Ithaca 37
New member
The top dam defender has changed his mind and says the dams should be breached! This is the guy who all the opponents of breaching said was the expert we should be listening to!
"For 25 years, biologist Don Chapman has defended the hydroelectric industry's technological fish bypass systems as adequate to prevent salmon from going extinct.
Chapman, a well-respected fisheries biologist and long-time consultant for electric utilities, now says the warming of the Columbia River and its tributaries and potential ocean changes from global warming call for drastic action if Idaho's salmon are to survive or flourish. Chapman says removing four dams will reduce the cumulative effects on salmon so they can survive the increasingly hazardous migration route.
"Regional warming makes breaching imperative," Chapman, 74, said in an interview at his McCall home.
Chapman, called the "guru" of salmon science in the Pacific Northwest, wants to breach the four lower Snake dams in Washington. Those dams produce less than 5 percent of the region's federal power — enough to meet Seattle's needs — and allow barge shipping of grain and other goods from Lewiston to Portland.
Breaching the dams is necessary, he said, because many residents value salmon and want the fish to survive in harvestable numbers. Salmon represent the region's wild heart and provide food and spiritual sustenance for Native Americans and a fishing industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Six years ago, Chapman led a minority that opposed breaching dams in the face of an overwhelming majority of members of the Idaho Section of the American Fisheries Society that said breaching the dams was necessary for restoring salmon.
Earlier this year, Chapman filed a declaration on behalf of public power companies challenging salmon advocates' plan to spill water over the dams to help the salmon migration. So when the man whose opinion that business and political leaders have rested their cases on for current salmon programs calls for a major reassessment, people listen........................"
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050809/NEWS01/508090376
"For 25 years, biologist Don Chapman has defended the hydroelectric industry's technological fish bypass systems as adequate to prevent salmon from going extinct.
Chapman, a well-respected fisheries biologist and long-time consultant for electric utilities, now says the warming of the Columbia River and its tributaries and potential ocean changes from global warming call for drastic action if Idaho's salmon are to survive or flourish. Chapman says removing four dams will reduce the cumulative effects on salmon so they can survive the increasingly hazardous migration route.
"Regional warming makes breaching imperative," Chapman, 74, said in an interview at his McCall home.
Chapman, called the "guru" of salmon science in the Pacific Northwest, wants to breach the four lower Snake dams in Washington. Those dams produce less than 5 percent of the region's federal power — enough to meet Seattle's needs — and allow barge shipping of grain and other goods from Lewiston to Portland.
Breaching the dams is necessary, he said, because many residents value salmon and want the fish to survive in harvestable numbers. Salmon represent the region's wild heart and provide food and spiritual sustenance for Native Americans and a fishing industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Six years ago, Chapman led a minority that opposed breaching dams in the face of an overwhelming majority of members of the Idaho Section of the American Fisheries Society that said breaching the dams was necessary for restoring salmon.
Earlier this year, Chapman filed a declaration on behalf of public power companies challenging salmon advocates' plan to spill water over the dams to help the salmon migration. So when the man whose opinion that business and political leaders have rested their cases on for current salmon programs calls for a major reassessment, people listen........................"
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050809/NEWS01/508090376
