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Otter and Salmon Charles Ray Wood River Journal - February 23, 2000

McCALL -- In his February 17 guest opinion in the Lewiston Morning Tribune, Idaho Lt. Govenor and Congressional candidate Butch Otter proclaims, "While dam breaching... may have minimal support from the extreme radical elements of the environmental movement, most people with common sense reject such notions."

Breaching dams to save Idaho's endangered salmon and steelhead is supported by dedicated fisheries professionals at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, hundreds of scientists -- many with Ph.D.s -- the four Columbia River Indian tribes, the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, clergymen, economists, a former justice of Idaho's Supreme Court, the editorial board of the Idaho Statesman, and the governor of Oregon.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens across the Northwest also favor breaching -- citizens who work hard every day, raise families, pay their taxes, go to church, respect and obey the law.

Butch Otter doesn't give a damn about salmon and steelhead, the laws that protect them, or the economies and cultures that depend on them. Because he doesn't give a damn, he has no credible position.

Otter doesn't deserve a seat in Congress, and Idaho doesn't deserve having him there.