Federal Agency Seeks Four-Front Reform

Adam West and his sidekick, an inflatable salmon who’s been touring our region lately, claim “wild” salmon will be saved if the government breaches four dams on the lower Snake River.

West? He starred as “Batman” on TV, years ago. One of the groups campaigning for removal of our region’s dams summoned him from his bat cave last month, to star in a press release about a list of Hollywood types who are lining up to smooch fish.

This says something about the state of American politics. Why study the continually unfolding research regarding the biology and economics of salmon restoration? Sound bites and publicity stunts are the way of our world. And if that fails, there’s always litigation, which confuses polarization and paperwork with progress.

Today, federal agencies that aim to strengthen salmon runs will hold a public hearing in Spokane. Sparks will fly. On one side, backto-nature groups demand the dismantling of our economic infrastructure. On the other, various economic interests fight for survival, too often by asking that sacrifices be made by the other guy.

To their credit, the federal agencies are seeking a reasonable route through these rapids. Their research acknowledges what activists don’t: That the salmon’s decline began long before the dams and results from multiple adversities. Overfishing and the primitive practices of early farming and logging decimated runs. Dams also had an effect, particularly Grand Coulee and Hells Canyon, which blocked off vast spawning areas. Hatcheries, built to replace lost runs or supplement damaged ones, succeeded so well that the line between “wild” and hatchery fish is blurred and the weakened ecosystem carries more fish than it can support.

Recent research, such as a study rejecting calls to breach John Day Dam, offers a reminder that dams create important benefits: flood control, nonpolluting energy, barge transportation, recreation and a number of fish and wildlife enhancements that were put in place to make up for reduced salmon runs.

The National Marine Fisheries Service urges that we not oversimplify - for example, by focusing only on four dams on the lower Snake. In fact, salmon now pass the dams with such a high survival rate that the case for breaching is severely undermined.

NMFS is calling for continual reform on four fronts: habitat, harvest, hatcheries and hydropower. It points to long-overlooked habitat concerns such as the polluted, predator-infested estuary at the Columbia’s mouth. In December it proposed regulations to protect salmon but said it wants local agencies to craft the details.

Openness to local solutions might build goodwill. Oddly, though, NMFS hasn’t called Eastern-Washington hearings on its new rules. And, still to be addressed is this crucial issue: Who will pay private private property owners to make costly changes on their land? Mandates provoke resistance, whereas incentives and assistance can lead to real, on-the-ground progress for salmon.

It’s time our region gets beyond Batman and his inflatable friend. Good policy depends on openness to those affected and a grounding in credible research. To read some, explore the following governmental web sites: www.nwppc.org, www.nwr.noaa.gov and www.nwp.usace.army.mil