{"id":1209,"date":"2020-04-09T07:19:54","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T14:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1209"},"modified":"2020-04-09T07:19:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T14:19:54","slug":"time-waits-for-no-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1209","title":{"rendered":"Time Waits for no Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
(Bob Brawday\/The Tri-City Herald via AP, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pool hall is closed, the streets are quiet but there\u2019s\nstill work to do. You should be reading the Draft Environmental Impact\nStatement for the Columbia River System and submitting a comment. The deadline\nis April 13th<\/sup>, so get on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This report was speeded up by a presidential order back in\nOctober 2018. Some have asked for extending the comment period, but like me,\nI\u2019ll bet you have the time right now. The salmon are waiting. Get on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could go fishing instead. Idaho Fish and Game allowed a\nsteelhead season this year; hatchery fish only. But if you care about the\nfuture of Idaho salmon, I suggest you read the report and comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The full report is available online, but I would recommend\nthe Executive\nSummary<\/a> (it\u2019s only 35 pages). The detail and extensive analysis are\nimpressive. I just disagree with their conclusion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conclusion of The Army Corps of Engineers (who build and\nrun dams) and the Bonneville Power Administration (who buy and sell\nelectricity) is that bypassing the lower four Snake dams would cost too much.\nPower costs would go up, and transportation costs would go up. But they clearly\nconclude, breaching would have the greatest improvement for salmon survival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBreaching\u201d isn\u2019t dam removal, it\u2019s just opening up the\nbypasses that were used when the dams were built. The dams would still be\nthere, the river would just go around them. They couldn\u2019t generate electricity,\nthey couldn\u2019t stop floods and they couldn\u2019t hoist or lower barges. But the\nyoung salmon would get a boost to the ocean. And the adults could come home\neasier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Corps and BPA argue for more \u201cmitigation\u201d; like the\nbarging of smolts we do now and the modification of flows. We have already\nspent $17 billion on these strategies. They still think in that box. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no doubt a lot of the predictions about what will\nhelp Idaho salmon recover are unknown, just like we don\u2019t really know how many\nventilators we will need next month for COVID patients. But we do our best,\ndon\u2019t we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If salmon recovery is important to you, why not chose the\nbest option? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is strong evidence that those four dams take a big\ntoll on our salmon. In the Yakima River, where the fish have to pass four\nColumbia dams, regeneration is over twice as high as in Idaho. In the John Day\nand the Deschutes Rivers, with only three and two dams to pass, salmon have\nthree time\u2019s Idaho\u2019s regeneration. Idaho\u2019s rivers have had a regeneration rate\nwell below sustainability for a long time. Hatchery fish have kept the seasons\ngoing. I want to keep fishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am amazed at how this has been politicized. The first time\nI ran for county coroner, back in the 1990\u2019s, I attended all the community\nforums, though I was unopposed and unaffiliated. If the crowd questions waned,\nI would ask the legislative candidates what they thought of the lower four\nSnake dams. The Republicans all had similar phrases, how vital they were to our\neconomy. And since Palouse farmers love that cheap shipping, it made sense. It\nwasn\u2019t long until I started seeing the \u201cSave our Dams\u201d bumper sticker. It was\nlike somebody was planning to dynamite them. It\u2019s been years now, and the\ndiscussion has continued. That\u2019s good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been encouraged that one of our deep Red and all\nRepublican congressional delegation is willing to consider the question.\nCongressman Mike Simpson has stated he wants to see salmon recover. He has not\nendorsed any plan, but he has said he wants healthy salmon runs in Idaho. The\nother three are strongly with BPA and the Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, spend some time on the report and send in your comment.\nI did. It was sure easier than catching a steelhead; but not as much fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pool hall is closed, the streets are quiet but there\u2019s still work to do. You should be reading the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Columbia River System and submitting a comment. The deadline is April 13th, so get … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1211,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions\/1211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}