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Industry vs Conservation by David Sparks Ph.D. Sportsman Spotlight, September 16, 2021

We don't want anybody who depends upon the river in any capacity to be holding a short side of the stick.

The snake river dam system has caused great concerns for environmentalists worried about the salmon and steelhead runs. JOSH MILLS is a conservationist and right in the middle of it.

When you have those lower Snake River dams, you immediately take almost 20 percent of the run, immediately gone.

And then that issues the things called delayed mortality when they hit the Columbia River estuary. The habitat that is behind the lower four Snake River dams are all accessible for fish at the time. But the added stress and added encumberment to their journey back and forth between ocean and spawning grounds really provides more stress.

The other things that are happening, too, is climate change.

These reservoirs that are stacking up, it's going to have very bad operating balance, extensive flows of the walleye fishery, as well as smallmouth bass, as well as a drastic, overbearing of northern pike minnow.

So you have this deck of cards that is completely stacked against the fish. And what I would say is that a plan that comes out of Mike Simpson's office from the state of Idaho. It is not a perfect plan at this time, but the plan is to try and make everyone whole. We don't want a single farmer, anybody in the ag business.

We don't want anybody who depends upon the river in any capacity to be holding a short side of the stick.

So what does that mean? That all the grain will then be put on trucks to the Port of Portland? The grain will enter the barge system again at the Tri-cities as it goes through the Gap.

Classic case of industry versus conservation.