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Part 2: How to get the Lower Snake River Dams Breached

JoseCuervo

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As a follow up to the previous thread on "How to get the Lower Snake River Dams Breached", here is the initial reaction from the "Upstream Interests" who have been awoken, and realize that it will either be their Ox that is gored, or they will have to sacrafice their downstream brethern on the Palouse, who continue to get subsidized barging of their commodity grain at the expense of Wild Salmon and Steelhead in Idaho.

Again, pure genius by IRU, ICL, and the other groups to pit the "Upstreamers" vs. the fish killing industry/dams of the Lower Snake River. In Idaho, our Potatoes in Southern Idaho are sacred, so we will gladly remove the dams to keep our potatoes and other use of the Upstream water at any cost to the commodity growers on the Palouse in northern Idaho.


<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Farmers, salmon advocates duel
Irrigators say release of reservoir water could dry up crops

Rocky Barker
The Idaho Statesman

Idaho farm and irrigation groups are warning salmon advocates to drop the threat of a lawsuit they say could devastate Idaho´s economy.
The Coalition for Idaho Water said environmental groups should withdraw a 60-day notice to sue filed a week ago against federal dam operators on the Snake River in Idaho and Wyoming for violating the Endangered Species Act.

If the environmental groups sue and win, the federal agencies could be forced to release water from storage reservoirs such as Lucky Peak to help salmon, said the coalition, which represents irrigation agriculture groups like the Idaho Potato Growers.

That could dry up hundreds of thousands of acres of cropland, reduce supplies for urban residents and industry, hurt water quality and even threaten flows for boaters and other recreationists, said Norm Semanko, Idaho Water Users Association executive director.

“These environmental groups are attempting to manipulate the legal system and use the Endangered Species Act to destroy Idaho´s economy,” said Frank Priestly, Idaho Farm Bureau president.

“Certainly, that´s not our intent,” said Bill Sedivy, executive director of Idaho Rivers United, one of the groups that threatened to sue. “Our intent is to get salmon the water they need in 2004.”

Sedivy urged the farm groups to use their influence to force federal officials to come to the table and resolve the legal issues.

Semanko, noting that a legal victory could hurt many river businesses like rafters and kayak companies, said Sedivy and environmentalists should reconsider the overall effects of emptying reservoirs for salmon.

“If they really don´t want our water, they should withdraw the 60-day notice,” Semanko said.

At issue is 427,000 acre-feet of water, enough to keep Shoshone Falls flowing for two days at high flows, which Idaho has committed to flush down the Snake River from the storage reservoirs to aid salmon migration. The Bureau of Reclamation was able to lease enough water to meet that target in all but one year during the 1990s. In the drought conditions since 2000, it has been unable to lease enough water to meet its goal.

To provide 427,000 acre-feet in drought years, irrigation groups estimate 425,000 acres of Idaho land would have to be dried up at an annual loss of $49 million to the state´s economy.

Justin Hayes of the Idaho Conservation League, one of the groups that filed the notice, said the farm groups´ concerns are justified because the federal government is operating the dams illegally and environmentalists have a good chance of winning on the merits of the case.

“The status quo is harming the salmon and the families who depend on the fish,” said Hayes, ICL program director.

Specifically, the salmon advocates say Reclamation´s biological opinion, a document that explains how the agency protects endangered salmon, is out of date and inadequate. They threatened to sue Reclamation and National Marine Fisheries Service.

The biological opinion, last completed in 2001, was to have been in place for only one year. It was extended without major new analysis, Hayes said.

Reclamation already plans to consult with the fisheries service to rewrite it in 2005, said Bill McDonald, the agency´s Northwest Region director in Boise. He said his agency is working on a response to the notice of intent.

“We´re not just going to let the 60-day notice lay on the shelf,” McDonald said. “Multiple parties need to scratch their heads to see if they can come to a solution within the law.”

Idaho Water Coalition members include the Idaho Dairymen´s Association, J.R. Simplot Co.,., the Committee of Nine, the Idaho Food Processors Association, the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, the Idaho Aquaculture Association, the Potato Growers of Idaho, the Idaho Cattle Association, the Idaho Grain Producers, the Idaho Water Users Association and other groups.

The environmental groups who filed the notice include American Rivers, the ICL, Idaho Rivers and the National Wildlife Federation.

Ultimately, Semanko said environmentalists are blackmailing Idaho farmers to get them to support breaching four federal dams on the Snake River in Washington.

Sedivy said it´s not blackmail. But for Idaho there is a clear choice.

“The scientists are telling us flow augmentation is one of the things we can do if we are not going to remove the Snake River dams,” he said. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Full Text of Article in Statesman
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"“The scientists are telling us flow augmentation is one of the things we can do if we are not going to remove the Snake River dams,” he said."

Not just the scientists. The politicians are telling us there are other ways to save the salmon besides breaching the dams. The best alternative besides breaching is to increase the flows, and now they don't want to do that. The choices are getting fewer and less promising. The next choice is to increase water quality by restricting grazing and logging.

It's time to stop stalling and choose what we're going to do to save the salmon!
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What if increasing flows meant more logging? It is possible to increase the flows of certain streams by as much as 6" through logging.
 
Timber sales have been stopped by lawsuits claiming the cumulative effects of many logging operations have caused increased peak flows and floods. I don't think it would be a good idea to try to increase flows by logging. Sooner or later it would lead to disastrous floods. That's one of the problems with clearcuts. They cause the snow to melt earlier and faster. Peak flows come earlier in the spring and the streams dry up earlier in the summer, or at least have less water in them and it heats up and the fish die. More trees = more gradual snow melt and more cold water all summer long.
 
More trees doesn't mean more total water. The trees have to use some! I do agree though that well vegetated slopes allow for a better rate of water yeild to the streams. Lack of vegetation causing flooding was why watershed science was 'invented' in Utah along the Wasatch Front somewhere around 1904.
 
It doesn't always pertain to the speed of snow melt. One mature pine tree can take in and transpire 40 gallons of water a day. Nature has a way with making her own clear cuts, known as fire, wind throw, and bug infestation. I like the idea of logging, but don't like the invasive plants that come in afterwards. You can see the canada thistle stands go up all the skidder trails. It's near imposible to make everyone happy...
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> It's near imposible to make everyone happy... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Oh so true. Hopefully with more co-operative planning we can get closer to making more happy. I do feel that getting those interested, ALL of them, to the table for the planning is the best way to start.
 
I agree, and feel that way, but do all? Nope, as is expressed here all too often. Natural resource managers are often damned if they do and damned if they don't and even more so if they do nothing.
 
In my simple view of the world, Natural Resource Managers need to manage the resource for the benefit of the resource, not the consumers of the resource. Biologists should be caring about fish, not the economic impacts of dam breaching to farmers on the Palouse in Idaho.

IDF&G's biologists concurred with the breaching, and then the Governor told them not to issue their opinions, as it was not his. (I am sure Ithica knows the details of how it went down).

Range managers should only be concerned with improving the quality of the range, and not worried about renewing permits to Welfare Ranchers.

I think we would all be happy in My Happy World, with Salmon in the Rivers, and Elk in the Meadows....
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And I was getting to think that I'm the one of the only Idealists around here!
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Removing the human part of the equation is impossible for a variety of reasons. The biggest being money. One must have the support of the society, which is easy if the resource is providing something for them. Possibly a weak analogy, but look at the African countries where there are problems with animals going extinct. For the most part they are countries that do not allow sport hunting, thus the animals are only worth their flesh and hide. This results in indiscriminate killing of them. However, neighboring countries may healthy populations because the worth of the animals to society is more than their flesh and hide. In most cases they still get the fleshe, but ancillary benefits such as a job and cash.

In relation, look at what many ranchers used to do to ungulates that would raid their hayfields. It was cheaper to shoot them than build a bigger, better fence. But, now that a large bull can fetch many times what a steer can, they are caring more for and managing for the benefit of wildlife.

Humans are not, IMO, mere stewards but part of the system, thus we must take ourselves and others into account when managing a natural resource.
 

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