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Filmmaker Takes Salmon Issue to Washington. Barney McManigal, States News Service, The Times-News - August 29, 1999

WASHINGTON -- An Idaho filmmaker presented a documentary Friday that he hopes will raise viewer consciousness on dwindling salmon numbers in the Pacific Northwest.

After its premiere last year in Idaho, "RedFish BlueFish," a film by Ketchum based director Scott Levy, has made its way to Washington. The film, which was shown at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History, encourages viewers to think environmentally, said Levy, who said that doing so required "a whole new way of thinking."

"Are other species expendable in man's pursuit of numbers?" asks the narrative voice of a young boy.

According to Levy, environmental protection and conservation issues will be properly addressed only when humans view the world as "changing, fluid and dynamic," rather than permanent or resistant to change.

Focusing on depleting salmon numbers in the Columbia and Snake rivers, Levy said the fish will be saved only if it is made a priority to protect them.

Levy said he remained open-minded when it came to finding a solution, but he added that the best method was to breach four federal dams on the lower Snake River.

"The cheapest solution is breaching the dams," he said.

Levy noted that dams, like the salmon, will some day be extinct. Though he did not suggest rescuing dams when they become defunct from overuse and age, Levy did say it was time to act fast to save the salmon.

"Those dams will be obsolete in about 100 years," Levy said in remarks that followed the screening. "But the reality is that the fish don't have that kind of time. Time is almost out for the Sockeye."

The film, which premiered last year in Ketchum, argues that environmental and industrial concerns are more related than we think.

"All of our energy comes from the sun," read the narrator, following footage of hydroelectric dams. "All of it."