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Collaborative Approach Holds the Key to Recovery by John Williams Idaho Statesman, January 24, 2011

A Jan. 2 guest opinion on salmon (Reader's View, Ed Chaney) dwells on old misconceptions.

Consider the state of salmon today. Record runs of fall chinook are returning to the Snake River, so much so that Oregon last fall opened its first fishing season in decades. Snake River sockeye, once written off, are surging and wild-born fish are returning to Redfish Lake. Last year saw high returns of wild Snake River steelhead.

Recent tests of improvements at Little Goose Dam found that 99.4 percent of yearling chinook, 99.8 percent of steelhead and 95.2 percent of sub-yearling chinook passed the dam safely. And most Northwest states and tribes, including Idaho, now stand behind a strong salmon protection strategy that restores degraded habitat, further boosts dam passage and includes spilling water when it helps fish downstream. Success for salmon lies not in litigation and acrimony, but the kind of collaboration and commitment we now have in the Northwest.

Related Pages:
Sho-Bans Back Off Breaching; Nez Perce Hold Firm by Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman, 9/22/8
Nez Perce Say Feds' Priorities are Skewed by Sonya Angelica Diehn, Courthouse News, 6/11/10
FEEDBACK: Snake River Sockeye Recovery Plan, by Scott Levy, Columbia Basin Bulletin, 11/19/10