group in Portland. "We're playing Russian roulette with our salmon population."
Bush's appearance Friday was far less contentious than his other stops in the Northwest. White House security kept several dozen protesters from the dam, but the protesters held signs along a road and chanted as Bush drove past.
The Northwest tour, designed to shore up Bush's environmental reputation, has been met by large-scale protests in Portland and Seattle.
His appearance was jolting in this remote, arid farmland in Central Washington. Snipers watched from water towers and Secret Service agents stood guard in the sagebrush.
In a folksy, 30-minute talk, he leaned an elbow against the podium and praised the crowd as "fine, down-to-earth, hard-working people." Hay bales hemmed in the podium and Bush wore a casual, gray shirt.
"We finally feel like we're being listened to," said Rick Mercer, a 59-year-old cattle rancher from the Columbia Basin. "I think he's trying to maintain a balance between the environment and the people who live here."
Bush's visit was the first to Oregon and Washington since the 2000 elections, when he lost both states by narrow margins. He appealed to moderate voters Friday, saying that successful compromises could be reached on controversial issues.
He lashed out at national environmental leaders, who have panned his policies on fisheries, forests and a host of other issues. A coalition of Northwest environmental groups gave the president an "F" for his efforts to protect salmon. They say he has implemented just one-third of the federal salmon restoration plan released in 2000, and funded only half of the projects.
Bush dismissed the most extreme environmentalists, who he said flock to urban areas like Washington, D.C., to promote Western land policies.
"There's a lot of experts on the environment back there," Bush said. "Or at least they think they are. They're constantly trying to tell people what to do -- people such as yourselves.
"They ought to come out and visit with the folks who actually protect the environment."
Virgil Lewis, a member of the Yakama Tribe, was cautious in his praise of the Bush administration's efforts to help salmon.
"It's the first step in the right direction," said Lewis, a tribal councilman and former hatchery manager. "It'd be great if someday we could rely on the wild stock. We have a long ways to go."
Some of the 11 species still hang on the verge of extinction. Last year, just 55 sockeye salmon made it past the last dam on the lower Snake River -- an improvement, scientists say, but still a dangerously low number.
Other populations, like the Oregon Coast Coho, have grown dramatically, tripling and quadrupling their numbers. Yet up to 90 percent of those fish are hatchery stock, born in buckets and raised in concrete pens.
Hundreds of scientists and environmental leaders have urged the federal government to consider breaching the dams to save the wild salmon.
Bush firmly opposed dam-breaching in the 2000 elections, and in the aftermath of the Northwest's energy crisis, the issue disappeared from the public view. But it returned this spring when a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to rethink its plan to save salmon, saying it was inadequate and violated the Endangered Species Act.
On Friday, Bush toured the dam, viewing fish ladders that help juvenile salmon move downstream and marveling at the facility's generation capability.
"It's an important part of the past, and I'm here to tell you it's going to be a crucial part of the future as well," Bush said.
The lower Snake River's four dams produce 1,100 megawatts per hour -- enough energy to continuously power the city of Seattle. They account for 4 percent of the Northwest's power generation.
Built in the 1960s and '70s, the dams provided a shipping route for wheat farmers and established Lewiston as the hub of inland shipping. The power production and irrigation pools were ancillary benefits.
But the dams created a biological barrier to migrating salmon that return to the Columbia and Snake rivers to spawn. They transformed the Snake and Columbia from swift, free-flowing rivers into wide, slow bodies of water.
When Lewis and Clark passed through the Columbia Basin in 1805, they found the water teeming with salmon.
"It must have been an unbelievable sight," Bush said.
The loss of salmon would be devastating to the Northwest, Bush said. He cast the federal government as a partner with local citizens in the effort to save salmon.
"There's no doubt in my mind you will accomplish that objective," Bush told the crowd. "There's no doubt in my mind we will help. We want to be helpers, not hinderers."
He urged citizens to volunteer their time or to make private donations.
More than $600 million will be spent this year to help the salmon population recover. Much of the money comes from ratepayers of the Bonneville Power Administration, which distributes electricity produced by the dams.
"It's a positive story," Bush said. "We have shown the world we can have a good quality of life and we can save the salmon."
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
