February 9, 2005 - Economist Don Reading remembers seeing salmon anglers crowded up and down the Salmon River in the 1950s, holding up their huge catch.
"As a preteen boy, my mouth would hang open," said Reading, an economist with Ben Johnson Associates, at a Capitol press conference Tuesday.
If Idaho were to return to the year-in, year-out salmon and steelhead fishing seasons throughout their range it had until the late 1960s, the state would see an additional $544 million in economic activity annually, Reading said. Most of the money - $330 million - would go to rural river communities like Salmon, where fishermen would hire guides, stay in hotels, eat in restaurants and buy equipment. read more ...
May 27, 2005 - One day after a federal judge ruled that the 2004 federal Columbia and Snake River Salmon Plan violates the Endangered Species Act, a group of independent scientists released a scathing analysis of the very same plan. The review, compiled by the American Fisheries Society, harshly criticizes the scientific foundation of the Bush administration's salmon plan as well and took the federal government to task for touting their current measures as the reason for the increase in fish returning from the ocean in recent years.
July 27, 2005 - Idaho Falls Post Register
The Readers Advisory Board is made up of a cross-section of people from eastern Idaho who advise on this page, respond to editorials and offer a balanced voice.
By Shelton Beach
It's not rocket science. The dams caused the problem. Removing the dams will solve the problem.
Just look at all that water rushing downstream. Downstream to Washington and Oregon. Downstream, where some of it will be converted to electrical power for use by commercial interests.
Downstream, where some of it will be used to irrigate farms in Oregon and Washington. Downstream, where some of it might eventually reach the Pacific Ocean.
That's our water going downstream with the stated purpose of flushing young salmon to the ocean. Millions and millions of gallons of our water going downstream. Hundreds of thousands of acre feet of our water going to Washington and Oregon, our water that should be used right here in Idaho. That's water that should be saved for drier times, water that should be stored for our crops, water that could be used for recreation and preserving our fish and wildlife.
When will Idaho wake up to the fact that our water is being sent downstream to benefit other states? When will we all realize that flushing salmon is a very inefficient use of our our water? When will our governor and congressional delegation wake up to the fact that flushing salmon is a huge waste of our water? When will our water master wake up to the fact that once our water crosses into Washington, it never comes back?
When will our political leaders join hands with environmental groups and call for the breaching of those four dams that are driving our salmon and steelhead into extinction?
The answer, of course, is that it will never happen as long as our governor and congressional delegation continue to put party idealism ahead of the welfare of our state. They all know that breaching is the one solution that will bring our salmon and steelhead runs back to historic levels.
It's not rocket science. The dams caused the problem. Removing the dams will solve the problem.
Unfortunately, our ultraconservative congressional delegation just can't get past the notion that any dam is a good dam. They just can't bring themselves to admit that those dams need to go. It rips out their souls to think that those four monuments to man's domination over the earth need to be removed. Their opposition to dam breaching has nothing to do with what is best for=. the state or best for our salmon. It has nothing to do with what is best for agriculture or what is best for the communities that would benefit from good, strong, fishable runs of salmon and steelhead. It has everything to do with their extreme political philosophy.
Beach is a retired Army non