PROTECT DAMS FROM SALMON - BUY OFF THE TRIBES

Sadly, the tribes that signed off and accepted the close-to-a billion-dollar bribe...are impacted the least.

The Nez Perce have not signed. Their historic fishing grounds are mostly above the four damn-near-worthless four dams on the Lower Snake. Plus the Nez Perce historic river spawning systems, over 4,600 miles, are pristene.

Dock
Ketchum, Idaho

ANOTHER REASON TO BREACH THE FOUR LOWER SNAKE DAMS. NOT ONLY DOES THE ARMY CORPS SPEND MILLIONS IN DREDGING TO KEEP THE 16' DEEP (?) SHIPPING CHANNEL OPEN FOR BARGES THAT COME LESS AND LESS TO THE INLAND SEAPORT OF LEWISTON, IDAHO...THE TOWN OF LEWISTON AND CLARKSTON ARE IN SERIOUS TREAT OF FLOODING FROM THE SILT ACCUMULATION FROM 36,000 SQUARE MILES OF WILDERNESS UP STREAM FROM THE CLEARWATER AND THE SNAKE RIVERS.

Dick,
Ketchum, Id

Sunday, May 18, 2008

GUEST OPINION

Lower Snake dams block fish, progress

By Dustin W. Aherin

Special to The Spokesman-Review
May 18, 2008

I live in Lewiston, upstream from the four lower Snake River dams. Over the decades since these dams went in, we've watched salmon and steelhead runs plummet. We've watched the federal government submit plan after plan to save salmon and keep the dams, to no avail.

A federal judge in Portland has thrown three out of the last four plans out. The federal agencies released a fifth plan this month, and this one, like the others, is not based on sound law or sound science. It, too, is likely to be thrown out.

Lost in the focus on salmon runs are the other problems created by the four lower Snake River dams: flood risk and economic uncertainty for Clarkston and Lewiston.

For more than 20 years I've watched the water level rise in the reservoir behind Lower Granite dam. Sediment flowing down from thousands of miles of river is accumulating in the reservoir flanking Clarkston and Lewiston. The river level is rising, the flood risk growing, and the levees built 30 years ago to protect downtown are now inadequate.

Decades ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers identified the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers as a "future problem area" for sediment buildup. The future is here. The water level behind the levees is now higher than downtown Lewiston and nearing the top of the levees. With an enormous spring snowpack sitting up in the mountains, the safety concerns are abundantly clear.

The Army Corps has tried to focus public attention on preventing sediment from entering the reservoir and dredging. It is impossible to stop natural sediment coming off 32,000 square miles of land and economically unfeasible to dredge out the massive amount of material now deposited. The only two viable options are to raise the levees along the waterfront or remove the four lower Snake River dams.

Residents don't want higher levees. It could require raising bridges and highways, will disrupt popular walking paths and further isolate the town from its river. The second option – dam removal – requires us to face up to unfulfilled promises made to an earlier generation.

Lewiston has an ambivalent relationship with the lower Snake dams. My grandfather's generation believed these dams would be economic salvation for the town. But while other towns got highways, freeways and rail hubs, Lewiston got a seaport that greatly benefited some but has proven of limited use to most.

The dams keep Lewiston stuck in the mud. Town leaders want to develop the waterfront. But with a steadily rising river level, the prospect of raising levees and the growing pressure to remove the dams to restore salmon, Lewiston can't develop its waterfront with any certainty.

My father's generation worked hard to make the Corps' promise of an economic boon come true. But reality gave us a stagnating economy and an uncertain future. Barges are great for shipping wheat to Portland, but not ideal for getting many other goods to market. The seaport does not attract new businesses that could provide jobs and opportunity for Lewiston's residents. In a booming state, Lewiston's economy is stuck in low gear.

My generation is left to pick up the pieces. Many of us want to make a go of it in our hometown. It sits in a beautiful, temperate valley surrounded by great country. We should be able to attract new businesses and educated workers and keep talented young people from fleeing to larger cities. And an increasing number of us believe we can forge a prosperous path if we remove the lower Snake River dams.

With the Bush administration proposing to spend nearly $7 billion over 10 years on a recovery plan sure to fail, we could make a deal. Why not take a fraction of those billions and trade four outdated dams for improved railroads, highways and a revitalized waterfront? A modern transportation system in the region would benefit us all, including Spokane. Lewiston's future could be a restored river, a modern Western economy and a downtown centered on two of the most beautiful rivers in the West.

It's time for the Clarkston-Lewiston Valley to make a plan for its economy, its rivers and its future. But our future is stuck behind those dams. We need Senators Murray, Cantwell and Crapo to step up and lead an honest discussion about the costs and benefits of keeping four outdated dams versus restoring our river and our economy..

All is not rosy in Orofino. The foloowing article is from the Idaho Statesman.

The Nez Perce Tribe wants to take half of the hatchery steelhead in the Snake River for tribal commercial fisheries, and fishing will begin immediately, a move one Orofino fishing guide described as devastating.
Tribal officials say they are exercising their 1855 treaty rights to harvest steelhead, which could entitle them to up to 61,000 hatchery steelhead that have returned this year. Wild steelhead are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.

It would be highly unlikely for tribal fishermen to catch that many steelhead this year because so many have already swum upstream.

The tribe will seek a multiyear agreement with the National Marine Fisheries Service to continue commercial gillnet fishing that could run from August to April on the Snake and Clearwater rivers, but according to Janet Sears, public affairs officer for NMFS, the agency just received the application for a permit and has not granted one yet.

"A permit specific for this, no, but there may be some existing agreements that would provide for limited fishing opportunity," she said.

Dave Johnson, manager of the tribal fisheries program, said treaty rights supercede any federal requirements under the Endangered Species Act, but the tribe will work toward an agreement with NMFS, as well as Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

A three-day tribal gillnet season last year drew only one tribal member who caught one steelhead, according to an Associated Press report. Gillnets hang from the surface to the bottom of the river and trap fish by the gills when they swim into the net. The fish are usually dead when the net is pulled.

Tribal officials said resuming steelhead fishing is important to Nez Perce "culture and livelihood" but weren't clear as to why now.

The renewed commercial gillnet season will likely cause friction with sport anglers. Sport fishing for steelhead brings millions of tourist dollars to communities like Orofino and Riggins.

Stephanie Sweener, a steelhead fishing guide at The Guide Shop in Orofino, said gillnets in the Clearwater River "would be devastating to our business," as well as other tourist-dependent businesses like motels and restaurants.

"What really keeps Orofino kicking is (sport) fishing," she said.

Sweener fears tribal netters could quickly catch all the fish in the lower Clearwater River, which is world famous for its trophy-sized "B" run steelhead.

Joe Oatman, spokesman for the tribe fish and wildlife commission, said Wednesday the tribal fishery could include up to 20 gillnet permits, but only four have been issued so far. The season will run three to five days per week through Jan. 11, but could be extended beyond then.

Commercial gillnetting will take place on the Snake River between Lower Granite Dam and Hells Canyon Dam and also on the Clearwater River from the mouth to Orofino, tribal officials said.

In addition to the gillnet season, there will also be a concurrent steelhead season for all tribal members, who could use hook and line, dip nets or gaffs to harvest steelhead to eat or to sell.

Oatman said they have not identified a market for the fish. He did not say how the fish would be sold, or to whom.

The tribe is entitled to harvest hatchery steelhead, but it can not indiscriminately kill endangered wild steelhead in the process.

Oatman said the tribe will allow a harvest of about 500 wild steelhead, or 1.8 percent of the returning wild fish, and the season would close when that quota is caught.

Future seasons would allow gillnetters to take 4.8 percent of the wild steelhead, tribal officials said.

Indian tribes and NMFS work together on fish management, but sometimes disagree whether treaty rights or federal law has supremacy.

Samuel Penney, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, said in the press release that the "primary goal of the tribe is to restore and preserve wild/natural runs of steelhead while allowing both tribal and non-tribal fishermen to take advantage of the steelhead that are available for harvest."

Pete Hassemer, anadromous fish manager for Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said the agency was not consulted about this year's season, and a tribal fishery would need to protect wild fish and also leave enough fish to replenish hatcheries.

Nez Perce have not exercised their treaty rights to harvest steelhead in recent years even though average returns of hatchery and wild fish have nearly doubled in the last decade.

Steelhead runs over Lower Granite Dam, about 25 miles downstream from Lewiston, averaged 146,000 fish annually since 1998, compared with 85,000 annually between 1988 and 1997, and 70,000 annually between 1978 and 1987.

Also in the last decade, anglers have caught 41 percent of the hatchery steelhead returning over Lower Granite, according to F&G statistics. Those fish were caught in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Roger Phillips: 373-6615

Roger, I thought the 1855 fishing rights treaty thing had been compromised or watered down in a new US GOV/Nez Perce agreement a few years ago? Taking slug hatchery steelhead doesn't bother me so much. Taking the few wild ones does.

Boat fishermen have an interesting method of taking wild steelhead on the Clearwater at Lewiston.

I was told this by a Idaho F & G warden. The IDF&G mans a spy station (or did) in a building in Lewiston watching with bi-nocs for boat guys who netted fish.

The practice is if the fish was a keeper, 15-18 pounds, and had a adipose fin, the fisherman kept a well lit cigar and burned the fin off and kept it.

Dick

Ketchum

A WONDERFUL BLOG WITH HISTORIC ACCOUNTS OF SALMON RETURNING TO THE UPPER SALMON AFTER A VIGILANTE REMOVAL OF THE SUNBEAM DAM IN 1934 NEAR STANLEY.

http://www.jonlong.com/blog/2006/08/sunbeam-dam.html