Salmon are not OK
As reported in the June 17 Lewiston Tribune, “Columbia Grain and the farmers it serves rely on slack water to help transport food to families around the world, (Columbia Grain President and CEO Jeff) Van Pevenage said.”
But according to Idaho Rivers United (www.idahorivers.org): “Over the past 20 years, even grain volume has declined by more than 40 percent, and in 2017 container-on-barge shipping completed its 15-year decline to zero.”
Barging also is significantly less efficient than grain traveling by truck. So the slack water might be easier for the farmers to use, but grain isn’t getting food in families’ homes from barging.
“It’s not necessarily the dams that are causing problems,” Van Pevenage said. “It’s nature. It’s the ocean. It’s the weather. Things ebb and flow over time. It looks to me (like) the trend is really the salmon are OK.”
The dams are the problem. The Snake and Columbia rivers have 34 dams in total. Alaska on the other hand has some dams but the rivers there have predators, erosion, global warming, etc.
Alaska has tons of salmon throughout the state. The sockeye salmon on the other hand are critically endangered in the Northwest.
More than 1,000 sockeye salmon making it to Redfish Lake would be an amazing year for sockeye salmon. ...
The salmon are clearly not OK.
I call on readers to support Congressman Mike Simpson’s proposal and ask your state legislators to support the proposal to save Northwestern salmon.
Conor McCall
Boise
This is promotion ?
Area economic development should be about building up the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley to create, retain and grow businesses so everyone has a chance at economic opportunity.
That’s not the tone of recent statements from the Southeast Washington Economic Development Association. At a June 10 Port of Clarkston meeting, and at other public meetings this year, SWEDA Director Dawn Smith has referred to the port neighborhood where tourists get off cruise boats as, among other things, a “slummy area” with a “terrible feel.”
If Smith is so disparaging to the territory she’s supposed to promote during a public meeting, can you imagine what might be said privately to a company interested in relocating here? We may never know. Any corporation doing due diligence can Google the organization, see its director’s comments and cross the valley off its list before even reaching out to a community representative.
I repeatedly fielded questions about economic growth as a candidate for public office last year: Why hasn’t industry A or retailer B set up shop in the community? Many factors go into why some development may be slow, but negative attitudes from those who can do something about the situation certainly don’t help get us where we need to be.
Perhaps the organization could better use its funding and staff time, partially allocated through Asotin County’s commissioners, promoting healthy economic growth and livability for the entire region as opposed to bad-mouthing a neighborhood with residents and business owners.
Brad Gary
Clarkston
Biden goes after guns
Last week, President Joe Biden laid out his gun control plans to the nation in a 20-minute speech and the gibberish was paramount in his inability to even read the prepared speech written for him by gun-grabbers international.
For instance, he said, “We’re here to control the control of the gun thing and purchase violence you know you need the always been.”
On two occasions, he said, “Hunters don’t need semi-autos that shoot 100 bullets and deer don’t need Kevlar vests and if you want to challenge his government, you will need F-15s and nuclear weapons.”
As for more background checks, he should start with his son, Hunter. He lied on Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Form 4473 when he purchased a gun.
The form asks: Are you an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance?
Videos and photos are proof that he is a crackhead.
Lying on the form is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison in addition to fines, even if the transaction is denied by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Then his girlfriend/sister in law takes the gun and throws it in a dumpster. So take care of your own house, Joe, and leave legal, responsible gun owners alone.
Jimmy Carter must feel some relief that he is no longer at the bottom.
John Webb
Reubens
