Damn dams dammit

Hilljackoutlaw

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Jan 15, 2019
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I dont think people will like their power bills if removal happens. I find it kind of funny how the opponent guy in the article uses the pro removal crowds go to in climate change against them.
What say you here that will be affected by this if it was ever to happen?

 
My solution is cut the salmon waters up into units and put in a draw or points system for salmon fishing tags to cut down on fishing harvests. Charge like comparable to elk tags and rake in the dough. 🤣
But seriously like 500 million salmon are caught each year. That's not counting the regular fisherman just commercial fishing.
 
Does a beaver get an environmental impact statement, face lawsuits, to build a dam? Yeah GO nature. Dammit, beavers do it, Dam gets built, environment changes. Happy beavers! and many other creatures as well. Humans are "wow!" go beaver!
Peoples (I believe, is an, all inclusive word), think, propose building a dam. Like beavers, we want to create a better environment , a good happy life, renewable, creating a new environment, for the better of all.
Enter the Peoples of doom. Can't, wait, should not, won't, no, don,t, stop!

A few years back, I was invited to collect free salon. All I could take home.
Fish and game announced they were to collect eggs and milk. A barrier placed across a waterway, corralled the salmon. Salmon were slit open and squeezed. A lot of breeding material collected. A program that produced high salmon survival rates, and reintroduced salmon to new areas. These collected were tossed back into the waterway, free game. I took some home.

Point is, go beaver!
 
My solution is cut the salmon waters up into units and put in a draw or points system for salmon fishing tags to cut down on fishing harvests. Charge like comparable to elk tags and rake in the dough. 🤣
But seriously like 500 million salmon are caught each year. That's not counting the regular fisherman just commercial fishing.

In Idaho or Fantasyland?
 
Does a beaver get an environmental impact statement, face lawsuits, to build a dam? Yeah GO nature. Dammit, beavers do it, Dam gets built, environment changes. Happy beavers! and many other creatures as well. Humans are "wow!" go beaver!
Peoples (I believe, is an, all inclusive word), think, propose building a dam. Like beavers, we want to create a better environment , a good happy life, renewable, creating a new environment, for the better of all.
Enter the Peoples of doom. Can't, wait, should not, won't, no, don,t, stop!

A few years back, I was invited to collect free salon. All I could take home.
Fish and game announced they were to collect eggs and milk. A barrier placed across a waterway, corralled the salmon. Salmon were slit open and squeezed. A lot of breeding material collected. A program that produced high salmon survival rates, and reintroduced salmon to new areas. These collected were tossed back into the waterway, free game. I took some home.

Point is, go beaver!
I am going to go out on a limb here and say no beaver has ever dammed the Snake River. Also, while beavers dam side channels and change flows, they don't cause the flow to go through turbines.
 
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A couple of things then I need to get back to real work (gotta make some extra dough to buy into this bloody market).

-Those dams were not built for power generation but to allow barge traffic to Lewiston and Clarkston. This was primarily so that wheat could be shipped out cheaper. Mind you these are some of THE MOST PRODUCTIVE ag lands in America. At one point Whitman County had the highest percent of millionaires in the nation. But they need to ship their grain via a highly subsidized barge system. Not sure why they can't do it via rail like everyone else in the country does.
-Those dams, unlike all the other mainstem dams along the Columbia and Snake, require constant dredging to maintain the shipping route, again something that taxpayers, not the beneficiaries, pay for.
-However, at the same time that we're talking about removing these dams the Corp is talking about building one in Western WA on the Chehalis River https://ecology.wa.gov/Asset-Collec...mental-review/ChehalisDEIS-FocusSheet-English
 
We're talking four dams out of, what, 35 in the Columbia Basin? These 4 dams are money losers in many ways. The Bonneville Power Admin is based on a 1937 business model that has changed entirely, mostly because California is generating electricity instead of importing it. Idaho got screwed when those dams were built. We can find other ways to get Palouse grain to market. (Disclosure, my dad owns a farm on the Palouse). There are thousands of miles of prime spawning streams in Idaho that are nearly devoid of salmon and steelhead. It's time to get fish back in the river, so we can catch them, while we still can. We can restore salmon, keep producing good local electricity, and get grain to the port. This is not rocket science. But it takes political will.
 
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“Somewhere under the heavy burden of water going nowhere, under the silence, the old rocks of the river channel waited for the promised resurrection. Promised by whom? Promised by Capt. Joseph “Seldom Seen” Smith; by Sgt. George Washington Hayduke; by Dr. Sarvis and Ms. Bonnie Abbzug, that’s whom. But” -Edward Abbey...The Monkey Wrench Gang
 
A good percentage of the watersheds and drainage's in Idaho are missing something...Salmon and Steelhead. This is an ecosystem issue for sure. Bears and other critter eat the fish if they are there, this begins a whole chain of events that fertilizes the whole ecosystem. Wouldn't it be a shame if it was gone forever?
It is getting real close to no return time for a lot of these runs, harvest needs to be controlled and these 4 dams need to go.
I do know there are bears in Idaho that would appreciate it.
 
I was surprised when I learned (a few years ago) just how recent many of the mainstem dams are. I would have thought by the 60s and 70s we'd have known better.
Until recently we thought our hatchery supplementation plan was working.
 

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