Federal salmon money watering golf course

SALMON, Idaho – At first glance, spending $400,000 of federal salmon recovery money to buy an automatic sprinkler system for a golf course appears to be a shot out of bounds.

But salmon recovery experts say the plan to irrigate the Salmon Valley Golf Course from three new wells rather than from the Lemhi River in central Idaho will benefit salmon.

“The (water) this project keeps in the Lemhi River is significant,” said Russell Knight, coordinator for the Upper Salmon Basin Watershed Project.

“For a rancher in this area to put that much water back, they would have to dry up about 175 acres.”

Biologists consider the Lemhi River critical for the recovery of chinook salmon, listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Concerns about the appearance of the deal led the federal Bonneville Power Administration to initially object.

“Here’s the ‘60 Minutes’ headline: ‘BPA buys sprinkler for golf course,’ ” Bill Maslen, BPA Fish and Wildlife director, said at an early meeting to discuss the plan.

The BPA provides electricity in the Pacific Northwest but is required to pay to help bolster salmon runs that were hurt by hydroelectric projects.

Maslen later, in a letter to the Lemhi Soil and Water Conservation District, called the agreement a “win-win for the parties involved and the fishery resource.”

In the letter, he also committed $199,404 to the project.

Salmon Mayor Stan Davis doesn’t play golf but wants to see chinook numbers increase in the river.

“I believe this project is for the good of the fish from here all the way to the ocean,” he said.