Sportsmen Demand To See Salmon Plan Groups Reiterate Support Of Power Council Drawdown
Idaho sportsmen turned over 1,000 letters on Monday demanding Gov. Phil Batt disclose his plan for restoring the state’s steelhead runs.
But as Idaho Steelhead and Salmon Unlimited presented the letter’s to Batt administration officials, Northwest Power Planning Council member Mike Fields reiterated the administration’s commitment to find a balanced plan that restores the runs without destroying Idaho’s economy.
Sportsmen’s spokesman Mitch Sanchotena reiterated the group’s support for the power council plan to implement drawdowns at the downstream dams - a plan that has fallen into disfavor since Batt and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber came on the scene after last fall’s election.
But Sanchotena also repeated the call for major modifications of the downstream dams and asserted his organization’s agreement with Batt that restoration of both steelhead and salmon runs cannot demand major contributions of Idaho water.
“We are not the problem and we should not be the solution,” he said. “The same eight dams that are killing our salmon are killing our steelhead. The dams need to be fixed.”
Field, who was present for the sportsmen’s event at the state Capitol, said the administration is working with all interest groups to come up with a recovery plan that is founded on scientific information and does not require all of Idaho’s water. But he conceded that there was no way a plan could be fashioned to meet the demands of every interest group.
A tentative consensus, Field said, has been reached on focusing recovery efforts on the spring-summer chinook salmon runs over the fall run - both of which are endangered - because any scheme to rebuild them would also benefit the steelhead and the endangered Snake River sockeye.
Sanchotena said the letters were intended to reinforce to the governor the economic importance of the steelhead fishery to small communities like Riggins, where officials estimate steelheaders spend nearly $2 million a year.