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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rivers are hearts of our environment

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review

The cost of “progress” since Lewis and Clark explored the West is staggering and worth revisiting with each decision involving public lands and natural resources.

Idaho’s Silver Valley is just one of many hits on the list of America’s environmental disasters. The millions of dollars in minerals that came out of the earth for past generations don’t necessarily add up to fiscal glee for the current generations of U.S. taxpayers footing the estimated $1.4 billion Superfund bill to clean up the toxic waste.

And none of the government figures account for the great cutthroat trout fishing that was lost to the mining and clearcutting.

Wednesday evening at River Park Square, Oregon author Paul Vandevelder brought some timely perspective to our nation’s unenlightened use of natural resources with a talk entitled, “What Happens to Cultures when Rivers Die?”

“When you look at rivers as the continent’s cardiovascular system, it’s no surprise that you’re going to cause problems by fouling them, blocking them off and stopping the natural flow,” he said in a telephone interview before he arrived in Spokane.

He cited the Missouri, which doesn’t even resemble a river for much of its length.

“Midwest communities up and down the river were promised irrigation, municipal water supplies and all sorts of benefits from the dam and diversion projects back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and they’re still waiting,” he said. “Some municipal water intakes are 40 feet above the lake level. They’re having to drill more wells for water, and meanwhile the 400-year dams are looking like they’ll only last 80 years and nobody knows what they’re going to do with all toxin-laced sediment building up behind them.”

He eventually related the topic to the Snake and Columbia Rivers, but by then my mind had drifted to the sobering thought of what life would be like in Spokane if 50-pound king salmon still showed up by the tens of thousands each autumn at Spokane Falls.

Idaho waterfowling: Working within federal guidelines, the Idaho Fish and Game Department is proposing some notable changes for the 2005-2006 duck and goose hunting seasons, such as:

•Increasing the daily duck bag limit from five to seven.

•Increasing the daily goose limit from three to four.

•Extending the Spokane River waterfowl hunting closure downstream to the Washington state line.

For more information and an opportunity to comment on the proposals, Fish and Game is holding an open house tonight, starting at 7 p.m. at the Panhandle Region office, 2750 Kathleen Ave. in Coeur d’Alene.

A 105-day general season is proposed for geese and ducks (except canvasbacks) running from Oct. 1-Jan. 13, preceded by a weekend youth hunt Sept. 24-25 for hunters 15 and under. A special 60-day canvasback season would run Oct. 1-Nov. 29.

The seven-duck daily bag could contain no more than one canvasback, two female mallards (up from one last season), one pintail, two redheads or three scaup (down from four last year).

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission will meet in Boise Aug. 29 to consider public input and set the waterfowl seasons.

The Commission will also deal with a land exchange at Craig Mountain and hear reports on Hells Canyon relicensing, landowner appreciation tags, bonus points in controlled hunts, wolves and legislative proposals, among other topics.

Washington’s waterfowl hunts have already been set. Duck season will run Oct. 15-19 and Oct. 22-Jan. 29. Pintails, which have increased in numbers, are included in that full 107-day season this year. In recent years, pintail hunting has been restricted to shorter seasons.

Canvasbacks, however, can be hunted only from Dec. 1 to Jan. 29 this season because of population declines. Scaup also are showing a decline and their daily limit has been reduced to three.

Eastern Washington goose hunts start with an early season Sept. 10-11, followed by the youth hunt Sept. 17-18. The general season will run Oct. 15-Jan. 29. Check the regulations for details.

Salmon runs: Biologists are understandably nervous about their prediction that the Columbia River will be graced with the fourth largest run of fall chinook since 1964.

The expected run of 354,600 upriver brights headed toward the Hanford Reach and other upstream destinations has been crossing Bonneville Dam at about half the rate of last year, when 363,500 adult upriver brights were counted at the dam.

And no one has yet forgotten that the expected spring chinook runs didn’t materialize and that the sockeye runs along the Pacific Coast have been dismal.

But fish managers point out that the fall chinook are notorious for holding off and piling into the Columbia in a heap.

This week’s cooler weather could trigger the run. Last week the Columbia River water temperatures hit a salmon-repelling 72 degrees, the warmest measured since 1998. The ocean fishing at Westport also has picked up this week.

Forest planning: A public update on management plan revisions for the Idaho Panhandle and Kootenai National Forests will be held tonight, starting at 7 p.m. at the Forest Supervisor’s office, 3815 Schreiber Way in Coeur d’Alene.