Reads it differently
Thank you, Gene Spangrude, for your April 20 letter showing the salmon decline in the upper Columbia River came before the construction of the lower Snake River projects.
I believe he is correct and his proof is valid.
Unregulated industrial fish harvests in both the Columbia and Fraser rivers came before dams. Hi-tech for their time, industrial fisheries in the U.S. and Canada sorely depleted the fish runs before a single big dam was built.
A lot of destruction came in the 19th century and the earliest large projects on the Columbia began with Bonneville and Grand Coulee in the first half of the 20th century.
However, these facts, recognized and understood by many, do not translate into a conclusion that millions of tons of concrete and steel thrust into the Snake and Columbia system is good for anadromous species.
There is a small truth, if one argued that the last blade doesn’t kill the fighting bull in the ring. The poor creature was already exhausted and bleeding before the final thrust.
The larger truth recognizes without that last wound, there may have been a chance of healing and recovery. The multitude of dams and reservoirs in the Snake-Columbia constitute the fatal blow despite the proof of previous damage. Give the fighting fish a fighting chance.
Steven R. Evans
Lapwai
Limit fishing
When you take only one side in the debate of fish vs. dams, insinuating only dams are cause of low fish returns, what kind of logic is that?
People with influence are paid as lobbyists to represent their benefactors, such as the native tribes, to continually state only their point of view regardless of how wrong they may be.
Count the recent number of fish as published by the Lewiston Tribune: 18,339 chinook passed over Bonneville Dam in a week. Only 1,594 got over McNary Dam, so the four lower Snake River dams caused a decline of 16,845 fish the week of April 21-27 up the Columbia?
Of the 1,504 fish over McNary, 521 made it past Ice Harbor and 96 past Lower Granite.
So between the four lower Columbia dams, approximately 10% of the fish make it past to move up the Snake and Columbia rivers, yet 35% of the fish over Ice Harbor make it over Lower Granite.
I understand this is the beginning of the spring chinook run, but the percentages are typical of the fish returns up the Columbia and Snake river systems.
Like a recent article said, when fishing was restricted the fish rebounded and it had nothing to do with dams.
Today the monumental numbers of predators, over-fishing of the Columbia, ocean currents and the closing of the upper Snake and Columbia by dams without fish ladders play a greater part in the dwindling numbers of fish than any of the lower Snake River dams.
Marvin Entel
Clarkston
