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Misinformation by Dick Sherwin Lewiston Tribune, April 26, 2026

Mr. Scott Putnam's celebration of Judge Michael Simon's "fish ruling," as published in the Tribune on March 15 (letter), is based on a complete misrepresentation of the facts. The biggest misrepresentation is the illusion that, before any dams existed on the Columbia/Snake River corridor, "as many as 16 million adult salmon and steelhead used to return to the basin."

What Mr. Putnam does not tell us in his misleading diatribe is that by 1938, only 272,000 Chinook and 107,000 steelhead crossed Bonne-ville Dam the first year it existed. Those numbers remained consistent, with minor variation, until 1999. Starting in 1999 and going through 2015, the Chinook salmon and steelhead returns were as high as 1.6 million fish. The last dam on the Snake River was Lower Granite, completed in 1975.

Either Mr. Putnam has been misled by those with an anti-dam agenda, or he is purposefully misleading Tribune readers. There are many factors affecting reduced numbers of anadromous fish in our river system. However, the four Lower Snake River dams are not a major factor.

Related Pages:
Agenda vs. the Facts by Dick Sherwin, Lewiston Tribune, 2/4/25
Habitat Lost by Dick Sherwin, Lewiston Tribune, 1/3/24
Indoctrinating Our Children by Dick Sherwin, Lewiston Tribune, 10/6/22
Look It Up by Dick Sherwin, Lewiston Tribune, 5/20/22
Failed to Respond by Dick Sherwin, Lewiston Tribune, 10/28/21
Tribune is Agenda-Driven by Dick Sherwin, Lewiston Tribune, 8/3/21
Put Up or Shut Up! by Dick Sherwin, Idaho State Journal, 5/21/21
Don't Waste Resources by Dick Sherwin, BPA Watch, 3/28/5
A Challenge by Dick Sherwin, Lewiston Tribune, 6/29/3
Wild Logic by Dick Sherwin, BPA Watch, 6/21/3