Ithaca 37
New member
Today's editorial:
Five years make up a lifetime for Idaho's chinook salmon.
Born in mountain streams, chinook leave Idaho as 5-inch-long smolts adapting to life in salt water. They return from the ocean four or five years later — anywhere from 18 to 40 inches long, weighing up to 25 pounds.
But fewer chinook have completed this life's journey this year. For the fifth straight year, Idaho chinook returns have dropped. Idaho cannot afford to lose generations of its rare salmon. If we want our next generation to enjoy salmon, we must act boldly to save them.
The numbers are alarming, for several reasons:
• The numbers count the chinook that have passed Lower Granite Dam in eastern Washington near Lewiston. For Idaho salmon, Lower Granite is the measuring stick: the last of eight federal dams on the Columbia and lower Snake rivers, the final key obstacle blocking adult chinook from their historic spawning grounds.
Above-average salmon returns elsewhere in the Snake and Columbia system may provide a handy talking point for people who argue the fish are rebounding. Ultimately, though, those numbers aren't too relevant to Idaho.
• Spring and summer chinook — the adults that pass Lower Granite from March 1 through Aug. 17 — are sometimes called Idaho's bread-and-butter salmon. When their returns are high, Idaho anglers enjoy longer fishing seasons, and river communities such as Stanley, Riggins and Challis reap the economic benefits.
When record chinook runs passed Lower Granite in 2001, Idaho anglers enjoyed a 23-day salmon season on the South Fork of the Salmon River, catching more than 6,000 fish. This year's returns supported an abbreviated season on the South Fork from June 29 to July 13, and anglers caught 531 fish.
Idaho anglers cannot plan their summers around salmon fishing — and investors will be reluctant to build lodges, motels or restaurants in riverside communities — until the state has strong, consistent chinook returns.
• In theory, 2006 should have been a much better year for chinook. Many of the 2006 survivors are the progeny of the record 2001 runs.
• Chinook aren't alone in their struggle. This has been another dismal year for Central Idaho's spawning sockeye salmon, the red fish of Redfish Lake lore. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has collected only three sockeye at its Sawtooth hatchery near Stanley. Only 14 sockeye have passed Lower Granite this year, compared to a 10-year average of about 89.
Idahoans can either lament these numbers or act on them.
They should demand leadership from the people they elect, rather than tired defenses of a salmon status quo that simply isn't working.
They should push their leaders toward bold solutions, including the removal of Lower Granite and three other lower Snake River dams. The biologists say breaching may be the only way to save Idaho salmon, since it allows more salmon smolts to reach the ocean. Breaching would protect water users from efforts to use more of Idaho's scarce water to sweep young salmon past the lethal dams. Breaching provides Idaho communities their best chance to enjoy the multimillion dollar benefits of full fishing seasons. Breaching provides our very best chance of rescuing one of Idaho's most remarkable creatures, an irreplaceable piece of our wild heritage.
The arguments for breaching haven't changed. Nor have the familiar arguments for the status quo: breaching would shut down Idaho's seaport in Lewiston and cost the region about 5 percent of its power generation. Meanwhile, over the past five years, one other alarming constant has emerged: Every year, fewer Idaho chinook return to Idaho.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060908/NEWS0501/609080332/1052/NEWS05
Five years make up a lifetime for Idaho's chinook salmon.
Born in mountain streams, chinook leave Idaho as 5-inch-long smolts adapting to life in salt water. They return from the ocean four or five years later — anywhere from 18 to 40 inches long, weighing up to 25 pounds.
But fewer chinook have completed this life's journey this year. For the fifth straight year, Idaho chinook returns have dropped. Idaho cannot afford to lose generations of its rare salmon. If we want our next generation to enjoy salmon, we must act boldly to save them.
The numbers are alarming, for several reasons:
• The numbers count the chinook that have passed Lower Granite Dam in eastern Washington near Lewiston. For Idaho salmon, Lower Granite is the measuring stick: the last of eight federal dams on the Columbia and lower Snake rivers, the final key obstacle blocking adult chinook from their historic spawning grounds.
Above-average salmon returns elsewhere in the Snake and Columbia system may provide a handy talking point for people who argue the fish are rebounding. Ultimately, though, those numbers aren't too relevant to Idaho.
• Spring and summer chinook — the adults that pass Lower Granite from March 1 through Aug. 17 — are sometimes called Idaho's bread-and-butter salmon. When their returns are high, Idaho anglers enjoy longer fishing seasons, and river communities such as Stanley, Riggins and Challis reap the economic benefits.
When record chinook runs passed Lower Granite in 2001, Idaho anglers enjoyed a 23-day salmon season on the South Fork of the Salmon River, catching more than 6,000 fish. This year's returns supported an abbreviated season on the South Fork from June 29 to July 13, and anglers caught 531 fish.
Idaho anglers cannot plan their summers around salmon fishing — and investors will be reluctant to build lodges, motels or restaurants in riverside communities — until the state has strong, consistent chinook returns.
• In theory, 2006 should have been a much better year for chinook. Many of the 2006 survivors are the progeny of the record 2001 runs.
• Chinook aren't alone in their struggle. This has been another dismal year for Central Idaho's spawning sockeye salmon, the red fish of Redfish Lake lore. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has collected only three sockeye at its Sawtooth hatchery near Stanley. Only 14 sockeye have passed Lower Granite this year, compared to a 10-year average of about 89.
Idahoans can either lament these numbers or act on them.
They should demand leadership from the people they elect, rather than tired defenses of a salmon status quo that simply isn't working.
They should push their leaders toward bold solutions, including the removal of Lower Granite and three other lower Snake River dams. The biologists say breaching may be the only way to save Idaho salmon, since it allows more salmon smolts to reach the ocean. Breaching would protect water users from efforts to use more of Idaho's scarce water to sweep young salmon past the lethal dams. Breaching provides Idaho communities their best chance to enjoy the multimillion dollar benefits of full fishing seasons. Breaching provides our very best chance of rescuing one of Idaho's most remarkable creatures, an irreplaceable piece of our wild heritage.
The arguments for breaching haven't changed. Nor have the familiar arguments for the status quo: breaching would shut down Idaho's seaport in Lewiston and cost the region about 5 percent of its power generation. Meanwhile, over the past five years, one other alarming constant has emerged: Every year, fewer Idaho chinook return to Idaho.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060908/NEWS0501/609080332/1052/NEWS05
