Andrus Speaks Out On Other Issues

Former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus spoke out on several other issues in a public television interview Wednesday.

Regarding the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s ownership of the southern third of Lake Coeur d’Alene, Andrus said the state should cooperate with Native Americans.

“I would hope that the state would not just wash its hands of the situation and be a pouting child and walk away,” Andrus said. “I think they have to work with the tribe. It’s not a question of who owns it - it’s the protection of it.”

The four-term former governor said he doubted the tribe could do any more to clean up old mining wastes in the lake than the state. And he disagrees with the recent court decision ceding ownership of a portion of the lake to the Coeur d’Alenes.

When it comes to saving endangered salmon runs, Andrus said it’s probably a lost cause.

“I’m sorry, I just have to call it the way I see it,” he said. “And going the way we’re going, you can kiss what few we have left goodbye.”

He said taking young salmon downstream on barges should end. “If they continue on with that ridiculous barging that they’ve done for 19 years, to do nothing but scar and tear apart and kill the smolts, that (extinction) is what’s going to happen.”

A new book of memoirs that he has coming out next month, titled “Cecil Andrus: Politics Western Style,” will tell the story of his political life. “I’m a lumberjack and a political accident,” he said.

The large amount of public land in Idaho will allow the state to keep its unique character, even as an increasing population brings big changes. “That’s our best buffer, that’s going to help us remain the same.”