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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Delicious
sturgeon back on
Columbia menu
After a three-year moratorium
on keeping white sturgeon caught
between the mouth of the Columbia
and Bonneville Dam, a modest
retention season started this week.
By the time last weekend arrived,
anglers had found where the sturgeon
were gathered within the vast
Columbia estuary and the catch was
good. Many are happy to see some
progress toward a return to normal
for this important fishery.
Columbia white sturgeon venture
out into the Pacific, but are formally
considered a freshwater fish — the
largest in North America. They
can live more than a century and
have become legendary among
fishermen for their strength and
size, with old sturgeon sometimes
weighing hundreds of pounds. The
much younger and smaller ones that
anglers are permitted to keep — only
44 to 50 inches from snout to the fork
in the tail — are locally renowned as
one of the most delicious fish.
Under pressure
Like many other species, white
sturgeon are struggling with habitat
loss and deteriorating environmental
conditions. During the drought year
of 2015 for example, 80 breeding-age
sturgeon died in the vicinity of
Bonneville — possibly victims of
too-warm water or perhaps harmful
changes in water oxygen levels.
Stellar sea lions also have multiplied
and found their way into sturgeon
holes, exerting considerable hunting
pressure. Fleeing predators disrupts
the sturgeons’ breeding patterns.
There also is little doubt that
human fishing pressures played a
role in sturgeon declines that led
to the 2014 moratorium. When
salmon numbers plunged in the
1990s, private and charter fishing
heavily switched to sturgeon with
an enthusiasm it was easy to foresee
would lead to trouble.
Rebounding
We now are in the rebound
period. Fortunately, state
conservation measure appear to
be succeeding, with an estimated
165,600 legal-size sturgeon in the
river below Bonneville, up from
147,000 last year and 72,700 in
2012.
Fishery managers have set
an extremely conservative
3,000-sturgeon catch limit in the
ongoing season — disappointing
but much better than no season at
all. The middling-sized sturgeon
fishermen are allowed to keep
generate a lot of economic activity
for Columbia estuary ports,
merchants and charter operations.
A study funded by the Bonneville
Power Administration starting in
2000 has found female sturgeon
do not sexually mature until
they’re at least 18 to 32 years old
and only spawn about once every
OTHER VIEWS
Five notes on Trump’s
current predicament
T
LUKE WHITTAKER/EO Media Group
After three years of catch and
release fishing, anglers are allowed
to keep one sturgeon between 44
and 50 inches per trip.
three years. Although not ideal
fishing conditions, biologists have
learned spawning success is best
during high-flow years when the
river creates turbulence over rough
substrate or rocky-river bottoms —
so this winter’s intense rain and deep
mountain snows may have a silver
lining in future years in terms of
producing young sturgeon.
Conservation and next steps
Sturgeon are in trouble worldwide
and caution is obviously warranted
when it comes to harvest and
stress. In this gloomy picture, the
Columbia actually is something of
a bright spot, with a 2015 estimate
of up to 1 million white sturgeon
of all ages from Bonneville to
the river’s mouth. It is especially
important to protect breeding fish
age 18-plus — they are vital to the
species’ future. “It’s a resource that’s
not replaceable,” a scientist observed
in 2015. “Those big spawners, we
know how valuable they really are.”
Continuing proactive
management of sea lion populations
is clearly justified. Although the
idea is repellent to avid animal-right
activists, their numbers are out of
proportion to available prey in the
Columbia River as it exists today.
Responsible wildlife management
means adjusting sea lion numbers
to match their niche in what is
now an inherently human-centric
environment.
Sturgeon are well suited to
hatchery propagation. The states
should begin such a program.
Fishery managers are being
careful about sturgeon. This
is understandable, even if
disappointing. But they must me
bolder in enacting long-term plans
for viability of these ancient and
treasured fish.
he danger President Trump faces
Valerie Plame’s identity — but
from the various investigations
Fitzgerald knew who did it even as he
into the Trump-Russia matter has
started the investigation. Fitzgerald
changed dramatically in recent weeks.
never prosecuted that person or
If you’re a Republican and you still
anybody else for an underlying crime,
believe the critical question is whether
and instead spent more than three
Trump or his associates colluded
years dragging Bush figures before
with Russians to influence the 2016
a grand jury and finally prosecuting
election — if you still think that, you’re
one, Lewis Libby, for perjury and
Byron
behind the times. So now, a few notes
obstruction.
York
on where the Trump affair is today:
Mueller could certainly follow that
Comment
1. It’s not about collusion
path if he chooses. But some on Team
anymore.
Trump believe that he won’t, given
Fired FBI Director James Comey’s
a career they believe shows good judgment
testimony before the Senate Intelligence
and a straight-down-the-line-not-a-zealot-like-
Committee marked the full shift of the Trump- Fitzgerald style. But that could be just hope,
Russia investigation from a probe dedicated
and in any event, the final decision will be
to discovering collusion to a probe dedicated
Mueller’s.
to proving the president
4. More evidence?
obstructed justice. Democrats
Democrats don’t need any
at the Comey hearing barely
more to impeach.
touched on the collusion issue,
How many times have
which appears to have turned
you heard a Democrat or
out to be a dry hole.
Trump critic say that the
But to Democrats, that no
Russia investigation is “just
longer matters. Now, it’s all
getting started” or that they
about obstruction of justice.
are determined to “get to
While Comey testified that
the bottom” of it? With a
President Trump was never
new prosecutor starting an
under investigation in the FBI
open-ended investigation,
counterintelligence probe
they’re hoping for years of
under Comey, now, after the Comey memos
happy hunting.
and the Comey firing, it seems safe to predict
But the fact is, Democrats do not need
that special counsel Robert Mueller will
any more information than what is already
investigate Trump for obstruction. So it is a
publicly known to pursue impeachment
new game, even if Republicans keep trying to
proceedings against the president. What
play the old one.
they need is 218 votes in the House of
2. Trump failed to take the threat against Representatives. If they had majority control
him seriously.
of the House now, they would already be
Here is a simple fact: Many of Trump’s
pursuing impeachment. Which means ...
most determined adversaries do not want just
5. 2018 is everything.
to defeat him on Obamacare, although they
In 2006, when the Iraq War was going
want that, too. They do not want just to defeat
disastrously and George W. Bush was at a
him on taxes, although they want that, too. No, low point, some Democrats hoped they would
they do not want just to defeat him — they
not only win control of the House in that
want to remove him from office.
year’s midterm elections, but that they could
That has been clear from the moment The
then impeach Bush as well. But even though
Associated Press called the presidential race
Bush was in political trouble, Nancy Pelosi,
for Trump in the early hours of Nov. 9. Some
who stood to become speaker if Democrats
of those adversaries began discussing ways to
won, was wary of making the 2006 midterms
remove Trump that very day. Some Democrats a referendum on impeachment. Knowing
have been talking about it ever since.
that voters want to vote for something more
What seems clear, though, is that Trump
positive than punishing a president, Pelosi
never, at least until now, took the threat
flatly declared before the election that if
terribly seriously. Whether from his own
Democrats prevailed, impeachment would be
belief that he can persuade people to like him, “off the table.” As it turned out, she won big,
or his faith in his ability to do business with
became speaker, and impeachment stayed off
a wide variety of players — for whatever
the table.
reason, Trump has acted as if he is not every
Now, Democrats have a new class of
day in mortal threat from opponents who
impeachment enthusiasts who want to go
want to remove him from office. He has given after Trump as soon as possible. And Pelosi,
them ammunition left and right and then
who likely would again become speaker if
complained that they are using it.
Democrats take the House in 2018, is again
3. The future is in Robert Mueller’s
counseling caution.
hands.
Whatever the case, the bottom line next
There are a few models for how the
year is 218 votes. If Democrats have them, the
Mueller investigation might play out. Perhaps
president’s life becomes much, much more
the most relevant is the Patrick Fitzgerald-
difficult and fraught with danger.
Plamegate investigation of the George W.
■
Bush years. There was an underlying crime
Byron York is chief political correspondent
in that matter — the leak of CIA employee
for The Washington Examiner.
But to
Democrats,
it’s all about
obstruction of
justice.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
YOUR VIEWS
Cable company keeps
Rose Parade from viewers
This is definitely a “Kick in the
Pants” article, and its to Charter/
Spectrum TV and the FCC.
I wonder how many people in the
Pendleton, Hermiston, Athena, Weston
and Milton-Freewater area were waiting
to watch the Portland Rose Festival
Parade on Saturday morning at 10 a.m.?
Thanks to Charter/Spectrum TV
and the FCC, none of us were able to
see it. Charter/Spectrum was called by
many in the Milton-Freewater area, but
all received the same message: “Not
our fault.” The FCC decided to cancel
the Portland CBS (KOIN) and FOX
(KPTV) feeds in these areas — we
could get our news from the Tri-Cities or
Spokane, but not Portland. They made
the decision for us that we don’t need to
watch those channels.
No “Let ‘er Buck” advertisement in
the Rose Parade this year, or ever again.
The Round-Up Court might as well have
stayed home.
There is certainly no reduction in our
monthly Charter/Spectrum statements,
and did we get the opportunity to vote
on this change? Of course not. I am a
very disgruntled Charter/Spectrum TV
customer.
Bonnie Stephens
Milton-Freewater
LETTERS POLICY
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