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Turnabout: Thank Mother Nature and Courts for Better Sockeye Run by Bill Sedivy Lewiston Tribune, August 17, 2008

We've heard much hoopla from the pro-dam folks in recent weeks regarding the better-than-usual returns of sockeye salmon to Redfish Lake near Stanley this year.

Indeed, all of us should celebrate the sockeye's return. But we should do it in moderation.

As of Aug. 14, 248 sockeye had made it back to the Sawtooths, and more than 800 fish had been counted passing Lower Granite Dam. That's great news considering just four sockeye returned to Redfish Lake last year. And it's good news considering that since the 1991, when Snake sockeye were listed under the Endangered Species Act, returns have typically numbered in the single digits.

But the Tri-City Herald editorial, reprinted in the Aug. 10 Lewiston Tribune, takes the sockeye celebration to drunken extremes.

If you believe the Tri-City missive, you'll conclude that 250 sockeye back to Redfish Lake constitutes recovery, that some combination of government inspired "improvements" at the dams and favorable ocean conditions are responsible for the improved run, and you'll believe that the work of saving our sockeye, chinook and steelhead from extinction is finished.

Those conclusions show that the Tri-City editors are living in denial.

Here are the real reasons our sockeye are faring a bit better than usual this year:

• Tribes, conservationists and fisherman have fought hard to keep federal dam operators from driving our sockeye and other Snake River salmon to extinction. The federal government, certainly under the direction of President Bush, hasn't helped without being forced to.

• Salmon advocates have won a number of protections for migrating salmon in federal court. Our sockeye owe federal Judge James Redden a lot.

• Finally, Mother Nature made our sockeye remarkably resilient - if we give them half a chance they will respond.

• Dr. Bruce Finney, an Idaho State University professor and researcher, concluded from analyzing sediment core samples that 25,000 to 40,000 sockeye salmon a year returned Redfish Lake prior to the 1900s.

• As recently as the 1950s - prior to the construction of the lower Snake River dams - more than 4,000 sockeye a year were still returning to Redfish Lake, despite other human-caused mortality factors.

• The 250 to 800 sockeye returning to Redfish Lake this year is just a tiny fraction of 200,000-plus smolts sent downstream each year by state and tribal biologists trying to save our sockeye from extinction. Eight hundred fish back would represent a return rate of less than 1/100th of a percent.

Without further action, this year's improved Snake River sockeye returns will be just another outlier. In its "new" salmon plan, the federal agencies responsible for salmon recovery actually roll back sockeye protections. The plan calls for less spill and more barging and refuses to consider lower Snake River dam removal as an option.

In order to keep Idaho's sockeye from fading into extinction, we will ultimately need congressional leadership and support for removing the four lower Snake River dams. We can have healthy salmon populations, a vibrant economy in Lewiston and Clarkston, fishing opportunities and a reliable energy supply. But we can't have all of those things with the lower Snake River dams in place.

So as we celebrate Idaho's returning sockeye this year, let's also ask our political leaders to be accountable for the fate of our sockeye, in 2009, 2010 and over the years to come.