Now save the Klamath (Register-Guard OR)

[jpak]

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/08/11/ed.edit.salmonassist.phn.0811.p1.php?section=opinion

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez finally did what he should have done months ago - declare an economic disaster for the West Coast salmon fishing industry that has been dead in the water since the federal government imposed sharp fishing restrictions earlier this year.

Now, Congress and the White House must move swiftly to find the $85 million in appropriations needed to keep afloat a fishing industry that is critical to the future of communities along the Oregon and California coasts.

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The Klamath's woes are many and complex. Its salmon are being killed by excessive water diversions from the federal irrigation project that provides water to the basin's farmers, by hydroelectric dams that block migrating salmon and turn the river into an unnaturally warm petri dish for fish-killing algae and bacteria, by unsound logging practices that contribute to erosion, by agricultural runoff, and by the loss of critical wetlands habitat.

Federal disaster aid is essential for fishermen who are at risk of losing their boats and livelihoods - and for the businesses and coastal communities that rely on healthy fisheries for survival. But what they ultimately need is a river that produces bumper crops of healthy salmon.

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[mike_c]

1. this really is the issue-- Klamath fisheries are being strangled...

...by land use, water diversions, and hydropower. The real crime is that there is still time to save the Klamath if gov't will put ecosystem preservation before short term business profits. I don't have much hope for that happening, however.

[jpak]

2. In other news....

Ceremony hails Sandy River dam removal (Maine)

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/3021693.shtml

August 12, 2006

NORRIDGEWOCK -- Eloquent though some of the speakers were, the tranquil yet powerful sound of the Sandy River behind outshined them.

For 100 feet or more, the restored falls on the other side of the river flowed over rocks, creating little rivulets and pools on its way to the Kennebec River a mile or so below. The sound of the falls hadn't been heard since 1893, when one of the first dams built in Maine specifically to produce electricity stopped it.

In its place, the whir of the dam's turbine could be heard. On Friday, Rep. Michael H. Michaud, D-2nd District, and others whose work made the breaching of the Sandy River dam possible, celebrated the return of the river's original sound, and all that it means.

"It's a new sound," said Allison Murray, the licensing coordinator and project manager whose company, Kleinschmidt Associates of Pittsfield, did most of the preliminary work. "All you heard before was the turbines."

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