Salmon News Along The Columbia
Northwest Tribes Reach Historic Agreement
By Joseph Friedrichs, 4-07-08
An effort to save salmon in the Columbia River Basin reached a historic agreement as four tribes and the government found common ground.
According to Oregonlive.com, federal officials will announce that they have agreed to pay up to $1 billion for habitat improvements on the Columbia River and its tributaries, in exchange for Northwest tribes backing off a major lawsuit and supporting dam operations for at least a decade.
The agreement will, at least temporarily, slow down a long-running feud between dam operators and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, a technical support and coordinating agency for three of the tribes in the agreeement.
However, because the agreement fails to meet many of the Commission’s previous demands, most specifically boosting water spills over dams for fish and the removal of Snake River dams, this is likely only another chapter in a fight dating back to the 1970s.
Last month, Olney Patt Jr., the group’s executive director, told me the Commission, was formed during “a time of turmoil for the environment and the tribes,” when utilities built numerous dams and reckless irrigation practices formed.
It’s a tough call to say who came out ahead on today’s agreement. On the one hand, dam operators have at least a decade to keep working, with the added bonus of not having the Commission publicly criticizing them.
Then again, the Commission and their supporters now have a serious amount of money to put toward their accomplishing their goal, which is, after all, to protect Northwest salmon.
Editor’s note: The original posting of this article referred to the agreement as “silenced with a paycheck.” This was an inaccurate statement.
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Comments
The salmon answer has to be technology based. To rid ourselves of that clean hydro power, with no upcoming nuclear or natural gas to replace it, will mean we go to our abundant coal resources to keep the air conditioning on in the arid, hot New West. And, if you have any idea of how to control ocean conditions, lots of fish biologists are interested, as that is the reason for very low runs last year, this year, and in the next two or three years. The catastrophe was in the ocean, not on the River.