Tribes must help restore fish

The March 29 issue of the Spokesman carried an article by Becky Kramer on the Columbia River Basin. She did a fairly good job of providing an overview of the structure of the basin’s dams and the treaties affecting their operation and fisheries.

One omission in the article was the culpability of the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission. As was quoted by Anthony White of BPA, the Columbia River Treaty “was negotiated and signed in a different era.” So were the treaties with the tribes, in the 1850s, that gave them the right to harvest salmon from the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Other than the effect of the dams, the two biggest impacts on the salmon are the tribe’s take, both legal and illegal, and the offshore fishing fleets. Both have to be addressed more vigorously. Rather than be part of the problem, the tribes need to admit that they need to renegotiate their treaties to mitigate the impact their fishing/netting has on the long-term health of the salmon. No one seems to want to touch this issue.

Todd Sudick

Priest River, Idaho