With literally billions of our tax dollars being spent to recover salmon in the Columbia River basin — and populations continuing their downward spiral (Coho are essentially extinct in the system) – you have to wonder how long this will continue before the Snake River dams come down.
So does CBS News, who ran a solid (if uncreatively titled) 60 Minutes segment on the subject: “Fish Fuss Over Salmon.”
In the thirteen minute segment, they focus on the Snake River dams, and sadly, the reporter focuses on the cute and odd, missing the larger picture.
The voice of sanity is biologist Ed Cheney, who points out that our billions of tax dollars are largely being used not to recover salmon, but do everything but — propping up subsidized energy, cheap transporation, irrigation, etc.
In short, these aren’t “save the salmon” projects, they’re “save the dam” projects. The difference is crucial.
See you on my way to Montana, Tom Chandler.
Technorati Tags: snake river dams, snake river salmon, salmon recovery, stupid things that never end
I don’t have speakers on my computer here at work; I’m glad. I stopped watching. The scenes were depressing. Let’s see…we’re paying billions to help fish do what fish have been doing for millenia without any help from us? Trucking salmon? Barging salmon? What an insult to a majestic creature; what incredible arrogance on our part.
Let’s try to figure out an alternative. Let’s figure out how to take the damn dams down.
I grew up on the banks of the Ohio. Wonder what that river looked like 300 years ago.
Kentucky Jim(Quote)
You were spared the infamy of watching the Army Corp of engineers “biologist” remark that it was “a good system.”
Apparently he doesn’t count so good.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Tom…may I point out an inaccurate assumption in your statement…you stated, something about an Army Corp of engineers “biologist” apparently dosen’t count so good.
He works for the Federal government,he counts very well for them, 1+1 is three …see the program is working now let us figure out another way to screw the public.
Monty Montana
samistopdog(Quote)
“Fish Fuss†Focuses on Fallacies
The 60 Minutes story (aired June 22) does a tremendous disservice to residents of the Pacific Northwest and the nation by continuing to perpetuate misinformation about the status of salmon recovery for the sake of generating controversy. CBS took the easy way out by choosing to sacrifice fact-checking in favor of allegations and argument, a choice that emphasizes manipulating dispute instead of encouraging dialogue.
The original CBS broadcast eight years ago contained inaccuracies and allegations that were not addressed in the second airing. More important, the story is plainly out of date given the significant progress in salmon recovery made in the interim. Citizens and elected officials alike deserve accurate and credible information about the tremendous improvements that have put Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead on a trend to recovery. Here’s the story not told:
West Coast runs are not Columbia River runs. The 60 Minutes lead-in suggested that the West Coast fishing shutdown somehow included Columbia River salmon; it does not. Unlike California stocks, runs of spring Chinook salmon returning to the Columbia are strong this year and we have successful commercial, sport and tribal fishing all the way into Idaho.
Stronger basin fish runs. Fish runs are rebounding in the Columbia River Basin. The most recent ten-year average count of fish at Bonneville Dam in the Columbia River (1998 to 2007) shows a 20 percent increase over the “one million salmon†reported by 60 Minutes in 2000. That’s an upward trend of 200,000 fish. Sockeye salmon are showing a very strong run in the Columbia River this year; currently, the numbers are higher than at any time since 1955. These figures are critical because they illustrate that Columbia River runs are performing at a time when California stocks are severely depleted.
Dam breaching effects. Any potential benefits from breaching the lower Snake River dams would affect only 4 of the now 13 listed stocks in the Columbia River Basin. Breaching by itself would not necessarily recover even those 4 listed stocks, but it would have substantial economic and environmental effects. The Lower Snake dams produce no carbon emissions and provide enough electricity to power a city about the size of Seattle. Replacing the lost power, according to a 2007 Bonneville Power Administration study, would cost $400 million to $550 million every year. The most likely replacement sources of energy, according to a separate 2007 climate impact study by the Northwest Power & Conservation Council, would contribute 3.6 million tons of additional CO2 to the atmosphere annually—well more than the equivalent of a half a million cars on the road every year.
Improved fish passage. There have been huge changes in the hydro-system to benefit fish. Snake River Spring Chinook juvenile salmon in-river survival today is nearly three times higher than it was in the mid-to-late 1970s. Today, few fish pass through the turbines; rather the vast majority of juvenile fish passing the dams are sent over spillways and most of those that do not pass through spill use systems that bypass the turbines. Additionally, the adult salmon migration rate and travel times through the river system are similar to levels before the Snake River dams were completed.
Regional support. Recovery of listed fish species throughout the basin depends on a broad-based cooperative approach by federal, state, tribal, and other regional interests that consider all phases of the salmon life-cycle. In fact, earlier this spring, the federal agencies, a number of tribes and two Northwest states working on salmon recovery signed unprecedented 10-year agreements that will include many new actions and funding certainty for fish recovery in the region. In contrast to eight years ago, the Northwest can be proud of these multi-year, multi-party accords that put the focus on recovery strategies, not the courtroom. Our mutually agreed strategy is based on collaboration, good science, and good sense. It acknowledges that sustainable changes must be comprehensive with basin-wide improvements to habitat, hatcheries and harvest.
Impact of climate change. In the intervening eight years since the story first ran, scientists and citizens alike are increasingly aware and concerned about the effects of climate change on everything from ocean temperature and food supply to the consequences of fossil fuel pollution and habitat degradation.
Salmon recovery costs. While 60 Minutes labels the expenditures for salmon recovery actions as “government waste,†the indisputable fact is that 80 percent of the costs to rebuild salmon runs and improve fish passage past the dams are borne by the ratepayers of the Northwest, not the taxpayers. Costs for fish research, dam modifications, and habitat and hatchery improvements come from residential, commercial and industrial users of electricity generated by regional hydropower dams.
The people of the Northwest have worked in good faith with one another for many years to rebuild salmon populations throughout the region. I’d like to think that even prime-time shows, like 60 Minutes, might respect those efforts by building a news story, even a secondhand one, on verifiable information, not inflammatory assertions.
/s/
Witt Anderson
Programs Director
Northwestern Division
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Nola Leyde(Quote)
Nola: I’m on my way out the door so don’t have time to challenge what are clearly some misrepresentations in Mr. Anderson’s press release.
Yes, the 60 Minutes piece was shallow and lacking in understanding, but Mr. Anderson’s assertions — that life is good, and everybody’s working together for the good of salmon — is utter rubbish.
Yes, things are so good that a Federal judge has sent three recovery plans back to those who wrote them (who at one point suggested they only needed a recovery plan, not a workable recovery plan).
Legal-borne attempts to count hatchery salmon the same as wild stocks is further illustration of the bankruptcy of the salmon recovery process; you can’t recover wild salmon, so we’ll play with the numbers to make the problem go away.
In fact, hatcheries have been proven to be poor mitigation for the destruction of wild salmon stocks, and there’s plenty of evidence that they actually reduce the vigor of wild stocks.
Despite this, Mr. Anderson mentions hatchery fish several times.
Rubber salmon aren’t wild salmon. Please stop pretending they are.
In fact, statistics suggesting recovery on the part of the salmon display a certain shrewdness with the truth; it’s not true, and for every assertion Mr. Anderson makes, I can dig up several to refute them.
As for the tribes signing off on a collaborative agreement for salmon recovery, gosh, why wouldn’t we be proud; they recognized that the four lower Snake dams weren’t going to come out (at least not under the current administration), so they took the payoff in the hopes they could do some good.
It is not — as Mr. Anderson suggests — a proud moment for salmon in the Northwest.
I’m out the door on a fishing trip, and probably won’t be in touch for a couple days.
Hopefully, someone will shine a little more light on Mr. Anderson’s press release, which is eerily indicative of salmon recovery efforts so far.
The public wants healthy stocks of salmon, and the federal response has been “what problem?”
Tom Chandler(Quote)
One more thing. No. Two more things.
First, suggesting that removing the four lower Snake dams would only help four of the 13 endangered species — and is therefore not worth the trouble — highlights the kind of thinking that’s brought us to this precarious place.
Also:
The reason anything’s happening at all is largely because of lawsuits brought individuals concerned about vanishing salmon. The Corp of Engineers would have happily sent the salmon to extinction for a little power if they hadn’t been forced to confront the issue.
Claiming credit for the current era of “collaboration” (and it’s not) is somehow irritating, if not an outright fabrication.
The Corp played a hand in putting those 13 salmon runs on the endangered list (and in extincinting the Coho in that basin), and to claim any “goodwill” credit strains credulity, if not good taste.
Tom Chandler(Quote)