Rocky Barker’s blog: Nampa man blows up dam in Oregon to aid salmon. Idaho Statesman.
Although I don’t write prolifically about salmon and steelhead (prized NW anadromous fish), their management and fate is one of the longest and divisive wildlife controversies in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
One of the major points of contention is the presence of dams which hinder the fish that are trying to return to spawn, and most importantly hinder the migration of the small smolts downstream to the ocean.
Rocky Barker has good news on this front, but those who fish and those who care about restoring the balance to many of Idaho’s rivers and streams have their eyes set on much bigger dams than the one just demolished. As Barker writes: “. . . the big kahuna for them is the four lower Snake dams in Washington that stand between Idaho’s thousands of miles of pristine salmon habitat and the Pacific.”
The four dams are Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, and Lower Granite.
A related more recent story. Idaho chinook salmon still in trouble. By Roger Phillips. Idaho Statesman.
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is President of the Western Watersheds Project.
