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Dam Those Fish by The Roving Eye Boise Weekly - October 28(?), 1999

Another phenomenon with its own significant deadline is the salmon recovery/dam breaching issue. Whether the four dams on the Lower Snake River in eastern Washington are breached will become much clearer over the next year or so, following a much-awaited report due from the Army Corps of Engineers this winter. Not to understate the issue, but there's a helluva lot riding on this, and the propaganda is heavy and growing heavier. You might have noticed an ad in this paper that looked to be pitching Dodge Ram trucks but was in fact promoting the use of barges to ferry the fish through the dams. The ads were paid for by the Pulp & Paperworkers Resource Council and the Lewiston Chamber of Commerce. Last week, the opposition launched a counter-offensive with a series of catchy ads paid for by an alliance of conservation groups, including Idaho Rivers United. Although they won't be running in the BW, four full-page ads will be printed in The New York Times. Like the issue itself, the campaign is a costly proposition. The total bill was $140,000, of which 90 percent was paid by Idaho donors.