Delegates Downplay Fish Plight Council Members Say Problem Exaggerated; Study Needed

Idaho’s delegates to the Northwest Power Planning Council say the plight of steelhead has been exaggerated, and more study is needed before attempting to help the fish.

Delegates Mike Field and Todd Maddock say that higher numbers of hatchery-bred fish are returning, and it’s wrong to blame hydroelectric dams for the dwindling runs of Idaho salmon.

“Some insist that the eight dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers are to blame for the poor salmon and steelhead runs,” Field and Maddock wrote in a letter to The Times-News Monday. “They argue that studies are a waste of time: breach some or all of those dams, they maintain, and all will be well.”

Breaching dams is an unproven idea that requires more analysis, Field and Maddock said. They didn’t address other, less-drastic measures such as “spill,” which routes fish and water around hydroelectric turbines during spring migrations, or “drawdown,” which lowers reservoirs to speed juvenile fish on their migrations to the sea.

Power council members toured area commercial fish hatcheries Tuesday before opening a regular meeting on Wednesday.

Mitch Sanchotena of Idaho Steelhead and Salmon United said Field and Maddock have been counting the wrong kind of fish during this year’s steelhead homecoming.

“Wild steelhead, which are the backbone of all runs in the Columbia River system, are still perilously low, and hatchery fish are just a stopgap measure to provide a continued supply for Idahoans to fish on,” he said.

Sanchotena agreed steelhead numbers are up this year, “but the true plight of steelhead is being masked by the large hatchery programs. We’re not seeing an increase in the wild fish.”

Field and Maddock said the higher steelhead return of 1995 is good news that deserves as much publicity as earlier, bleaker predictions. “This year’s healthier steelhead returns do not mean the end of the problem, but they do emphasize the point that we don’t know nearly as much as we need to if we’re to save Idaho’s anadromous fisheries,” they said.