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Red Herrings by Benton Williams Seattle Times, January 9, 2004

The Northwest salmon are not only lost in the yellow zone but they are doomed to extinction if Draconian action is not taken. Here are some reasons:

• A decade of a failed federal barging program to transport young salmon around the dams at billions of dollars in taxpayer expense;

• Ignoring the opinions of biologists who feel the solution is to breach the offending dams on the Snake River;

• Ignoring the Rand report of 2002 and the court order ruling the present method to be illegal;

• The bumbling bureaucracy of competing agencies, i.e., National Marine Fisheries Service, Bonneville Power Administration, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, etc.;

• The failure of our political delegation to demand that competing agencies meet and decide on the best course of action;

• The ignorance of both the Bush and Locke administrations.

Let's apply the red zone to this imbroglio and find a way to restore salmon runs for employment, for the welfare of Indian tribes and for a prosperous Northwest industry.