8 NOVEMBER 1, 2001
Smoke Signals
Strongest Salmon Run Since 1938 in the Columbia
Basin Attracts Sportsmen but may not last
MAUPIN, OR. (AP) After a
spring and summer chasing
salmon with a boat, Harold
Blackwolf savored fishing the way
his ancestors did.
Tying a rope around his waist,
he stepped to the edge of a wooden
platform and swung a net affixed
to a 15-foot pole into the churning
water of Sherars Falls on the
Deschutes River, hauling up a
thrashing Chinook.
"There were guys who used to
wonder how such a little guy could
pull those big salmon out," said
Blackwolf, who stands about 5-foot-7.
"I would say, 'because I'm
ready. My whole body is ready to
pull.' It's a good feeling. I haven't
had that feeling in a long time."
The joy Blackwolf felt providing
for the Confederated Tribes of the
Warm Springs was shared by
sports fishermen, as well. The 3
million salmon and steelhead that
came back to the Columbia River
this year represent the strongest
run since 1938. But with prices
depressed by a glut of foreign
farmed fish, commercial fishermen
tied up their boats in protest.
Another good return is expected
next year, but this year's drought
and California energy crisis left
little water in the Columbia for fish
and downstream migration surviv
als were the lowest on record a
sure sign of bad times ahead.
"The abundance and joy you saw
on the river has little likelihood of
repeating itself in 2003 and 2004,"
when those fish are due to come
back, said Charles Hudson, spokes-
mmsmiTm.i&ffi.r1
if
man for the Columbia River Inter
Tribal Fish Commission.
The credit for this year's abun
dance goes more to Mother Nature
than the hand of man, said Steve
Williams, Assistant Director of Fish
eries for the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife.
A stretch of rainy winters the past
five years made for unusually good
survival for the young fish mak
ing their spring migration to the
ocean.
When they got to the ocean, a
rare combination of winds, tem
peratures and currents jump
started the food chain by welling
up nutrients from the ocean floor.
Next year is projected to be an
other good return, but no one is pro
claiming salmon victory. Drought
left little water in rivers, where
young salmon spend up to two
years before migrating to the
ocean.
California's energy crisis led the
Bonneville Power Administration to
declare an emergency, diverting
what water there was and the
young salmon in it to turbines
and away from spillways in the fed
eral hydroelectric dams on the Columbia.
Fish coming down the Snake
River were barged around the
dams, but not so in the Columbia.
What little water was spilled over
dams came after most of the fish
had passed.
The result was terrible down
stream survival rates as low as
19 percent for mid-Columbia steel
head, according to the Fish Passage
Center, which tracks the migration.
In contrast, this year's returning
adults became a bonanza for the
local sports fishing economy, filling
motels, boat ramps and conve
nience stores with happy anglers
and freezers with fish.
The Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife reported 158,000-an-gler
trips one person fishing for
one-day at the mouth of the Co
lumbia this season That's more
than double last year's tally and
more than 17 times the trips in
1994. Another 70,000 angler trips
were estimated along the
Columbia's tributaries.
"I'm willing to bet this is one of
the few bright spots in the North
west economy," said Liz Hamilton
of the Northwest Sport Fishing In
dustry Association.
Not so for commercial fishermen.
Columbia River gill-netters tied
up their boats in September and
gave away fish on the steps of the
Capitols of Oregon and Washing
ton to protest prices held down by
a market flooded with farm-raised
salmon from Chile, Canada and
Norway.
"We waited for years for these
runs," said Jack Marincovich, Ex
ecutive Director of the Columbia
River Fishermen's Protective
Union. "Our gas is up to $2.00 a
gallon. We have to repair our
boats. It's gotten to the point
you're money ahead if you leave
your boat tied up."
As the Northwest has struggled
to reverse declining salmon returns
the past 20 years, farmed fish have
grown from a novelty to more than
half the world supply, consistently
available year-round.
That has shifted the motivation
for salmon restoration away from
the commercial fishing that once
dominated the resource and toward
cultural, recreational and biologi
cal reasons, said Economist Hans
Radke.
For Blackwolf, an American In
dian, seeing the salmon return in
such numbers is about going back
to the ways the Creator taught his
ancestors to live, which includes
fishing.
"We hold the salmon as a provider
for the people," he said. "The way
it was told to me by my Elders, in
order for the salmon to keep com
ing back, the Indians need to fish.
The Creator placed them here to be
used."
Congress Approves Funding to Improve Habitat of Salmon
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)
A bill with millions of dollars to
improve the habitat for endan
gered Pacific salmon and other
land management projects is on
its way to President George W.
Bush's desk.
The House and Senate passed
the $19.1 billion Interior spend
ing bill in mid-October.
The bill contains more than $14
million for the Fish and Wildlife
Service to enhance fish habitat and
protect salmon runs in the North
west. It includes money for re
search on bull trout habitat and
hatchery reform.
Almost $26 million is also devoted
to the Elwha River project to re
store what were once the most ro
bust salmon runs on the Olympic
Peninsula. It will allow for the de-
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sign of a plan to remove two dams
on the river.
And some $4 million in the Bu
reau of Indian Affairs will go to
ward a program to aid Tribal
health, salmon and economic devel
opment. Steve Moyer, Vice President of
Trout Unlimited, a conservation
group, said he thought the bill con
tained what he had a reasonable
right to expect. But "for fish people
there is never enough money ... for
fish," he said.
The funding, which will be used
in the fiscal year that started Octo
ber 1, is just part of the federal
salmon package most of which
is found in another spending bill
that funds the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration
and its National Marine Fisheries
Service.
The Interior bill funds the Inte
rior Department, Forest Service ,
and Bureau of Land Management,
among other programs. The pack
age is $300 million more than was
spent in the last fiscal year.
George Behan, a top aide to Rep
resentative Norm Dicks, D-Wash.,
ranking member of the House Ap
propriations Interior subcommittee,
said the bill allocates "an enormous
amount of money in the Pacific
Northwest and the Olympic Pen
insula itself in restoring the habi
tat" for endangered salmon.
The challenge still ahead, said
Behan, is securing adequate money
for salmon recovery efforts in the
bill that funds NOAA.
The Interior bill also includes
$1.7 million for water supply and
management activities in the Kla
math Basin, located on the Oregon
California border. Much more will
be needed.
Oregon lawmakers including
Senators Ron Wyden, a Democrat,
and Gordon Smith, a Republican
have been looking for solutions in
the battle there over water. Farm
ers, Tribes, ranchers and environ
mental groups helping endangered
fish have been battling to secure
their interests right to the precious
resource.
Also in the Interior bill: $1.3
billion for the national forest sys
tem, up $26 million from the previ
ous year; , $399 million for na
tional wildlife refuges, up $23 mil
lion; $2.2 billion for wild land
firefighting.