Refutes Dugger
Marvin Dugger, an advocate for barge transport of salmon and steelhead, produced a commentary supporting barging as the answer for fish management. ...
He asked: “Where did the early harvest rates of 64 percent for salmon and 54 percent for steelhead below Bonneville Dam go?” They are the addition of all catches inventoried annually in zones 1-5 downstream from Bonneville Dam by Oregon and Washington fish agencies in 1938-1993, plus annual fish passage at Bonneville Dam. The resulting statistic was termed “minimum run. ...”
“Harvest rate” results from annual catch divided by minimum run.
Dugger concluded smolt-to-adult comparisons between the John Day, Yakima, and Snake rivers are “unfair” because SAR declines as fish migrate farther upstream. ...
Peer-reviewed and published reports found salmon smolt survival between White Bird smolt trap and Ice Harbor Dam (before Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams were in place) equaled 89 percent. Present survivals over the same reach now average about 60 percent.
Dugger did not choose to discuss the effects of barge transportation on straying of returning adults. If one cares about wild salmon and steelhead, such straying is important. It reduces adaptation for two-dozen or more wild fish genetic groupings of spring chinook and two dozen such groups in steelhead in Idaho and Oregon spawning areas. ...
When the transportation program seemed to have promise in the 1980s, I supported it. Transportation lost its luster for me when careful peer-reviewed studies showed negative effects of hatchery fish spawning with wild adults. ...
Don Chapman
McCall
Addicted to spending
After reading the Aug. 24 Lewiston Tribune article concerning city spending I was compelled to say a few words.
Obviously John Bradbury and John Pernsteiner have a difference of opinion when it comes to city spending. I think most people in this city would be appalled to learn the city is going to spend $50,000 for a consultant to tell us that those steps, that almost no one uses except the homeless, need to be replaced, let alone spend $1 million to do it.
There is a sidewalk to downtown on the other side of the park that people can use.
There is also another sidewalk a block to the east.
Instead of paying some consultant $400,000 to redesign Community Park, why not see if one of the local colleges that offers landscape architecture ... could come up with something suitable? ...
With spending out of control, it’s obvious to me that Pernsteiner and the majority of the city council are addicted to spending other people’s money.
As of Oct. 1, water rates for downtown citizens will be three times that of Clarkston.
Why?
For more than 20 years, this city has stolen water money that should have gone to maintain our system ... to fund God only knows what.
The city budget is now more than $100 million, nearly the same as Coeur d’ Alene, which is nearly twice the size of Lewiston. It’s time to try a strong mayor system so that someone can be held accountable.
Mark Edelblute
Lewiston
