[env-trinity] POWER COMPANY WOULD RATHER TRUCK FISH THAN BUILD LADDERS, SCREENS ON KLAMATH & other news

[Josh Allen]

POWER COMPANY WOULD RATHER TRUCK FISH THAN BUILD LADDERS, SCREENS ON
KLAMATH

By Associated Press Apr 30, 2006 

GRANTS PASS, Ore. 

 

PacifiCorp proposed Friday that it use a less expensive system of trucks
and traps to haul salmon around dams on the Klamath River rather than
spend $200 million to build fish ladders and screen turbines -- at least
until it sees whether the fish can survive in waters they haven't
inhabited in nearly a century....

 

After the third straight year of dangerously low returns of wild fall
chinook salmon to the Klamath, the Pacific Fishery Management Council
has recommended shutting down commercial salmon fishing along 400 miles
of coast straddling the mouth of the Klamath River, with very limited
fishing north and south of that zone.  Salmon in the Klamath have had
problems for more than a century. Gold mining in the 1850s caused
extensive erosion that silted over spawning beds. In the early 1900s, a
federal irrigation project diverted water from the river. A federal
salmon egg collecting station cut off returns to the upper basin in
1910. The first of the dams, Copco No. 1, was completed in 1918 with no
fish ladder, permanently shutting off access to the upper basin. Highly
toxic algae has been discovered in reservoirs behind two of the dams.

http://www.tdn.com/articles/2006/04/30/area_news/news03.txt

  

 

Also in the news (thanks to the Karuk Tribe)...

 

EPA HONORS TRIBES AS ENVIRONMENTAL HEROS: Karuk honored for work with
toxic algae 

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency selected
American Indian tribes in the West, along the border and in Hawaii for
environmental excellence, during the EPA's eighth annual Environmental
Awards ceremony...

 

The EPA also selected Sandi Tripp and Susan Corum of the Karuk Tribe of
California, Department of Natural Resources, in Orleans, Calif The Karuk
Tribe played a key role in discovering and providing a timely response
to toxic algae blooms in the Klamath River. Tribal members notified
resource managers and public health officials throughout the Klamath
Basin and California, resulting in a comprehensive monitoring program. 

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412876

 

KLAMATH'S DAMS REMOVAL WILL HELP ECONOMY (This is a response to Marcia
Armstrong's editorial against dam removal.) 

By S. Craig Tucker 

 

Many of us who live along the Klamath have watched the fish runs plummet
and with them our local economies. Communities such as Happy Camp, once
known as the steelhead capital of the world, attracted anglers from
around the world. Today, these communities have had their economic
bedrock, the fishery, ripped out from under them. The Klamath once
returned nearly a million wild salmon each year. This year the expected
return is less than 30,000.

Now the Klamath problem is metastasizing. Recently, the decision to
severely restrict more than 700 miles of coastline to salmon fishing has
grabbed the attention of lawmakers from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore.
The fishery closure could result in economic losses of $200 million and
drive many family fishermen out of business. However, there is hope for
the Klamath. The FERC relicensing of the Klamath dams provides a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reverse this trend by enabling the
removal of the lower four Klamath dams.

http://www1.redding.com/redd/op_speak_your_piece/article/0,2232,REDD_181
00_4648581,00.html

 

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