Ithaca 37
New member
"July 15 marked the end of Idaho's chinook salmon season. For many Idaho fishermen it was a good season, mainly because the main river stayed well below normal levels all spring, resulting in the best fishing conditions in several years. The Little Salmon and the East Fork produced fair runs but below what was expected.
This all sounds positive, so why did fish advocates, including Idaho Steelhead and Salmon Unlimited, become alarmed at the better-than-average season and participate in yet another fish suit? The answer to that question, as is so often the case, lies in what did not happen.
Last March it looked as if Idaho would enjoy the second largest run in recent history; 162,000 salmon were on their way home. Idaho's fishermen happily geared up and spent thousands of dollars getting ready for the near-record run.
Sounds great, right, so what's the problem here? The problem is that less than half the predicted numbers of fish made the trip while the lower Columbia below the dams experienced near-record runs.
Early in 2001, the Northwest Power Planning Council, now renamed the Northwest Power and Conservation Council announced, "Scientists have failed to establish a link between flow augmentation and salmon survival." This philosophy, from the agency responsible for Columbia and Snake river dam management, reflects directly on the decision to curtail summer spill in the entire Columbia Basin. Even though the finding flew squarely in the face of years of studies, costing millions of dollars, they stuck by it.
In spite of advice from their own scientific advisory board and in spite of hundreds of calls and letters advising against curtailing summer flows and spills, the NPPC made the thick-headed and irresponsible decision that our fish no longer needed cool water to swim in on their way to the ocean. They curtailed summer spill on the Columbia and Snake river dams during the critical summer outmigration period and grossly understated the numbers of fish they would affect.
They justified this by saying they were helping BPA keep power prices down. The truth is BPA was suffering from high-priced contracts made during the manufactured California power shortage and needed help to make up their losses. The council killed thousands of smolt to increase BPA's power supply output by 0.05 percent, and they did not save you and I one "dam" dime on our power bill.
The 2001 outmigration of smolts was slaughtered in the turbines of the Snake and Columbia river dams and cooked in the overheated pools behind them. Our salmon became trash fish and sturgeon food.
If our elected officials who supported the action were misled by poor judgment and misused science, then we should expect changes to be made and Idahoan Judi Danielson, who chairs the NPCC, should immediately tender her resignation. ISSU believes it's way past time for our elected officials to start representing Idaho fish and Idaho fishermen and women. What we do not understand is why we have to continually resort to the courts to protect them. Every Idaho legislator who supported the curtailment needs to climb down from his partisan fence and join our efforts to save our fish. It's time Idaho's governor, Dirk Kempthorne, joined Oregon's governor to fight for our wild fish runs. So far that is not happening, and if not for the courts, spill curtailment and more fish slaughter was scheduled. Idaho's wild fish need help before it's too late. Our magnificent salmon may not survive another 50 percent killoff. Tell your legislator extinction of these unique survivors is not an option."
R.L. Nick Nicholson is president of Idaho Steelhead and Salmon Unlimited.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040820/NEWS0503/408200342/1052/NEWS05
This all sounds positive, so why did fish advocates, including Idaho Steelhead and Salmon Unlimited, become alarmed at the better-than-average season and participate in yet another fish suit? The answer to that question, as is so often the case, lies in what did not happen.
Last March it looked as if Idaho would enjoy the second largest run in recent history; 162,000 salmon were on their way home. Idaho's fishermen happily geared up and spent thousands of dollars getting ready for the near-record run.
Sounds great, right, so what's the problem here? The problem is that less than half the predicted numbers of fish made the trip while the lower Columbia below the dams experienced near-record runs.
Early in 2001, the Northwest Power Planning Council, now renamed the Northwest Power and Conservation Council announced, "Scientists have failed to establish a link between flow augmentation and salmon survival." This philosophy, from the agency responsible for Columbia and Snake river dam management, reflects directly on the decision to curtail summer spill in the entire Columbia Basin. Even though the finding flew squarely in the face of years of studies, costing millions of dollars, they stuck by it.
In spite of advice from their own scientific advisory board and in spite of hundreds of calls and letters advising against curtailing summer flows and spills, the NPPC made the thick-headed and irresponsible decision that our fish no longer needed cool water to swim in on their way to the ocean. They curtailed summer spill on the Columbia and Snake river dams during the critical summer outmigration period and grossly understated the numbers of fish they would affect.
They justified this by saying they were helping BPA keep power prices down. The truth is BPA was suffering from high-priced contracts made during the manufactured California power shortage and needed help to make up their losses. The council killed thousands of smolt to increase BPA's power supply output by 0.05 percent, and they did not save you and I one "dam" dime on our power bill.
The 2001 outmigration of smolts was slaughtered in the turbines of the Snake and Columbia river dams and cooked in the overheated pools behind them. Our salmon became trash fish and sturgeon food.
If our elected officials who supported the action were misled by poor judgment and misused science, then we should expect changes to be made and Idahoan Judi Danielson, who chairs the NPCC, should immediately tender her resignation. ISSU believes it's way past time for our elected officials to start representing Idaho fish and Idaho fishermen and women. What we do not understand is why we have to continually resort to the courts to protect them. Every Idaho legislator who supported the curtailment needs to climb down from his partisan fence and join our efforts to save our fish. It's time Idaho's governor, Dirk Kempthorne, joined Oregon's governor to fight for our wild fish runs. So far that is not happening, and if not for the courts, spill curtailment and more fish slaughter was scheduled. Idaho's wild fish need help before it's too late. Our magnificent salmon may not survive another 50 percent killoff. Tell your legislator extinction of these unique survivors is not an option."
R.L. Nick Nicholson is president of Idaho Steelhead and Salmon Unlimited.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040820/NEWS0503/408200342/1052/NEWS05
