NorthwestJuly 22, 2000

Associated Press

BOISE -- With the decision on dam breaching delayed, Idaho anglers are shifting their effort to ensuring endangered salmon and steelhead get the full protection of the law.

Federal officials said this week that they will delay a decision on breaching four dams on the lower Snake River in eastern Washington five to 10 years. In the meantime, they plan to keep the wild oceangoing fish from going extinct by cleaning up waterways, restoring spawning habitat and improving river flows and captive breeding.

Representatives of Idaho Steelhead and Salmon Unlimited, an anglers' group, met with Gov. Dirk Kempthorne this week to offer their help in pressing an aggressive alternative to breaching.

The group, among the strongest advocates of dam breaching to save Idaho's dwindling anadromous fish runs, wants to ensure the alternative plan is more than talk.

"If we aren't going to take down the dams, they had better meet the letter of the law," Thayne Barrie, president of the steelhead anglers' group, said Thursday.

Salmon are a natural symbol of the Pacific Northwest, bring dollars to fishing-related businesses and carry spiritual values for Indians and others. The dams allow shipping between Lewiston and the Pacific Ocean and provide enough electricity to power Seattle.

Alternatives to breaching will force farmers, loggers and developers to alter land practices that threaten salmon rivers. They also could require additional water from Idaho reservoirs and increase the cost of electricity.

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Kempthorne, reaching out to fish advocates, attended Idaho Steelhead and Salmon Unlimited's annual banquet on Thursday. He did not speak to the crowd, but he talked to individual anglers as they vied for prizes and bid in auctions. Sanchotena, the group's executive director.

Barrie worries that salmon will go extinct before the region takes the necessary action. Federal and private studies show the risk of Snake River salmon going extinct in the next 20 years is high. But the large returns of hatchery fish this year demonstrate what happens when juvenile salmon have high water flows in the spring to aid migration, Barrie said.

Many businesses that benefit from anglers financially support Idaho Steelhead and Salmon Unlimited.

"If we didn't have the fishermen, we wouldn't be in business," said Dave Nielsen of Quality Canvas in Garden City, which makes boat covers.

Restoring Idaho's salmon runs to 1960s levels could mean $72 million in new revenues and 2,100 full-time jobs, according to an economic study commissioned by the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

But it is not money that motivates Mark Arstein, an investment adviser in Boise.

"Part of Idaho's heritage is to catch these big wild salmon,' Arstein said. "I'd love to have the opportunity for my kids to catch these wonderful fish."

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