This ridiculous notion of restoring the salmon legacy by infusing more biomass is even more ridiculous than
the barging efforts of the Snake River steelhead and salmon on the mighty Columbia. The problem there is,
they get the smolt to the sea but in a boat - and they are not imprinted for the return trip and therefore
after nearly 20 years there are no positive results. Although anuual draw downs would guide the smolt over
the spillways (where survival is better than the turbines, this tax break and
propaganda strategy is more important for the power administrations who are the
principle proponents thereof.
Without removal or adequate circumvention of DAMS, there will never be a successful run. There is a fundamental
problem of navigation in these rivers because our forefathers did not value -or- understand the fragile nature of
these things. People want to restore the runs and get the federal funding, but are acting in denial of the
fundamental problem. As could be expected, the program fails but the money was good while it lasted... for someone.
Pathetic!
What's sad to me is that the runs have been out of sight and mind for so long no one associates any magic with the
region's lost treasure, and so it will probably remain just another issue perhaps lined with good intentions that
flared up disguised as a noble cause and died again due to political or economic issues. If we all return to our
regularly scheduled programs as if they never really existed... it makes us as unappreciative as those who built
the dams in the first place IMHO.
I hope that in our lifetimes we are honorable enough to break this circle of lethargy and get some results. As time
goes by there will be less and less who care, remember, or act. Perhaps the most valuable thing we can do in this
forum is to use our collective clout to make something happen about this.
Juro
www.bluenorthern.com