as X.sIAZprS'S

A Paperfor~ . People who Care about the West

The Columbia River: An Age of Reform ,

Indians fishing at Celilo Falls before it was inundated behind The Dalles Dam ~ estern Water Made Simple The second of four special issues starts~on page 6 2.Higll ~ HIllIS -- oaoIMr 13 1986iii~.nl~=-=~I~~~----} . ---_2

Hodel, favorsBLM wilderness in Wyoming During a visit last month to ...,...------...., "I don't see our position changing," Wyoming, Interior Secretary Donald J1 he said. Hodel talked with reporters about wild ~ Recently, he added, an "extremely

horse roundups and wilderness. '~" upset" Roland Robison, who is the Looking at remote Adobe Town, il" Utah BLM director, came to Denver to one of several BLM wilderness study ~ express dissatisfaction with EPA's areas in the state, Hodel said he favors opinion that Utah failed to approach wilderness designation in southwest- wilderness designation region. by ern Wyoming and does not agree with region. Vodehnal said Robison asked those who say deserts are not the EPA to clarify its authoriry to make appropriate as wilderness. HOdel comments and asked for more pointed out that wilderness described examples- to support criticism of its by Christ in the Scriptures was" more draft EIS. Vodehnal said his office will akin to this area than mountains and replace its original comments on the trees.' , BLM draft with more specific Hodel was not so sure about examples and an explanation of how deserts in Utah, however. Whenasked his agency's concerns relate to the whether he agreed with his advisory EIS. panel's recent recommendations Secretary of Interior Donald Hodel On the subject of wild horses, the against wilderness designation for Interior Secretary said he was BLMlands in Utah, Hodel said he was recommended for wilderness. Hodel convinced by his visit that the "not familiar with the Utah sirua- said, •'EPA may have been out of line roundups are humane and should cion." in its critical remarks" and added that continue. Hodel said he also supports i But he was familiar with the the agency is "rethinking some of the sale .. currently prohibited by i Environmental Protection Agency's their criticism." federal law » of horses not adopted criticism of Utah BLM's lO·year EPA's Dale Vodehnal, who heads after the annual-roundup. I wilderness study process that culmin- the impact statement branch at EPA's ated recently in 1.9 million acres regional .office in Denver, disagreed. --Kathanne Collins

HIGH COUNTRY NEWS (ISSN/0191/)657) Mother Nature was kind to the With the clearing came the crisp fall ~olors. Ed Quillen, one of the very is published biweekly, except for ODe issue during July and one issue during January, by staff during the preparation of this weather of fall, although thus far we few ipeople we know who supports the High Country News Foundation, 124 Grand issue on the Columbia River. She sent have been spared a freeze. Not that it himself by freelance writing, came by Avenue, Paonia, Colorado 81428. Second-class day after day of unremitting rainfall, makes much difference. The shorter with' wife Martha and daughters postage paid at Paonia, Colorado. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to so we were able to get a feel for what days and coolerweather mean that the Abigail and Columbine. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS, Box 1090" Paonia, it must be like to live in the Columbia green tomatoes and strawberries just One of their survival tricks, the CO 81428. River Basin. sit there, defying even the surviving Quillens said, was to live in downtown f , Tom Bell Ofcourse, not all of that basin is in grasshoppers to chew on them. Salida, Colorado, where they can walk Editor Emeritus a rainbelt. Some-isas arid as anYI'part The wetness has been a nuisance to school, shops and' saloons. But Ed Marston of the intermountain Rockies. Ever here, but it has been a tragedy in parts Salida is being hit by the economics Publisher accommodating, the weather cleared of Montana. That state, in the news affecting most tural Rocky Mountain Betsy Marston during the last day or so of production, last year because of drought, is now towns, and they may soon- have to Editor reminding us of what the sun is like, waiting for floodwaters to drain away. drive ~eir 1965slant six Dodge Dart, ) udy Moffatt and revealing mountains that are The Paonia weather has not which has all of 60,000miles on it, out Deve/opmen' newly snowcapped. Nearby Grand deterred visitors. Lee Sayre, a to the highway to shop. Marjane Am bier Bruce Farling Mesa, we hear, has three feet of snow long-time reader from 'Colorado Glenn Oakley and ,excellentcross country skiing. Springs, came through for apples and --the staff Geoffrey 0' Gara C.L. Rawlins Pat Ford Yellowstone area. No groups have Contnouting Editors HOTLINE protested the memo yet, but Tony Jen Brunner Graphicsl Accounting available for logging and to assure Povilitis,, director of the Campaign for annual green sawtimber' harvesting Yellowstone's Bears, questioned the Mary Moran Bridger-Teton plan Research Associate levels at 35mmbf, the amount he said move.. "With all the development Steve Hinchman The long-awaited draft Bridger- is needed to sustain existing industry. going on in the intermountain West, it Intern Teton Forest Plan will call for a 38 Public comment on the Bridger-Teton might be unwise to think the popula- C. B. Elliott percent reduction in timber harvesting draft plan will be .. unusually tion is so secure that it no longer needs Circulation IProduction and the eventual closing to logging extensive, " Kingwill said, because of protection." The, memo is being reo Judy Heideman traffic of the Union Pass Road, unprecedented public interest in the viewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Typeset/inK according to an ••advance overview" management of the 3-million-acre Service, the Forest Service and the Tom Bell, Lander WY of the 1,800-page document. .The forest. Kingwill said the public National Park Service. Michael Clark, Woshinglon D. C. Sally Gordon, Kaycee WY 16-pagedocument was provided to the comment period will last 120 days,30 Adam Mcl.ane, Helena MT press to brieflydescribe the draft plan days longer than required, and will Anschutz wins Kate Missett, Buffolo WY and its accompanying environmental conclude in February 1987. ) erold Panas, San Francisco CA at Mosquito Creek Garrett Ray, Fort Collins CO impact statement, which will be Patrick Sweeney, Bll/ings MT released this month. Bridger-Teton Recovering grizzly The Anschutz Corp. won the last Herman Warsh, EmigrQnl MT informationofficer Fred Kingwillsaid The Montana Department of Fish, round in an l l-year battle over its Robert Wigington, BouJJer CO Board of Directors he anticipates a "furious reaction" to Wildlife and Parks is circulating a Mosquito Creek oil well application the recommended closure of the draft memo calling for the delisting of when the Interior Board of Land Articles appearing in High Country News 4-mile section of the Union Pass Road the grizzly bear from endangered Appeals rejected a last ditch challenge are indexed in Environmental PerioriicQls BiblWgnJphy, Environmental Studies Institute, recently realigned by Louisiana- species status in Montana's Northern from Wilson, Wyoming, resident 2074 Alameda Padre Serra, Santa Barbara, Pacific. The realignment approved by Continental Divide ecosystem. The Mark Altman. The ruling gives California 93103. Forest Service Chief Max Peterson in memo states that the ecosystem's Anschutz the go-ahead to drill an All rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. Write for permission to June allowedL·P to begin hauling its estimated 549 to 813 grizzlies exceed exploratory well at its Mosquito Creek print any ankles or illustrations. Contributions 2.4 million board foot Little Sheep the goal of 560 bears listed in the site in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton (manuscripts, photos, artwork) will be. Mountain timber sale near Pinedale area's 1982 Grizzly Bear Recovery National Forest. Residents from welcomed with the understanding that the editors cannot be held responsible for loss or over Union Pass to its Dubois mill. Plan. The department also says the nearby Wilson and Jackson Hole damage. Enclose a self-addressed stamped. Kingwill said he also anticipated bear population meets' or exceeds the fought the well as part of their envelope with all unsolicited submissions to resistance to the proposed cutback in plan's population characteristic re- increasing resistance to oil and gas ensure return. Articles and letters will be published and edited at the discretion of the annual green sawtimber harvesting quirements _.reproductive rate, litter encroachment on the area's recrea- editors. from the current 26 mmbf to a new size, mortality rate, etc. ~~and other tion-based economy. Anschutz has Advenising information is available upon level of 16mmbf. L·P's chief forester criteria for changing the grizzly's begun upgrading the road to the well request. To have a sample copy sent to a friend, *nd us his or her address. Write to Box 1090, in Dubois, Bob Baker, said he will do t I-year status as a threatened species. site, but the company has not said Paonia, Colorado 81428. Call High Co*"tr'y everything in his power "to see that Delisring would only affect the when it plans to install the drill rig. News in Colorado at 303/527·4898. the Forest Service does not write off grizzlies in the Northern Continental Members of the environmental group Subscriptions are $20 per year for Individuals, '28 per year for institutions, Single this community." He said he would Divide region in northwestern Mon- Earth First! have promised a protest copies '1.00 plus '1.25 postage and handling. work to keep the Union Pass Road tana, and would not affect those in the at Mosquito Creek. T , ! pT .lis 7.

High Country News _. October 13, 1986-3 How long until grizzly 104 explodes?

A grizzly sow and her two cubs two spring-loaded snaps that hold the but their dog chased him off. He have been delighting people with their top down are the weak spots, he said, returned a third night, "for the antics near the east gate to because the bear broke one off, got his scraps," again after dark when all Yellowstone National Park. claws underneath and ripped the other they couId see him with was a The threesome have been near the side off. "He was rewarded nicely," flashlight, and this tiroe they managed Pahaska campground and east gate off Morris said, and left them only one to scare hiro off by firing shots over his and on all summer. Lately they've package of freeze-dried food, a small head. As during the other twOnights, "been putting on quite a few side can of pudding and a candy bar. they stayed in camp and watched him shows," according to Wyominli He said the bear tearing the box him from about 50 feet away. Game and Fish bear expert Larry apart sounded like a "car accident." . "Being out of food, we were the Wasting the West Roop. Two men have their hands full moving only things left to eat, and I think he Legislators from 13Western states He said people have followed, an empry box, he said, but the bear knew that too," Morris said of their meeting in Colorado Springs, Colo- hounded and moved in on the bears as was breaking small trees off as it reasons for' going home early. rado, recendy were unanimous on the close as 20 feet, and some people have moved the box about 100 yards from J issue of the nation's first high-level yelled at the sow to get her to sit up. their camp through trees. nuclear waste dump. They sent --Bruce McCormack "That is a very aggressive bear The bear came back the next night, Congress a' resolution urging a when she wants to be," Roop said. suspension of all work on siting and "I've seen her in some vicious fights development of a nuclear waste- and saw her recently chase off a big, repository until work on a second aggressive' male that came around. repository begins. The Department of She's a little terror." Energy was directed by Congress to Pahaska and east gate regulars locate rwo repositories in different dubbed the sow "Arnie," after golfer regions -of the country. Instead, the Arnold Palmer. "She gathers a crowd DOE narrowed finalists to Washing- like Palmer, and when she moves, the ton, Nevada and Mississippi for the crowd moves too," Roop said. first burial ground, while postponing a The four-year-old grizzly, Number search in the' East indefinitely. 104,was first captured in 1983 and has Western legislators fear that unless been in the east gate area forced, Congress will never base an intermittently since. She is "relatively underground dump in the East, .and unafraid" of people, Roop said.· She that would leave the West bearing recently dug into a camper's cooler more than its share of the nation's and also walks through the camp- nuclear .waste burden. Eighry-five ground. He thinks another grizzly in percent of the spent nuclear fuel the area -- but one they have never produced in the country come's from been able to collar -- is a sibling of e~st of the Mississippi River. hers. That bear is young to have cubs, e but also has two. ~ The concept of a "safe, neutral ~ bear" is gaining public favor, Roop Bears without berries ~ said, but he has problems with it. That ~'" idea ·is.leading people to forget how' Bears are hungry this year, but 'and bit into the tires of vehicles parked dangerous a grizzly can be. . where they are finding food they are at trailheads. A stare bear expert He said bears are not rypically also finding trouble. Biologists in the speculates the bears like the smell and neutral to anything in their environ- yellowstone National Park area report consistency of the "rubber donuts." ment, except maybe trees or rocks, that scarce food and an increasing Nearby, one or more grizzlies caused and they throw and rip them aparr population are driving black bears and thousands of dollars in damage, looking for food. Everything else is grizzlies down from the hills in search smashing the cabs of pickup trucks either prey, or like another bear, a of easier pickings. and ripping the seats down to the wire competitor. A grizzly sow and her cub were frames in search of food, reports the Grizzlies like 104 are actually just' shot in early September while dining Cody'Enterprise, tolerating people when they appear on a rancher's sheep near the northern Sitings and run- ins with bears are unconcerned about human pres~nce, border of Yellowstone. Another grizzly uo over last year throughout the West, Roop said. caused over $1,000 in damages by says Glen Erickson of the Montana He said grizzlies will treat people raiding the larder of a home in West Department of Fish, Wildlife and Coal on the range like a competitor, and when people Yellowstone, Montana. The bear was Parks. Erickson attributes the rise to a stress or upset them, they'll just walk attracted by dog food outside the back poor white pine nut crop, a bad berry Wyoming was home to seven of the away, maintaining their poise. door. season and more bears. A lot more nation's 10most productive coal mines I in 1985, according to a recent report ! "But Doe of these times. she's In Ennis, Montana, a beekeeper cubs were born this year, especially going to get a little ticked off, and shot a black sow and cub who had their grizzlies, he says. In Yellowstone by the National Coal Association. The someone is going to get really hurt." paws in his beehives. Bears cost hiro alone, 22 female grizzlies with young Black Thunder surface mine near Roop said most of the seven or eight over $4,000 this summer, he said. On were seen this summer. Last year Wright, Wyoming, led the nation for people that have been killed in Glacier the eastern border of Yellowstone, only nine were spotted. . . the second year in a row with over 23 Park iii the last 20 years have been near Cody, Wyoming, bears slashed --Steve Hinchman million tons of biruminous coal killed by sub-adult bears that as cubs produced, followed by the Kerr were classified as "neutral." McGee Corp.'s Jacobs Ranch Mine . 'They are not aggressive at first, with almost 13 million tons produced . but later become aggressive," he Heck, if they could find someone Both lie in Wyoming's Powder River said. "These neutral bears are time that wonderful, they should run him Basin. Altogether the seven Wyoming for president. bombs." mines produced over 92 million tons of Meanwhile, boxes that were His next book will be titled: I Kill The Summit County ] ouma! in coal last year. installed in the Shoshone Forest as . for Excellence. Colorado's ski country printed the bears proof are proving not to be, Roop Tom Peters, who co-authored In following paragraph: "To complete A $100 million split goals, (shopping center developer said, as two Cody hunters in the Search of Excellence, has also written The Senate and House split over A Passion for Excellence. Leo) Molinaro suggested that a Crandall area recently found out building roads in national forests may management entity be appointed who Bob Morris and Donovan Allen had be as deep as the Grand Canyon, has the hard-boiled business acumen stored dog and horse feed, hamburg- environmentalists say. On Sept. 16 the He ought to know, he works for of a developer' with a gleam of the er, eggs, bacon, bread, peanut butter Senate voted 53-42 to fund· $246 them. public interest in the eye." and jelly, Spam and other food items Interior Secretary Donald Hodel million for forest road construction in in the metal box provided by the told the Rocky Mountain News that Who says Americans aren't fiscal year 1987. Those funds would Forest Service at their campsite. On "as - a trustee for the Indians, I interested in international news? pay for new timber roads into their first night out, Morris said a big wouldn't advise them to trust the A reader asked the following currently roadless areas. However, bear, probably 500-600 pounds and state. I wouldn't advise them to trust question of Parade magazine: "A the House has approved' only $148 five feet tall, came into their camp and the federal government, either." great deal of publiciry was accorded million, a figure the Forest Service after 45 minutes had torn open the Hodel was referring to informal and Diana's virginiry prior to her marriage estimates will cost the logging box. unsigned agreements between Color- to>Charles. But I saw nothing in the industry 24,000 jobs in the next two He said the boxes are about five ado, New Mexico and the Ute Indians press about Sarah Ferguson's virgin- years. The issue is now in committee, feet long and 18inches high and wide. for cost-sharing in the Animas-La ity or lack of it prior to her marriage to - but environmental groups predict a They are "quite solid" and made of Plata water project in soutbwesrern Andrew. Is that no longer a confrontation when the Senate version about one-eighth inch steel. But the Colorado. consideration?' , of the bill returns to the House. 4-Higb Country News -- October:13, 1986

~l .A Colorado city looks westward for water -~ . "' Colorado's war over water between -The state Division of Wildlife should be concerned with the broader the growing, urbanized Denver area noted that the - Roaring Judy Fish . public trust, a legal doctrine that says and the shrinking, rural Western Hatchery would be inundated by the private interests must be balanced Slope is now being fought on three Almont Reservoir and that finding a with the overall best interests of the fronts. The two long-term battles are replacement site would be difficult public. the Denver area's desire to build Two and expensive. Clay seemed to agree with Aurora Forks Reservoir on the South Platte -The Colorado state engineer, that many of the issues belong in other Rivet, and the Aurora-Colorado whose job includes the administration forums. His main concerns were the Springs effort to build Homestake II in of the complex system of legal water availability of the water and possible the Holy Cross Wilderness near Vail. rights, said the application did not injury to senior water rights holders. Thus far, Denver and its 46 or so contain enough information to deter- He granted a one- year extension of the city-county-water company partners mine if the project would injure senior hearing to give Aurora and the Upper have spent $30 million on a still rights. Others noted that Aurora's Gunnison River Water Conservancy incomplete environmental' impact $300 million estimate left out the costs .District time to negotiate a deal. statement on Two Forks. If built, Two of land, lawsuits and inflation. Though neither Dingess nor the Forks, located east of the Continental -Crested Butte, using an argument River District's attorney Dick Bratton Pale and leafless Divide, will become a 1.2 million from its case protesting Amax specified the nature of the bargain, acre-foot holding tank for water Corporation's application for water the potential prize for Gunnison may Colorado's aspen may look sick, diverted from watersheds deep within rights for its Mt. Emmons molybde- be construction of a group of small but the trees are not dead yet. Large western Colorado; num mine, claimed Aurora's applica- reservoirs that the Upper Gunnison stands throughout the state, and Some of those diversions -- such as tion is speculative. Town attorney District has long sought. Since especially on the Western Slope, have Denver's Eagle-Piney and Gore Range Wes Light said Aurora's growth Aurora's April announcement, Brat- been ravaged by epidemic numbers of projects -- have' been on the drawing projections are unrealistic. Thus, he ton has several times publicly noted the large aspen tortrix, a relative to boards for years. Now Aurora, a city of said, a project of this size does not the possibility that Aurora's project the spruce budworm. The tortrix is a 300,000 that is growing so quickly appear to be immediately justifiable, could help the local economy, which is dark green caterpillar that feeds in jokes have it annexing western and Colorado law does not allow water based on cattle, skiing and summer early summer by folding and chewing Kansas, has come up, with another - rights for speculative projects. recreation, and a college. aspen leaves, leaving the trees pale proposed diversion. -The High Country Citizens' The Water District last year and leafless. Later, the torrrix turns That plan to divert 73,000 acre-feet Alliance, a Crested Butte environ- released a study of six potential into a gray moth and lays its eggs in of Gunnison River basin water under mental group, took the speculation locations for dams on Gunnison tent webs on the trees. "There's not the Conrinental Divide got its first day argument further, citing the uncer- country creeks. At that time Bratton much you can do with the aspen tortrix in court Sept. 26, beginning what may tainty of the Two Forks Reservoir noted that agricultural interests could but let it take its course," says Bill be years of litigation. The result was a project, which would be used to store not afford to pay for those projects, Jarrell, a forester for the Grand Mesa, some of the Gunnison Basin water. but recreation interests might. He has Uncompahgre and Gunnison National one-year extension of the case. Aurora countered that many of the suggested that stabilization of the Forest. The tortrix's lifecycle is two to The proposal calls for a 15-mlie concerns were beyond the scope of flows of the small streams might three years, but healthy aspen can tunnel under the Collegiate Range and Colorado water law. Fish and wildlife, benefit local fisheries. be defoliated three years running and two reservoirs on the Taylor and East air quality, recreation and the The small reservoirs could also still come back, he adds. Compound- rivers, i which merge at Almont, Western Slope. economy are the replace the proposed Almont Reser- ing the problem this year is a leaf between Gunnison and Crested Butte, responsibility of state and federal voir, since its function is to provide blight called Marsonia Populi, or ink to form the Gunnison. Aurora's legal agencies and the state Legislature, replacement flows to .downstream spot. The blight's worst effect thus far filing aroused the objections of 42 Dingess said. Aurora has promised water users. The Almont Dam on the is that it spoils a usually colorful fall. parties. Gunnison River Water Court Referee Aaron Clay called it the full mitigation and compensation for East River has aroused far more largest: case in the history of the basin injuries to property and the fish opposition than the Pieplant Dam on and noted it is the district's first hatchery and relocation of a state the 'upper Taylor River, which would transmounrain diversion case. highway that would be inundated. store the water before its diversion At :the informal hearing (which Gunnison County Attorney Rikki under the Divide. went unraped and' unrecorded), Clay Santarelli argued that the water court --Gary Sprung said he had called the meeting to familiarize himself with the legal issues and to have the parties inform coordinator, told the Idaho Mountain the court of their intents. Aurora's Express that now the Middle Fork of attorney John Dingess sought to limit Visitors don't care the Salmon River "will not ever be the scope of issues while many degraded by dredge mining and will objectors raised concerns well beyond Relocating camping facilities from remain protected as Sen. Frank Artifacts trial the ordinary scope of water rights Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone Nation- Church intended." The League al Park will-have little or no effect on cases. brought the case to court in 1983 by A federal jury in Salt Lake City Aurora's application for the water "gateway" communities, according to contesting four Forest Service approv- acquited Allan (Buddy) Black Sept. 19 rights in April took Gunnison 'County a recent study done for the National ed dredge applications for the Middle of charges that he dealt illegally in by surprise. The city claims the water Park Service. The independent Fork: Two years later, Judge Ray relics stolen from Indian ruins on may be drawn from the basin without researchers detected little 'camp' McNichols ruled that Congress public land. The case against Black, a purchasing or leasing any old rights. ground loyalty, a general lack of intended to ban 'all dredge. mining southeast Utah native who now lives in Auror~'s junior status on the familiarity with the park and an when it granted wilderness status to first-in-rime, firsr-in-righr ·Iadder has Henderson, Nevada, was based on' overwhelming desire to spend time the area. Interior made that decision controversial testimony from Earl not lessened its determination to observing wildlife -- particularly the [mal when it canned the Forest Shumway, a convicted artifact looter obtain :new water supplies to take the grizzly bear. Virtually no one filling Service's intentions to appeal. now on parole. Defense attorney thirsty, eixpanding Front Range out the ll-page questionnaire said Edward Brass blasted Shumway's community' into the 21st century. they would have altered their entrance credibility, calling him the "Adolf But the' 42 objectors swamped the or exit from the park if their current Hitting its stride. Hitler" of archaeology, who has water court office in the 30 days after campground were closed. Park destroyed thousands of sites. Prose- Aurora's filing. They cited the concessionaires, local communities Plagued by start-up problems, cuter Bruce Lubek of the U.S. following problems: and Wyoming politicians have all cited Unocal Corp. reported good news Attorney's office responded, ''I'm not -The Virgil and Lee Spann ranches economic concerns for opposing the recently for the nation's first asking you to give him (Shumway) a noted that the division engineer, a closure of Fishing Bridge, which is commercial oil shale project. Unocal medal. But why would he lie? He's state official, has asserted that all . prime grizzly bear habitat. The study President Richard Stegerneier said real unpopular down there because rivers and streams in the upper was released by the National Wildlife most of the kinks in the Parachute he's telling on everyone," the Times- Gunnison basin are overappropriated, Federation, which is suing the Park Creek plant in western Colorado have Independent of Moab , Utah, reported. which means more water is claimed Service to force the agency to honor its been worked out and' that continuous -Shumway, who said he made his living than is available. promise to close the campground. production will begin this fall. The for five years by selling looted Anasazi -Almont residents, who live less $650 million plant was completed in artifacts, became a federal informant than one mile downstream from the September 1983, but its cooling last spring. His confessions led to a proposed 198-foot-high Almont Reser- Dredging squashed system and rock-scraper never fully series of federal raids on homes and voir Dam, worried about a drop in functioned. The plant operated at full .businesses in the Four Corners region, property values. The Interior Department said it capacity for the 'first time this July, and among those netted for illegal olmpacts on fish and wildlife and will not appeal a 1985 U.S. District when it processed about 12,800 tons of possession of Indian artifacts was riparian habitat were raised by the Court ruling that bans dredge mining shale ore a day. Unocal has so far Buddy Black's father, Calvin, a San Gunnison Angling Sociejy. Others in Idaho's Salmon River Wilderness produced 159,000 barrels of raw shale Juan county commissioner. Looting protested the possible effects on air Area. Interior's decision was declared oil, which must be further refined into Native American ruins and dealing in quality, salinity of the Colorado Rivet, a "total and complete victory" by the high-grade crude oil. The plant is artifacts is a violation of the 1979 local economic development and local Idaho Conservation League. Rick designed to produce 10,000 barrels of Archaeological Resources Act. tax burdens. Johnson, the League's public lands raw shale oil per day. LRT

High Country News > October 13, 1986-)

J ARIZONA WILDERNESS MEETINGS A NEW LEADER •- =~~ The Anzona Bureau of. Land The board of the Greater Yellowstone . Management is reviewing its remaining Coalition has chosen Ed Lewis of Phoenix: A WILDERNESS HANDBOOK wilderness study areas and will bold a Arizona, as its new executive director. The: 'Stanford Environmental, Law series of public meetings where people Lewis, a practicing lawyer, currently

Society has published a layman's guide [0 can voice their concerns. All qIeetin~s are chairs the Arizona chapter of the Nature the BLM wilderness review process-called in Arizona unless noted, and will begin at Conservancy and is a member of the Wilderness Preservation: ,A Guide to 7 p.m. and last about two hours. Dates . Commission on the Arizona Environment. Wilderness Selection on the BLM Lands, and locations are: Oct. 28, Phoenix Lewis will take over duties at the by K. Jack Haugrud. The handbook offers District Office, 2015 Deer Valley Rd.; Oct. coalition's Bozeman, Montana, office in • technical assistance to anyone who wants 30, Chamber of Commerce Meeting December. The Coalition's first director, ro take pan in the review process. There Room, 333 W. Andy Devine Ave., Bob Anderson, was dismissed shortly are tips for interpreting the agency's Kingman; Oct. 30, SuverkrupJuniorHigh before the coalition's annual meeting in wilderness criteria, following the process School Multipurpose Room, 1590 Ave, C, June. of "interim" management, - reviewing Yuma; Nov. 3, Wallace School Gymna- mining regulations in study areas and siurn (Dome), 1650 Navaho, Parker; Nov. RESTORING ECOSYSTEMS making case studies of past decisions. 3,Rurh Brown School, 241 N. 7th, Blythe, The University of Colorado at Boulder The Bureau 'of Land Management California; Nov. 5,-.5moketree Elementary will host a one-day conference, Beyond oversees 270 million acres , of which ave'! School Multipurpose Room, 2395 Smoke- J),?u'fdanlu: Restoring Region-Wide Bco- 24 million acres qualify for wilderness tree Ave., Lake Havasu City. Send stems, ro" explore the ecosystem study. written comments to Bill Carter, Team ;:"i·proach to public land management. Stanford Environmental Law Society, Leader, Bureau of Land Management, Biologists Reed Noss and George Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA 94305. 2015 W. Deer Valley Road, Phoenix, AZ \\ uerthner will be featured speakers at Paper: $10 plus $1.50 for postage and 85027. . rh.'.: Nov. 15 conference. The 9 a.m. handling. 124 pages. registration is $8 at the University LEAN AND CLEAN A COLORADO ATLAS Memorial Center, Room 235. For more The Environmental Policy Institute Kenneth Erickson and Albert Smith information, contact the CU Environ- recently published a report on the have written the new and first-ever mental Center, Campus Box 207, John Running photo from the book, importance of continuing research on thematic Atlas of Colorado. Maps University of Colorado, Boulder, CO Blessed By Light fuel-efficient cars. The report, Improving throughout the 74-page book of climate, 80309 (303/492·8308). Domestic Automobile Fuel Economy vegetation, geology, surface stream BLESSED BY LIGHT After 1985: Economic -and Policy flows, land use, air pollution, water Blessed by Light: Visions of the Implications, discusses fuel-economy quality, population trends, origins of A COLORADO PESTICIDE NETWORK Colorado Plateau, is a book to savor. It standards in the last five years that have out-of-state skiers and more are well The Colorado Pesticide Network, an features 80 color photos by a number of decreased our reliance on' imported oil. done, and a good research tool. Most of ad-hoc group of activists concerned with professionals who have grown to love this Author Arnita Hannon proposes that we the statistics date back to 1980 or earlier, pesticide use and abuse, has published its rugged land. Photographers include keep the pressure on through continua- which is not a problem in most cases but a first issue of the Pesticide Network News. Stephen Trimble, Wallace Stegner, John tion of a gas guzzler tax and enactment of disaster in the "energy trends" category. The bi-monthly newsletter will serve as a Running, Dennis Turville,. Larry Ulrich, graduated increases in the federal gas Missing from· the book are, population forum for' network members and will Tom Till, Jeff Gnass. Philip Hyde, tax. The Reagan administration, reacting data for towns and cities of the state. cove! statewide pesticide Issues, Jist Catherine Veile, and Michael Collier, to pressure from some American auto Colorado Associated. University Press, resource information and hodine num- Their varied and stunning portraits of companies, advocates a slackening of 1338 Grandview Ave., Box 480, bers. To obtain a copy contact Elizabeth the Colorado Plateau are divided into fuel-efficiency standards. for cars and University of Colorado, Boulder, ·CO Otto at CEC/Pesticide Network, 2239 E. several sections: rock, water, canyons, trucks sold in the U.S. The report is 80309. Paper: $9.50. Colfax Ave., Denver, CO 80206. mesas, plateaus, mountains and time, available from the Environmental Policy . and quotes are sprinkled throughout from Institute, 218 D Street SE, Washington, MONTANA MANAGEMENT PLAN lJ TAH writers such as Edward Abbey, Ann D.C. 20003. The Bureau of Land Management in Zwinger,)ohn McPhee, Willa Cather and Montana is developing a West Hil.ine SKI Colin Fletcher. Publisher Gibbs M. Smith TALKING IT OUT Resource Management Plan that will says he is contributing one ~ollar for each Environmental disputes don't always affect Glacier, Toole, Liberty, Hill, copy sold to an environmental fund "to wind up in the courtroom, contrary to Blaine, Choteau, northern Fergus and aid in the effort to establish and preserve popular belief. A book just published by southern Phillips counties, and include wilderness areas on the Colorado the Conservation Foundation, Resolving the upper Missouri River: 8LM is Plateau. " Environmental Disputes, traces the considering alternatives that range from "Peregrine Smith Books, Box 667, growing use of mediation over. the past '5emphasi~ing r e s ou rc e gp roduct ion to Layton, VT 84041. Clorh: : $34'.95. 96 decade. Author Gail Bingham analyzed environmental protection. Send com- pages, 80 color photos. 160 cases where negotiation was tried and ments and concerns to District Manager, BLM, AirportRd., Lewistown, MT 59457. found that three-quarters successfully .'-'N'Ii,'I'~·IH', IttJ·, II "NO"",- W"'_'-~ - -~ •• r ------'-' = EARTH RESTORATION reached agreements that were imple- Restoring the Barth is a collection of mented 80 percent of the time. Bingham '/tCCESS UTAH SKI COUNTRY, the second book essays describing how individuals and, includes an extensive bibliography on the NEATS71/FF in the Utah Geographic Series, will be groups took action to recreate the dispute resolution field, as well as 50 available Nov. 1, 1986. This beautiful integrity of damaged environments. John profiles of cases from around the country. HERBAL HEALTH CARE PRODUCTS 128-page book by Brooke Williams Berger tells of a California. pharmacist Several federal agencies use negotiation- from regionally w ildcrafred and organic- includes more than 160 color photographs who saved a redwood forest and planted related techniques to develop regulations, ally grown herbs: teas, salves, lineament, by Chris Noble and others, four full color 10,000 trees with the help of his friends. and five states require that waste-storage cough soother, herbal extracts. Send maps, and 40,000 words of beautifully Another example is a Pennsylvania mine facilities negotiate with the community SASE for product information: Wyoming writeen text. Available in softcover inspector who repairs strip-mined lands. for an a reed site. Wildcrafters, Box 874, Wilson, WY ($15.95) and hardcover ($24.95). Orders In his foreword, Rep. Morris Udall calls 83014. (4xI9p) received on at before Nov. 7, 1986 will THE COLORADO these and other stories "an inspiration receive a 15 percent pre-publication ROCKY MOUNTAIN DISTINCTIVE NATURE NOTECARDS and a beginning." discount. ,Send $13.55 plus $1.00 for SCHOOL and stationery by Rocky Mountain artists. Alfred A. Knopf, 201 E. 50rh St., New postage for sofrcover ($14.55 per book) Grades 9 through 12 Mountain scenes, wildlife, wild flowers. York, NY 10022. Hardback: $18.95 -. 241 and $21.25 plus $1.00 for postage for . A private college preparatory West'ern Send $1 for catalogue and sample: pages. hardcover ·($22.25 per book) to: Utah school with high academic expectations Westwind, Box 9078, Dept. GIl, Geographic Series, Box 8325, Salt Lake and an extra-curricular program em- Missoula, Montana 59807. City, Utah 84108. Money-back guarantee phasizing wilderness experiences, ranch- SINGLE? ENVIRONMENTALIST? if not fully satisfied. (529-027) KALWALL ing, nordic and alpine skiing, and kayak- PEACE·ORIENTED? Concerned Singles ing. Newsletter links unattached like-minded For information 1 contact: men and women, all areas, all ages. Free Sunlite® Glazing Carolyn Herb sample. Box 7737-B, Berkeley, CA 94707. for Solar Panels and Admissions Office/Dept. D . Greenhouses Colorado Rocky Mountain School RECYCLED PAPER. Free color catalog of 1493 County Road 106 environmental notecards and recycled Teton Tinkers & Traders Carbondale, Colo. 81626 office and printing paper. Earth Care Box 91, Vietor, 10 83455 303/963·2)62 Paper, 325-~6 Beech Lane, Harbor (208) 787·2495 Springs, Mich. 49740. (7xHp)

VTA /I CLASSIFIED ADS cost 20 cents per word, c A NY o N pte-paid, $5 minimum. General rates for c o l' .v TN r display are $6./column inch camera- ready; $8Jcolumn inch if we make-up. For ad rate brochure; write HeN, Box 1090, Paonia, Colorado 81428 or call 303/527- 4898. wqRK ALASKA Center for the Environment (non-profit organization) seeks executive 111(;11(;()1 "'IORY \:E\\"~ director to starr Jan. 2, 1987, who has UTAH CANYON COUNTRY, the flrsr experience in fund development, fiscal book in the new Utah Geographic Series, management, organizational skills, vclun- is now available! Includes authoritative ter recruitment, and knowledge of text b-y Moab author F.A. Barnes, 162 environmental issues to administer color phoros by the West's finest Center's daily operations, develop annual operating plan, provide leadership on HIGH COUNTRY NEWS r-shirts are photographers, color inaps and charts , environmental issues/education, develop white with black mountain goat design or and a foreword by Ted Wilson, former membership/fund plans with the board, red with white mountain goat. 100 mayor of Salt Lake City. Send $14.95 plus and aid children's environmental camp. percent cotton, small, medium and large $1.00 for postage ($15.95 total per book) Applications due Nov. 1, $18,000 plus (sorry, no large left in red.) Send your to: Utah Geographic Series, Box 8325, benefits, contact Search Committee, check for $8.50 to HCN, Box 1090, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108. Money-back ACE, 411 West 6th, No. lA, Anchorage, Paonia, CO 81428. guarantee if not fully satisfied. Alaska 99501. (Ix) 6-High Co,mtry News -- October 13, 1986

The writers., Ed Marston has' been publisher of High Country News in Paonia, Colorado, since 1983.

Charles Wilkinson is professor of law at the Universiry of Oregon. He is an authority on Indian and Western resources law, and has written numerous articles and books. He is curently at work on TbeLords of Yesterday, which describes how 19th cenrury resource laws, such as the 1872 Mining Law, affect decisions today.

Daniel Keith Conner does full time research at the Sea Grant Legal Program at the Universiry of Mississippi. He has both a law degree and training in oceanography. Chuck Williams, a freelance writer and photographer, recently became the editor of CRITFC News, the newsletter of the Columbia River Inter- Tribal Fish Commission. He is part WATIER Cascade Indian and an enrolled member of the Grand Ronde Tribes. - A Portland, Oregon, writer and photographer, Cynthia D. Stowell is completing work on a book about the people of the Warm Springs Table of contents Reservation. Faces of a Reservation will be 17 published by Western Imprints, the press of the Oregon Historical Sociery, in March 1987. Special Water Issue Number 2: THE A WORKING RELATIONSHIP, by Chuck COLUMBIA RNER: AN AGE OF REFORM, Oct. Williams. Pat Ford is a freelance writer and 13, 1986. A few years ago, the Fish Wats were raging conservationist in Boise, Idaho, and a frequent This is the second in a series of four special between the Indian fishing tribes and the states of contributor to High Country News. He directed the issues under the general heading: Western Water Oregon and Washington, with the salmon taking Idaho Conservation League for several years. Made Simple. most of the casualties. Today, the spirit of war has This issue describes the Columbia River been replaced by a working relationship, and the Hadley Roberts is a retired U.S. Forest Service basin's efforts to recover the great salmon and salmon are doing (relatively) well. wildlife biologist living in Salmon, Idaho. He steelhead trou t fisheries that were diminished or currently works as a wildlife consultant and big destroyed by overfishing, pollution, logging, game guide. damming and irrigation. The recovery effort is Verne Huser is a program associate in Santa notable for the role played by the region's Native 19 Fe, New Mexico, with Western Network, a Americans and for the experiment in regionalism ras UPPER BASIN VIEW, by conservationist nonprofit research and mediation organization created hy passage of the Northwest Power and freelance writer Pat Ford. Planning Act. - that-works in the natural resources area. It is in the nature of river basins to create .~ enmiry between upstream and downstream. The The water drop design that serves as the' logo Columbia River is no exception. Idaho and the for these four: special 'issues on water was created 7 Sho-Ban tribe see the downstream interests as by Lester Dorl. An artist and conservationist, THE STUFF OF MORAL TALES, by High shutting them out of fishery decision-making. The Dore lives in the Ocooch Mountains of Country News publisher Ed Marston. downstream tribes see Idaho as having earlier southwestern Wisconsin and commutes to the Will just enough be done -. by increasing the cheerfully dammed the Snake River to within an University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he is number of fish hatcheries, by limiting logging, and inch of its life, and now interested only in flooding taking art classes. by rationing the fish take -- to keep the salmon the river with that sportsman's delight .. hatchery runs marginally alive? .Or will more far-reaching reared sreelheads -- to the detriment of a balanced COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN steps be taken to bring back the spirit, as well as and healthy fishery. the fish, of the good old days. RIVER LENGm 1,214(3) 22 [miles] 8 BASIN A GREAT LONEUNESS OF SPIRIT, by law THE CHAINSAW MASSACRE, by retired SIZE 2~9,OOO(3) professors Charles F. Wilkinson and Daniel Keith Forest Service biologist Hadley Roberts. [square miles] 2~8,OOO(2) Conner. High mountain streams don't have 'darns, but The authors follow a young salmon, or smolt, they do have loggers, and the mud spawned by AVERAGE from its spawning place in the high country roading and logging in Idaho can be as deadly to ANNUAL RUNOFF 180 million (2) downstream, past innumerable physical and salmon reproduction as the highest concrete dam. [acre-feet] 18~million .(4) bureaucratic barriers, to the ocean. AVERAGE FLOW AT RIVER MOUTH 18~million(5) 11 23 [acre-feet] SHOWING THE WEST WAY, by writer THE DAMMED COLUMBIA, by writer and rns Verne Huser. IRRIGATED activist Chuck Williams. 7.0 million (1) The reaction to the intense development of the LAND Chuck Williams, whose forebears gave Lewis Columbia River basin led Congress to enact the [acres] and Clark some trouble 'on their way down the Northwest Power Planning Act, and the four Columbia, describes the natural history of the northwest states to create the Northwest Power RESERVOIR region, and then tells how the river has been Planning Council as a balance to the giant, STORAGE reworked to provide kilowatts, acre-feet, a route 41 million pro-kilowatt Bonneville Power Administration. CAPACITY for barges into Idaho and other goods of the [acre-feet] [active capacity] (4) modern age. The Council has already played a major role in the Northwest, and it may also serve as a model for the West in its search for a regional way to deal with . HYDROPOWER resource questions now dominated by the federal CAPACITY 22,000(4) 15 government. [megawatts] SALMON: CONTINUITY FOR A CULTURE, Sources noted are as follows: 1) Bureau of by writer Cynthia Stowell. Reclamation; 2) The Salty Colorado, 1986, by Although history has driven a wedge between Taylor Miller, Gary Weatherford and John the people of Washington's Warm Springs Thank you Thorson, printed by the Conservation Foundation Reservation and their. ancestral home, the High Country News gratefully acknowledges andJohn Muir Institute at Inter-Collegiare Press, Columbia River still flows through their lives in the support of the 777 Fund of the Tides Founda- Shawnee Mission, Kansas; 3) World Book significant ways. That link with the past has tion in the development of these four special Encyclopedia, 1986 edition; 4) Bonneville Power enabled the people of the Warm Springs issues, and in the circulation of 28,000 sample Association; ~) The Upper Colorado River Basin Reservation to successfully adapt to modem copies to persons and institutions interested in and Colorado's Water Interests, 1982, by the America. Western water. Colorado Forum, Denver, Colorado: \ tT un

High COtlIJtryNews -- October 13, 1986-7

Seagtllls find easy fishing below Little Granite Dam where smolts leaving the bypass, spillway or ttlrbine passages are often sttlnned and disonented The stuff of moral tales the 1800suntil the 1970s; its reversal power plants kept in service through WzlIjust enough be done -- by increasing the number of has becomevisible only in the last few improved maintenance and less use, fish hatcheries, by limiting logging, and by rationing the fish Xears. and wind, solar and cogenerated .. The shift is most clear in-the case power -- then the time 'may come when take -- to keep the salmon runs m~rginally alive? Or will more of electric energy. The effort begun in economies puts a different value on far-reaching steps be taken to bring back the spirit, as well as the 1970s to build five WPPSS (an the river basin's resources. the fish, of the good old days? acronym for the Washington Public It is said that those who gaze into Power Supply System, and pronounc- crystal balls end up chewing on ed, mockingly, WHOOPS) nuclear ground glass. Certainly that has been ____ ..£byEd Marston sacrificed to overfishing, and its power plants in.the Northwest is part the experience of the experts who habitat has been traded away for ofhistory. Four plants are cancelled or predicted an ever-increasing need for lmost since the 1805voyage of logging, irrigation, dams, canal and mothballed, and the story ofWPPSS is power in the Northwest. What are discovery by Lewis and Clark, lock building and pollution. The one of gross miscalculation of furure .those experts saying today? The A rivers and streams in the salmon's habitat must stretch, electric power -needs, corrupt contrac- conventional wisdom is that the West Northwest's Columbia River basin unbroken, for thousands of miles, so .rors, incompetent workers, defaulted is experiencing a particularly deep have been mined, Salmon have been no one county, state, or nation could bonds, and a let-the-good-times-roll slide in the market for all overfished, timber overcut and water protect the fish, or had incentive to do attitude that led to disaster. commodities. But when that slide fouled. The final insult to the so. By all logic, the salmon should be ends, in a year or two, the-pendulum Columbia River was its transformation doomed. Instead, thanks to the - will reverse and the market for into a series of lakes by a chain of Northwest's fishing tribes and an uteven the sinking of billions aluminum, for logs, for food from federally built dams. independent judiciary, the fish is on into non-producing power irrigated agriculture will come back. This post-World War II Era of its way back. The story of that Bplants couldn't bring a supply At that point, the camphor will be Federalism has created enormous recovery is the stuff of which moral and demand balance to the region's blown away from the mothballed amounts of cheap hydroelectric power, tales are made. electric power market. Despite the WPPSS plants and the Columbia's large expanses of irrigated desert The articles in this special issue of loss of 80 percent of the planned hydroelectric turbines will again be lands, locks and canals that have made High Cotlntry News are about the nuclear power, continuing changes in spun for every possible kilowatt. Lewiston, Idaho, an ocean port, and Columbia River basin and its salmon. its economy and increased conserva- But it is at least possible that the intense logging. The spirit of those articles is of reform tion have left the Northwest with. a pendulum, whose reversal the experts The federally financed develop- . hanging on by fingernails. The tribes surplus. expect momentarily, has only begun ment of the Columbia'River basin fed fear that they, and the fish they have It had been exporting the surplus its swing awayfrom commodities and on itself and created an apparent need fought for, will be overwhelmed by to California.But that market is drying the kind of water development for ever more electricity. That led to greed, development and racism. up thanks to new power plants (started practiced by the Army Corps of the multibillion dollar attempt to build Reformers worry that the welter of before the West's glut became· Engineers and Bureau ofReclamation. five large nuclear power plants. The laws, treaties, and jurisdictions apparent) in the Southwest and to If that is true. economisrs in the 19905 resulting debacle, combined with supposedly dedicated to saving the conservation. In the Northwest itself, may put more long-term value on a other economic and social changes, salmon will instead mangle the the region's big electric consumers -- salmon fishery and free-flowing river created what could be called an Era of recovery effort. In the upper basin, the the aluminum smelters -- are in stretches than on kilowatt-hours, . Reform. timber industry and the road-minded . trouble. Logging is on the ropes. irrigated fields and barge canals. The focus of reform is the salmon, Forest Service threaten the spawning Irrigated agriculture in the arid p"!ts Ten years ago there was no talk of an extraordinary fish whose spawning beds with silt. A huge output of of the Columbia basin is in the same re-reclamation, of the decommission. 'requires clean, cold, pure mountain hatchery fish could create a rnonocul- trouble as elsewhere. ing of dams and the de-channelizing of streams in the upper reaches of the tural zoo -- a vast stockedpreserve for In the short run, the Northwest's rivers. Only Native Americans .and basin, a flow of unpolluted and fishermen -- instead ofbringing back a electricpower glut is hurting the effort some impracticalidealists believed the sufficient water to carry the young tough, adapted natural population of to recover fish and wildlife, The salmon fishery could be brought back, salmon downstream to the ocean and salmon. . BonnevillePower Adminisrrarion, the and they saw that happening only by conditions to let the adult salmon The human efforts to bring back region's federal electric energy learning -to live with dams, barge survive several years in the ocean. It the salmon have been Herculean. But distributor, is squeezed for funds and canals and irrigared agriculture. then needs a fighting chance at those efforts might have been for is cutting back on its building of fish Today, guided not so much by making it back upstream to spawn in naught without the reversal of an ladders and other recovery' steps. environmental commitment as by new its home gravel bed. historical tide. That tide ran strongly Should the glut continue -- economic realities I re-reclamation is a For 106 years the salmon has been for development from the latter part of prolonged by conservation, as well as possible future. a·fflgh CO"""" News .. October 13, 1986

A great loneliness of the spirit all by telling of the steelhead run of have worked against them in a way 1882 when the fish were so thick in the that places the demands of nature in riverbed that there was no room for conflict with human institutions. Some The authors follow a young salmon, or smolt, from its water, , species of Columbia basin salrnonids spawning place in the high country downstream, past Throughout the nineteenth century range over thousands of miles during innumerable physical and bureaucratic barriers,to the ocean. and well into the twentieth the their four- or five-year lifetimes, and Columbia basin produced mote all stubbornly persist in crossing, salmon than any other river system in whatever the risks, the boundaries the world. No one alive today will ever humans have devised. Migratory fish _____ ---Jhy On their journey down the Snake see salmon runs so wondrous as those -cannot be successfully confined like Charles F. Wilkinson and Columbia rivers, Lewis and Clark observed by, William Clark or many other wildlifepopulations (if you lind everywhere saw evidence of the Hathaway] ones (much less the ones , landlock 'salmon, they become Daniel Keith Conner salmon economy on which the he lied about). Today the fabled dwarfs), and effectiveprotection is for livelihood of Northwest Indian tribes salmon and steelhead runs are gone that reason all the more difficult. A"d whllt is there to life if II 'was based. Reaching the Columbia from more than half of their former Because of this. unique combina- ma" clln"ot hear a lovely cry of II River on Oct. 17, Clark recorded 'that Columbia basin habitat, and are tion of strong consumer demand and whippoorwill or the arguments of the water was "crouded with severely depleted in the rest. Indeed, the animal's sublime indifference to the frogs llro""d a pond at night? salmon." He'added, "The number of 'no fish anywhere has been so jurisdictional boundaries, the salmon For ail things share the same. dead Salmon on the shores & floating _ intensively exploited. as Columbia fishery may be the most difficult of all brellth -- the beasts, the trees, the in the river is incredible to say... " basin salrnonid species. Both nature - to regulate effectively. man. The white man must treat Chinook salmon were then at the and humans make extreme demands Add to this the complex legal the beasts of this IlInd as his height of their fall run, and the on them, and for that reason salmon milieu that has developed over the brothers. Whllt is man without the astounded explorers were witnessing have been called the world's most past 12 years as a result both of the beasts? If all the beasts were a natural spectacle that drew much harassed fish. federalization of fisheries law and a. gone, mlln wo,,1d die from a great comment in the journals and memoirs if the Pacificsalmon is a symbol of series of decisions in federal courts loneliness of spirit, for whatever, of early explorers and settlers of the natural bounry, it also stands as a that protect Indian fishing rights. Stir bllppens to the beast also happens Pacific Northwest. ' testament to the eagerness with which in the staggering effects of habitat to the, man. All things lire By any standard of measure, humans have sacrificed wild animals degradation caused by dams and connected. Whatever befalls the Pacific salmon and their relative the on the altar of economicdevelopment. logging practices, and you have in.the earth befalls the sons of the earth. sreelhead trout are an ideal symbolof The plight of these fish illustrates an Columbia basin what is probably the the bounty of nature: large, unfortunate irony of conservation world's most complicated fishery --Chief Seattle, letter to extravagantly numerous in their policy: In former eras society management situation. President Franklin Pierce, 1855 natural state, perpetually self- compounded the conflicts between On Sept. 14, 1805, notIong after

renewing, and easily caught. Virrually economic development and resource their first taste of Pacific salmon, I· nAug. 13, 1805,after several every river on the Pacific coast of conservation by providing too little Lewis and Clark camped on the banks weeks of near starvation while North Am!rie~ from Monterey Bay io\ regulation of common-pool resources; of the" Lochsa River, a small but Iseeking a route: over the California up to Alaska's Bering today, on the other hand, we spectacular river that rises just west of Continental Divide, Captain Meri- Peninsula, once teemed with salmon overregulate them with a proliferation , the Continental Divide in the Idaho wether Lewis enjoyed an appetizing fighting their way upstream from the of uncoordinated laws in which too panhandle. (See map on pages 12-13). 'meal. Guests of a small band of ocean to spawn. Late in the 19th many government bodies have a hand. The Lochsa is relativelyfar up the part Shoshoni Indians on the Lemhi River century, old-timers would gather to of the Columbia River basin where in what is now Idaho, Lewisand Clark swap tales of those Arcadian times salmon still run, and a fingerling that had been seeking evidence that they when one could walk across a river on combination of circumstances hatches in this river must travel had indeed crossed the Great Divide. 'the backs ofmigrating fish. Onecrusty makes Columbia basin' sal- through a representative sample of the It was Captain Lewis' supper that old liar named Hathaway Jones .. a A monids uniquely vulnerable to structural obstacles and management convinced him: a piece of fresh regional Munchausen of Oregon over-exploitation, to habitat degrada- jurisdictions that today characterize roasted salmon, whichhe ate "with a' folklorewho lived on a remote stretch tion or to bad management. the Columbia basin. Thus, we have very good relish." of the Rogue River -- outclassed them First, a strong consumer prefer- chosen a Lochsa River fish to ence makes the salmon fishery one of represent the plight of all Pacific the world's most valuable, with a Northwest salmonids, and -9f the yearly catch of some 400,000 metric Columbia River itself. tons. A nineteenth century Lochsa River AfK1dromous salmon anti Second, all salmonid species are hatchling would have smoothly prized sport' fish, and the yearly migrated downstream into the Clear- stee/head hahif8.fJ , pursuit of a tackle-busting steelhead water, Snake, and Columbia before trout approaches a cult religion in the reaching the ocean. A four-year Co/u",biQ Rivu- fervor and dedication of its practition- journey would have carried the ers. juvenile fish thousands of miles Basin Third, humans have used the fish's northward into the Gulf of Alaska, compelling migratory instinct to its perhaps as far as the Aleutian Islands, detriment. Migrating salmonids are before it turned to begin its homeward not easily deflected from their course; journey. stretch a net or a trap in front of them A returning salmon migrating up and they will blunder right into it in a the Columbia to spawn in the Lochsa singlerninded determination to make' in 1805, when Lewis and Clark were their way upstream. So eager are the rafting down the river, would have fish to leap obstacles in their upriver encountered a vigorousIndian fishery. journey that with a little skill they.can The explorers, passing more than 100 practically be induced to jump into a stations where they observed Indians bucket. fishing, on Oct. 22 reached Celilo Fourth, migrating salmonids just Falls, 200 miles upstream from the before spawning tend to congregate in mouth of the Columbia. Here was as concentrations that lend a degree of grand a spectacle as the Columbia credibiliry to the tales of 19th century basin has ever offered, a place where yarnspinners. In former times they Indians had been fishing for at least could be scoopedup aIIDosta dozen at 9,000 years. At Celilo Falls, Indian a time, an open invitation to excess. fishermen dipped their nets into the There are people alive who, as churning waters, where fish struggled Davo.i1abla habitcaT farm boys, simply waded into spawn- to leap the height of the cataract wirh V7]al"ea blocked ing streams and flipped the big fish up prodigious bursts of energy. IlL) Ity d/llllS ado,pted by M,Moran on. the banks with pitchforks. The aboriginal fishery Lewis and f"""1 areD. never available . from 0 map by Finally, the extraordinary migra- Clark saw was no mere cottage U~ of nriunal obstruetloll.S Wilkinson ~ Conner tory habits of salmon and steelhead industry: the annual salmon harvest tT LRT

High Country News _C October 13, 1986-9

exceeded 18 million pounds. (In the site of the Indian fishery so vividly ton, Oregon, and Idaho has been done for thousands of years, migrating salmonids deftly leapt the comparison, the 1980total commercial described by Lewis and Clark. At that thoroughly reworked as a result of catch of Columbia River salmon was time Indians still fished there by hydropower development. Hardly any few natural obstacles . Today the 6.8 million pounds.) The Columba traditional methods. But a vital part of major stream of the zso.ooo-square- main-stem Columbia has 11 dams; its River tribes were a mercantile people; the heritage of the Pacific Northwest mile Columbia River watershed has principal tributary, the Snake, has 10. bales of dried and pounded salmon was about to disappear under 75 feet been left unaffected. The unobstrucr- In the entire basin there are now 79 jerky were a medium of exchange of water, as the gates of a new dam ed Columbia of 1805, down which hydroelectric projects, each with a among inland tribes. Modern Indian 'were closed at a settlement called The Lewis and Clark drifted with only a capacity of 15megawatts or more. The Columbia-Snake is the most highly courr cases have been brought to Dalles. single portage at Celilo Falls, is today preserve a small measure of that way a stairstep series of slackwarer developed river system in the world, supplying more than 80 percent of the of life. reservoirs. The late twentieth century Lochsa n a Sunday afternoon in April Only 50 miles of the 1,214-mile- region's electrical energy. River salmon we are following faces i956, representatives of the long section of river from the first dam Hydroelectric projects have been obstacles far mote lethal and O. fishing tribes gathered for the up to the Canadian border now remain ruinous to the health of the salmon implacable than Indians with spears last time to hold their ceremonies on free-flowing. A once wild· river that runs. The dams have. permanently and dipnets. The worst of these. are the bluffs overlooking the falls where drains a land area larger than France blocked fish access to vast regions of dams. As recently as 30 years ago, a years before Lewis and Clark had and whose annual discharge into the spawning habitat and inflicted high salmon bound fot the gravel bar of its smoked a pipe of peace with their .ocean is more than rwice that of the mortality on downstream migrating birth far up the Lochsa River had only ancestors. Within the year, Celilo Nilehas become meek and submissive juveniles by obstructing passage. two dams to cross -- both equipped Falls, one of the last natural -- a series of back-eo-back placid Because they have flooded spawning with fish ladders. monuments of the river as Lewis and- computer-regulated lakes. beds, altered flow patterns; and In 1956, the mosr difficult Clark knew it, was gone. Fifty years ago, there were no warmed water temperatures, less upstream obstacle was Celilo Falls, Today, the landscape of Washing- dams on the Columbia. As they had (Continued on page 1Q) IJM R:...... "" Ti

10-High COllnlTy News -- October 13, 1986

only recently .• the difficulty of balancing the water-flow needs of Loneliness ... juvenile fish with power, irrigation, and flood control. The water budget (Continlled from page 9) allocates increased flows at those times of year when downstream than half of the spawning habitat migration is highest. This approach available in the time of Lewis and ' gives fishery agencies partial control Clark is now accessible to migratory over the quantity and timing of river fish, and much of what remains has flow over the dams. been transformed into an environment Despite recent advances in habitat hostile to fish propagation. Recent enhancement, human-made hazards salmon harvests in the river have to the fish remain, and they are not hovered around 10 percent of the only physical. As a result of legal and historic highs of the 1880s -- a political events of the past 12 years, decimation in the most literal sense of ' fishery managers must now untangle the term. legal snarls and complex networks of A wild fish hatching in the Lochs. responsibility that were undreamed of River must now accomplish the when Celilo Falls disappeared under passage of eight dams, both in the the reservoir behind The Dalles Dam downstream direction as a juvenile, just 30 years ago. Today's scientific, and then in the upstream direction as legal, and jurisdictional problems are an adult seeking its spawning stream nothing short of labyrinthine. Fisherman at Celilo Falls, 1941, before it was inllnaated behind The Dalles Dam Juvenile fish mortality may approach The wide-ranging migration of a At a minimum, full restoration of Fishery," in Kansas Law Review, vol. 25 percent at each of the eight dams Lochsa River chinook that now travels the Pacific salmon runs requires 32 (1983). A reprint is available free during periods of low river flow. In to the Gulf of Alaska and back will that the law be applied over the fish's from Sea Grant Communications, addition, a beleaguered wild hatchling carry it through 17 separate entire migratory range, and that it be Oregon State University, Corvallis, must compete with hosts of its management jurisdictions, each with applied with consistency over the Oregon 97331. A general introduction better-fed, and therefore larger, some degree of independent authority entire network of responsible manage- to issues discussed in this article is hatchery-bred cousins. The dams have to allocate the harvest of that fish, ment bodies. Otherwise, these Anthony Netboy's The Columbia River exacted a far higher toll than anything These include three international magnificent wild salmon runs will Salmon and Steelbead Trout: Their else has, but competition from treaties that contain provisions on the remain caught in a trap the law itself Fight for SIITV,'val (1980). A more hatchery-bred fish is further reducing harvest of Pacific salmon of North has set _. the creation of so many popular work is Bruce Brown's the number of wild survivors. . American origin, in addition to the authorities of one foreign nation autonomous authorities that none by Mountain in the Clouds: A Search for (Canada), four state fish and wildlife itself has sufficient incentive to the W,Jd Salmon (1982). For a agencies (Idaho, Washington" Ore- conserve for fear that the fish will only biological perspective, see the magni- s the river has been tamed, so gon, and Alaska), one interstate be harvested elsewhere. It is the same ficently illustrated Pacific Salmon by , have the fish. In the early compact, two regional fishing couneils "tragedy of the commons" that R.J. Childerhose and Marj Trim A 1960s, Columbia basin states established by the 1976 Magnuson Act played itself out on public-domain (1979). For a detailed and highly' and the federal government joined to (which extended U.S. dominion over grazing lands. readable, history of the Columbia River mount a massive campaign to rebuild' fisheries two hundred miles out), two salmon fishery from aboriginal times salmon runs by increasing the output federal agencies, and four Indian to the present see Courtland Smith's of artificially reared fish from tribes. So a migrating Lochsa River anyquestions regarding the Salmon Fishers of the Coilimbia hatcheries. As a result, only about 30 salmon must survive not only hooks, future _ of the Columbia (1979). percent of the basin's salmonidstoday nets, predators and dams, but also a Msalmon runs remain to be On the dams vs. fish,dilemma see are wild fish, with the ratio rapidly host of- bureaucrats, interest groups, asked; and all wilJ require answers f Michael Blumm's arcic1e~' 'Hfdro- declining. In 1981, the vast network of lawyers and.federal court judges. before' the turn of the century. Is it power vs. Salmon," in Environmental , public and private hatcheries from The. major laws necessary for the possible to restore riparian habitats in Law, vol. 11 (1981), also available free California to Alaska released more full protection o'f the Pacific the Columbia basin to the point where from the Sea Grant office listed above. than one billion salmon hatchlings, Northwest's salmon resource are now the fish runs can regain the abundance On Indian fishing rights decisions see with ecological effects that are yet in place, They include the Pacific of those legendary days when the Jack Landau's article "Empry Vic- largely unknown. Salmon Treaty between the United resource perpetually renewed, itself tories" in Environmental Law, vol, 10 This sudden expansion, rather States and Canada, ratified last year, without the encumbrances of manage- (1980). On the Magnuson Act, see than supplementing natural stocks, and' the Northwest Power Planning ment plans, seasons, gear restrictions, Federal Fisheries Management (1985) has itself been an importantcause of Act of 19M, which for the first time quotas, and the politics of aUocation? by Jacobson, Conner and Tozer, further depletion of wild salmon runs. mandates that the health of the Do we possess the will to care for the available for $5.00 from Ocean & Leaving wild stocks to fend for Columbia River salmon fishery be watershed lands that nurture the Coastal Law Center, Universiry of themselves while tending to the needs - given equal s ta tu s with power rivers? Are we willing to harness Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403. For a of hatchery fish only makes wild fish generation. diversions that suck water from the detailed analysis of the Northwest more vulnerable to increased competi- streams? Do we have the resolve to Power Act see "Promising a Process tion. Hatchery fish also tend to curb our appetite for still more dams? for Pari£)''' by Blumm and Johnson in become inbred, displacing natural Or will wild salmon go the way of the Environmental Law, vol. 11 (1981). gene pools that have been responsible ut protection is not restora- buffalo, a curiosity protected on On the wildlife management for thousands of years of successful tion, and full restoration special preserves for sightseers, with philosophy of Aldo Leopold, see his adaptation. Brequires enhancement of laws the commercial market for salmon Game Management (1933), A' Sand This increased reliance on hatch- as well as ofhabirat. Legal reforms of being met entirely by hatchery-raised County Almanac (1948), and Thinking ery fish worries many practitioners of the past 12 years have themselves fish -- the equivalent, perhaps, of Like a Mountain (1974) by Susan fishery science. Wildlife ecologist and played a conspicuous role in domestic cattle in feed lots? Flader. philosopher Aldo Leopold 50 years ago multiplying management problems We have come far in our contributed the fundamental insight beyond the point of intelligibility. Tl-· commitment to bring the Columbia that wildlife conservation is better very institutions designed to protect basin 'salmonruns up to their historic accomplished by protecting animals' the resource have now, by virtue of levels. To lose them now by default habitat than by interfering with the their numbers and unwieldiness, would be a major defeat, not only to animals or their life cycles. Today, become an additional threat. Like the those who depend upon them for a many see that habitat restoration is sorceror's apprentice of Goethe's livelihood, but also to those now the preferred route to strengthening fable, today's salmon managers are privileged to dine upon the incompar- the salmon. Carefully planned stream perhaps more in peril of being able flesh of upriver wild chinook, to improvement projects and adequate overwhelmed by the "solution" than feel their pulse at the end of a line, or protection from overfishing will allow by the original problem. simply.to marvel at them as they leap depleted fish runs to rebuild The chief obstacles to effective over mountain waterfalls. Without themselves. restoration are institutional in nature these splendid creatures to lend their One example of more or less and international in scope. Any grace and beauty to the streams and natural enhancement would be to permanent solution must go to the rivers of the Pacific Northwest, many allow dams to spill water at times heart both of our federalist system of of us will indeed suffer from the great when juvenile fish need a steady flow shared power and of the intricate loneliness of spirit that Chief Seattle of cold water to move them toward the network of national sovereignties on foretold. ocean, The "water budget" program which our world order is based. When developed under the provisions of the an overexploited living resource Bibliographic Note Northwest Power Planning Act of 1980 respects no boundaries, the bound- provides a mechanism to do just that. aries themselves must be treated in a This article is an abbreviated The water budget is an attempt to deal way that respects the realities of version of Wilkinson and Conner, with a critical problem appreciated nature. "The Law of the Pacific Salmon . High Co,mtry News .. O~tober 13, 1986·11,

Hells Canyon and dam on the Snake River, Idaho-Oregon border

The dammed Columbia plateau of southern Idaho, eventually between British Columbia and Chuck Williams, whose forebears gave Lewis and Clark turning northward and entering California. Within the lOO-mile-long some trouble on their way down the Columbia, describes the mile-deep Hells Canyon where it Gorge, the Columbia's shoreline natural history of the region, and then tells how the river has meets the Salmon, the "River of No changes from sagebrush desert to Return," Just north of the Washing- grasslands withoaks to lush rainforest been reworked to provide kilowatts, acre-feet, a route for ton-Oregon border, the Snake heads as the annual precipitation increases barges into Idaho and other goods of the modern age. west for more than 100 miles, ftnally from less than 10 inches to more than joining the Columbia just as the main 100. Numerous waterfalls, including stem makes its last turn toward the Multnomah Falls, the nation's second . The White men were many, Canadian Rockies and meanders sea and breaks out of the inland basin. highest, drop over steep basalt cliffs~ and we ~ould not hold our own around the basin between the Rockies What created this curious path to into the Columbia. with'them. We were like deer. and the Cascade Range for 1,243 the ocean? As the Cascade Range Mter exiting from the Gorge, the They were like grizzly bears. We miles, absorbing such tributaries as slowly rose, most Northwest rivers river meanders slowly past Portland had a small ~ountry. Their ~ountry the Spokane and Snake rivers before were cut off. The Columbia, however, and through 100 miles of Douglas fir was large. We were ~ontented to finally breaking through the Cascades with a flow many times that of today's forest already amply supplied with let things remain as the Great and entering the Pacific Ocean. (See river, captured other rivers and cut water. The mouth of the Columbia is Spirit made them. They were not -- map on pages 12-13.) downward into the rising volcanic six miles wide, and its fresh water can and would cbang« the rivers if From its headwaters at Lake range. The result is the spectacular be detected hundreds of miles out to they did not suit them. Columbia in British Columbianear the Columbia Gorge, the only sea-level sea. ' Alberta border, the Columbia flows passage through the Cascades (Continued on page 14) «Chief Joseph north, 100 miles deeper into Canada, ~, before making a rae-degree tum .. the ~....------., (Hin-rnah-roo-yah-Iar-kehr), .~ Nez Perce leader Big Bend. After flowing south through ;:5 evergreen forests, the river crosses ll; There is no' question that the the border and enters the Channeled Columbia River basin fishery was Scablands of eastern Washington. once one of the most productioe in This scoured landscape is the result of the wprld. There is no question, a series of floods that swept across the . either, that, in only a century, the mid-Columbia region following the numbers of salmon and steel head collapse of huge ice dams during the ~aught in the basin! dropped most recent Ice Age. pre~ipitously. Fish cannery opera- After flowing west through deep tions disappeared, tribal fisheries lava ravines, the main-stem Columbia, were redu~ed to barely enough to blocked by the Cascade Range, turns supply' the salmon for Indian south, providing a narrow ribbon of ceremonies! and angling seasons fertile soil. The Columbia then turns were cut to next to nothing. eastward to merge with the Yakima and Snake rivers before looping west. _ --Northwest Power into a deep, narrow slot through the Planning Council Cascades and to the Pacific. The Columbia's largest tributary, ___ ...... tbyChuck Williams the r,038·mile-long Snake River, also begins in die Rockies, flowing south he, Columbia River is the out of Yellowstone and Grand Teton life blood of the Pacific national parks. The Snakethen makes TNorthwest .. It rises in the a large westward arc through the lava Columbia Gorge ---.--- • ! MON'T-ANA I ·I 1·

:~.

t-J IA. . ! t-JEVADA ! UrAH':,'C;- ! ! I

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Warm Springs Indian fishermen at S!Jerar's Falls, Deschutes River, Oregon ''P'' I RINk)?

High Country News -- October 13, 1986-13 THE COLUMBIA: .RIVER BASIN

MAP COMPILED AND EDITED BY MARY MORAN RENDERED BY LESTER DaRE'

IDAHO • FALLS l~aH i~ •

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Hells CanyonDam on the Snak.eRiver, Idaho-Oregon border neRt"'_~T. l

(

14·High Country News -. October 13, 1986 1 Dllmnled ...

(Continued from page 11)

his diverse, twisting ri~er has supported rwo very different Tways of life. Before Euro- Americans arrived and began re- modeling the basin, the Columbia River's huge anadromous fish runs supported a large native population. The salmon and steelhead trout, which live off and help recycle the nucrients the river· washes off the land into the ocean, supported a string of villages along the great waterway. In addition, many other people would seasonally move to the river to fish. The preferred spots along the river were the rapids and waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge. The fish were easiest to catch there. Also, being low on the river, the salmon and sreelhead caught in the Gorge were in much better shape than those that made it farther upstream. In part because .of the exceptional fishing, the Columbia Gorge became the main trade mart in the prehistoric Northwest. It was also the transition between the canoe 'cultures of the coast and more Storm on the Snake River Plain, southern Idaho nomadic tribes of. the .interior Columbia Plateau. In addition to attracting industrial dump. Hanford is on the Columbia, ness areas, wild and scenic streams Lewis and Clark's voyage was growth, such as the energy-intensive near its confluence with the Snake. and national parks make up another. followed by other explorers, fur aluminum plants that line the riv~r,. The same federal government is The fight over wilderness is done traders, missionaries and then pioneer water projects in the basin have simultaneously making a substantial for the moment, but the national parks settlers. Beginning in the 1840s, a transformed a large part of the financial commitment to restore issue is hot, with the major debate in flood of American immigrants follow- sagebrush desert between rhe Rockies anadromous fish to the depleted Congress centered on the Columbia ed the Oregon Trail to the Columbia and Cascades into irrigated farm. Yakima River. Gorge and Hells Canyon .. the 'Grand I' Gorge, and then floated down the lands. Many of the farms produce Eleccric power and its induscrial Canyons' of the Columbia and Snake f treacherous river to settle in the wheat that is barged down the users, irrigated agriculture, barge rivers, respectively. The resolution of Willamette Valley. As a result of Columbia. Irrigation uses water that traffic and logging make up one these. conflicts will be another . pressures generated by this influx,.a could generate vast amounts of economic grouping dependent on the indicator of the direction the basin is 1 series of treaties were forced on the .electriciry, Irrigation has also wreaked Columbia and its tributaries. The heading. , Indian tribes in the 1850s that opened havoc on such important spawning economies clustered around the ';;-1'I more of the Columbia basin. to triburaries as the Yakima and Umatilla salmon and, steelhead trout, wilder- settlement. rivers. Withdrawa)s from such rivers The treaties gave control of the as the Snake also hurt fisheries by' region to the settlers, but the river raising the" temperature of the maintained its cencral position. As in remaining water. prehistoric times, the Columbia was Unlike the Colorado River, which the main transportation corridor has less than a tenth of the Columbia's between the coast and inland basin. water flow, over-allocation of water Steamboats plied it upriver to Kettle had not been a problem. But today, Falls, near the Canadian border, until even the Columbia, the nation's the 1880s, when railroads made boat 'second largest river system, can no travel obsolete. Just as steamboats longer meet all the demands on it. replaced Indian canoes, so did non-Indian commercial fishing and canneries»- beginning in earnest a uge new irrigation withdraw- century ago .. take over from the als, such as the Columbia I Indians the best fishing places. H Basin Project in eastern But the economic dominance of the Washington, have strong support in / salmon and steelhead runs was not to Congress. Railroads and recent presi- last. Despite their obvious irnpor- dential administrations have opposed / ranee, other economic activities, such the large subsidies that maintain this. as clearcutting along spawning waterway; nevertheless, the Army streams, have prevailed over fish in Corps is beginning large locks at the political arena. Bonneville Dam' to increase river More seriously, during the past traffic. Upriver, tax and other recent I half-century, the Columbia has been laws have encouraged a rash of 'j transformed from a free-flowing river hydroelectric .power applications on into a chain of reservoirs. The river is important spawning tributaries. 1f,i now the world's biggest producer of The federal Bonneville POwer electricity and Lewiston, Idaho, is a Administration (BPA),' which distri- seaport. butes electricity generated by, the These achievements have come at Columbia, is crying to build a hew the expense of the fish. Above powerline, Inrerrie , to south'ern Bonneville Dam, located at the upper California. The resulting power sales 1/.. end of tidal action, only one stretch of will require more water to flow the Columbia in the U.S., the Hanford through turbines, At the same time, Reach, remains free-flowing. Ironic- Indian tribes "and other fishing ally, the efforts of the Corps of interests are trying to get more water Engineers to inundate this last stretch spilled over dams to increase the ; behind the proposed Ben Franklin survival chances of young fish Dam have been thwarted in part due migraring downscream. The rallying to opposition from the nuclear power cry is: Smolts over volts! industry, That induscry dominates the Anotherconflicton the river comes economy of the area where the from the fedral government's choice of Columbia turns west in its last rush to Hanford as one of three finalists for

the Pacific, the nationI s main nuclear waste B.P.A. trQnsmission tower LRT-aE4-V2

High Country News -- October 13, 1986-JJ

Salmon: Continuity a for culture A root (east on the Warm Springs Reservation

alcohol, But when officials came to Arguing with the Army Corps of Alihough history has driven a wedge between the people them in 1855with pieces of paper that Engineers had been futile. The described new homes away from the citizens of the Notthwest wanted of Washington's Warm Springs Reservation and their Columbia, they recognized that life as electricity, irrigation and flood control, ancestral home, the Columbia River still flows through their they had known it for centures was and the loss of a few fish and a lives in significant ways. That link with the past has enabled ending. picturesque Indian fishery was a small the people of the -Warm Springs Reservation to successfully The four treaties made with the price to pay. The tribes took the _ plateau tribes in June of 1855. monetary compensation ($15 million adapt to modern Amen·ca. containedmuch the same wording and for the Yakima,$4million each for the intent. They ceded ancestral lands and Warm Springs and the Umatilla, and ___ J;hy CynthiaD. Stowell peoples centered on the chinook reserved land far from the river at the $2.8 million for the Nez Perce), salmon that were migrating upstream Warm Springs and Umatilla reserva- knowing full well that their loss almon! Venison! Roots! toward their spawning grounds. tions to the south, the Yakima couldn't be translated into cash. Berries! The old man rings a Standing on rocks over narrow river Reservation to the north, and the Nez It was a difficult time for the tribal Shand bell and calls out the channels, fishermen aimed their Perce Reservation in Idaho. Payment councils, which were accused by their Indian name for each food. The spears, set traps or swept the current for the land was in the form of farm fishermen constituents of selling people, seated at tule mats on the floor with long-poled nets, capturing scores tools and supplies, reservation them out. Three tribes decided to of the longhouse, sample riny portions of the silvery fish with the valued pink . blacksmith shops and mills, food distribute the cash settlements to of the sacred foods from their plates. meat. On shore, the women butchered rations and salaries for government individual tribal members. But the When the old man calls ..choosh!" and fillered the fish. barbecuing some personnel, The displaced people were Warm Springscouncildecided to keep everyone drinks a swallow of water of it righr away but hanging mosr of it supposed to take up an agrarian life the sum intact for future reservation and reaches family-stylefor the many to dry in the warm breezes. Sheaves of and stay out of the white settlers' hair. development. It proved a wise platters of native and modern food. dried salmon were bundled up and Partly as. a selling point, the decision. The .tea~t ~nqs .:with a. prayer .and,. stored away f?r winter _use o~ {pc .... treaties also. included a few simple The lossof the Celilo fishery had a ariother "choosn."·' .~ trade. ... words'reserving a 'right that the tribes note of finaliryabout it, 'perhaps even Every ceremonial feast on the In the summer it )Vas steelhead or exercise today -- much to the chagrin more than the treary-signing roo years Warm Springs Reservarion begins other varieties of salmon, in rhe fall of many a non-Indian: "The right of before. A door slammed on the past with salmon and ends with water. For another run of chinook.The river also takingfish at all usual and accustomed. and the tribes were forced to consider ~ the people, and for their ancestors supplied plenty ofsturgeon, lampreys, stations, in common with citizens of a whole new future. By the '50s, they along the ColumbiaRiver, salmon has suckers and smelt, as well as some the United States." were somewhat better equipped to long been the most treasured of foods, shellfish. For six months out of the In the' early years of the face new options. The Indian and warer the purest. Together, they year, the Columbia demanded cease- reservations, many families lived dual Reorganization Act of 1934 had represent the constancy and the less toil from the people it fed, but the lives, camping and fishing on the returned some political power and bounry ofN'chi Wana, the great river river people were paid over and over Columbiain the summer when school autonomy to Indian tribes nationwide, that shaped the culture of the for their efforts. As long as the let out, and wintering on the ,although days of readily available Columbia Plateau people. (See map on fishermen demonstrated the proper reservations. This practice was' federal loans and grants for economic pages 12-13). respect for the spirits of the river and continually discouraged by federal development were still 20 years away. The Warm Springs people now of the salmon, they believed there government personnel, who insisted Those fishermen who saw no have to travel 100 miles to celebrate would always be enough to eat. that the future of the tribes lay in . future oJ?the reservations put aside the arrival of the salmon at their The Sahaptins and Wasco/Wish- education, entrepreneurism, private their dipnets, bought gillnets and tradirional fishing grounds. But rams did not just subsist on the river land ownership and a new diet. But motorboats, and became commercial salmon is still at the heart of· harvest. Salmon was their material the superintendents could not guaran- fishermen like the lower river reservation rituals, from feasts wealth and they were skilled at tee that crops would survive the short. non-Indians. They launched their

honoring the roots, huckleberries and marketing it. In fact, the mid-Colum- growing season and marginal soil t or boats into the main-stem Columbia wild celery, to funerals, weddings, bia was the center of a vast trade that tools and rations would arrive from various "in-lieu sites" that had narne-givings, memorial dinners and network stretching from the Pacific fromthe East on schedule. The people been reserved by the government as imporrant political meerings. And coast to the Rocky Mountains. During often went hungry awaiting the dams gobbled up their fishing while history has driven a wedge huge summer gatherings, the fisher- benefits of civilization. grounds. A number of families, between the river people and their men traded their salmon for such Halfway into the twentieth cen- particularly from among the Yakima ancestral home, the river srill flows desirables as animal skins, dried meat tury, the Columbia was still an tribe, made a modest-to-profitable through their lives in significant ways. and vegetables, basketry, bows and important source' of food for the, living from the river. For about 11,000 years before arrows, decorative shells, and even reservations, despite inroads into the A handful of Warm Springs Lewis and Clark paddled down the 'slaves, Because of the steady stream supply of salmon and. the changing fishermen chose this path, but their Columbia River in 1805, native of visitors, the people of the Columbia pattern of life on the reservations. An tribal councilwent in a very different peoples lived continuously along its tended to be cosmopolitan, accustom- overly enthusiastic non-Indian com- direction. Depositing the Celilo " banks. Around the time of contact, the ed to change and new ideas. mercial .fishery, particularly in the settlement in the bank, they thought people of the middle Columbia -- ocean, and the construction o( dams long and hard about what their Sahaptin-speakers above rhe present on the main stem, were hastening a reservation land and resources had to city of The Dalles and the he white newcomersproved to day the river people thought would offer. Taking $100,000 from their Chinookan-speaking Was cos and be more change than the never come, when the salmon would savings, they hired a group at Oregon I Wishrams downriver .. lived in small Tpeople could accommodate. swim less plentifully into their nets. State College (now Oregon State villages of five to 10 families. (See Settlers, too, knew the importance of Still, the fishery at Celilo Falls University). to advise them on the if map on pages 12-13).The Sahaprins the Columbia, and in a mere 50 years endured in a manner little changed reservation's natural potentials. The and Wasco/Wishrams, though differ- had cleared the riverbanks of virtually over the centuries. five-volume results of the 1960 OSU enr in language and cultural all native inhabitants. The river people Then, abruptly, it ended. In 1956, study, whichare still used in planning emphasis, were bound together by to some extent weathered the The Dalles Dam halted the cascading today, pointed to the reservariion's their "Plateau" lifesryle, dictated by Christianizing and civilizingpressures water, and the ancient fishing and 300,000 acres of merchantable timber the rushing river and the -emi-arid from white settlements at The Dalles camping sites were covered by still and the natural beaury of the land as land around it. They lived. relative and Walla Walla, the installation of water. The people held what they possible sources of income. peace and prosperiry. "fish wheels" at their ancient sites thought would be their last salmon Each spring, the lives ~f both and the introduction of disease and feast. (Conttnued on page 16) 16-High Country News -- October 13, 1986

..' satisfaction working in the tall stands District Court J udge Rcberr Belloni in were to begin, the Yakima tribe Con';,nfl,i'J'~•• of ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. U.S. v. Oregon. Belloni ruled in 1969 ,challenged the federal convictions by Warm Springs has also capitalized, that the treaty tribes were" entitled to "pressing its own charges against five (Continued from page 1)) on the rivers within and along its a fair share of the fish produced by the of its fishermen and keeping three of boundari~s. Contracts negotiated with Columbia River system" and that the them in' tribal custody for a time. Taking another $165,000from their Portland General Electric in the 1950s , state could' only regulate the Indian Tribal charges were eventually bank account, the tribal council and 1960s have resulted in substantial fishery for conservation purposes, The dropped but Yakima support for its bought back a piece of prime real rental income for two dams on the Belloni decision provided the founda- fishermen was clear. estate along the Warm Springs River, Deschutes River. Quietly inserted into tion for a second landmark decision in The two tribes have different ways where a non-Indian doctor had the Pelton Dam contract was a clause U.S. v. Washington in 1974, when of asserting their treaty rights, Warm developed a spa featuring the hot enabling the tribes to one day develop federal Judge George Boldt ruled that Springs likes to negotiate and forge mineral waters that bubbled out of the a hydroelectric plant at the Pelton the treaties' ..''fishing in common" compromises; Yakima is driven by ground. That was the beginning of re-regulating dam. Today, Warm language should be interpreted as the moral arguments that often supercede Kah-Nee-Ta Vacation Resort, a tribal Springs Power Enterprises produces right of Indians to catch up to 50 legalities. The tribes are united, enterprise that now includes a electricity that it sells to private percent of the state's off-reservarion however, in their insistence that the 144-room hotel, golf course, tennis utilities at a profit. catch. Columbia River is essential to their .- courts, tipi village, cottages 'and While these decisions did much, to .and the region's -- well-being. The Olympic-size pool. cool the angry confrontations -- both fishing tribes on the Columbia say The people of Warm Springs, one are the days when the on the river and in the courtrooms .. they are not just user-groups out to get always a hospitable sort, nevertheless people shuttled back and forth thar characterized the 1960s and what they can from the river. have felt ambivalent about encourag- Gbetween the-seasonal bounty 1970s, the treaty tribes still find As aboriginal stewards' of the ing tourism on their reservation. of the Columbia River and a themselves on the defensive. They are salmon and the water of the Columbia, Without the full support of the questionable existence on the reserva- not a voting part of the Columbia River the treary tribes say they have a community, Kah-Nee-Ta has not lived tion .. But as the standard of living at Compact, which sets commercial privilege and a responsibility to see up to its profit-making potential, but Warm Springs has improved, the fishing seasons for Oregon and that these resources are used continues to be a kind of showpiece to people and their leaders have not Washington. As a result, the properly. They want to participate the non-Indian world. Instead of forgotten the sacrifice that made it Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish fully in planning and development 'tourism, the real energy of the possible. Neither has Warm Springs 'Commission, or CRI1FC, established along the Columbia, not just to assert Warm Springs Confederated Tribes put the Columbia River behind it as so in 1977 to represent the treary tribes, treaty rights or to exercise their has gone into their 'wood-products much history and sentiment. often challenges the Compact's sovereign powers alongside the states, business. Warm Springs and rhe other treaty decisions in court. At the same. time, but also to ensure that the salmon It began in 1967, when the tribes tribes still speak of the importance of some fishermen with little patience for survives. took out a loan to purchase the sawmill the Columbia River to rheir survival. the slow workings of the judicial "Salmon Scam" aside, there has built at Warm Springs by non-Indians And they continue to negotiate system continue to fight their battles been an unprecedented degree of years before. As owner of both the raw doggedly for their place on the river, right on the river. cooperation among various river- material and the processing plant, the for rights that at times have seemed In 1982, 19 Indian fishermen were users. Record low salmon and tribes could begin ro map out a future meaningless in the face of dwindling charged with selling fish out of season sreelhead rerurns forced the parties to that would guarantee jobs and a salmon runs. to undercover' federal and state bring about regional solutions, such as dependable supply of timber. Besides In fact, Warm Springs has been a agents. In the course of "salmon the U. S. -Canada Pacific Salmon the 300 mill employees, the timber leader in resolving conflict on the scam," nine fishermen were convicted Intervention Treaty (1985) and industry has created dozens of Columbia among Indian, non-Indian, in U. S. Distrier Court and 'sentenced mitigation efforts under the Northwest entrepreneurial opportunities in the sports and comme rcjal fisheries. up ro five years in federal prison. . Regional Power Planning Act. This reservation forest. In fact, many of Excellent legal representation by Warm Springs quietly let its one spirit of cooperation has been those who might have been fishermen Wann Springs attorneys helped bring .convicred member report to prison this rewarded with, record high returns of 35 years ago now find challenge and abour the landmark decision by U.S. summer, but on the day the sentences steelhead and salmon. I ,j The white man wanted bright lights, the Indian money

he grew up along the adulr life following the salmon runs of ';l r------...... ----.., Columbia River, 'where her the Columbia, until history took a ~ Sfamily had dozens of scaffolds different turn. ~ at the Celilo fishing grounds, When The Dalles Dam eliminated the ~ she wasn't attending Catholic board- CeIilo fishery as Ellen had known it, .; ing school in The Dalles, young Ellen "The white man wanted brighter was with her people among the rocks lights in his home and the Indians and the rapids, learning from the men wanted money," she says. "That's how to handle the huge nets and the only reason that dam is there." watching the women deftly butchering Fortunately, her family had also fished the catch. actively along one of the Columbia "It was unusual for girls to fish," River tributaries, at Sherars Falls on she said, "but I learned to dip the the Deschutes River.' It is there that minute I~was strong enough to hold Ellen has gone to fish for the last 30 the dip~ net." Butchering was years. The site is described in a defmiteli'ff-limits to children, "They petroglyph on a nearby rock wall. didn't wl!!lt our childish hands on-the From their scaffolds at Sherar's fish. We!\;ould practice on jacks and Ellen and her husband Waiter stee!hel,.{tbut we couldn't hang them routinely pulled 60-pound salmon out, up with"", women's salmon." . of. the eddies while sports fishermen Fro 'er elders, Ellen learned the downstream looked on enviously. rhythms}lf the river and her culture. Ellen canned and dried some of the There w4'1e times to fish and times to carchfor her family, traded some and leave thj nets idle, times to offer occasionally sold a fish for cash. Until prayers a.l;idtimes to be silent, times to Walter died in the 1970s, fishing was work hard and times to celebrate. just a supplement to the income he From her mother, Ellen also learned made as a heavy equipment operator. the commercial end of fishing, While After his death, Ellencarne to depend her father dreamed of finding gold and increasingly on her catch, along with getting rich, her mother teamed up stipends from tribal committee work. with a white man to 'operate a fish Then, in 1984, Ellen had a massive wheel, which scoops fish from the stroke and had to put her net aside. river into a chute. Taking the money What keeps her alive today are tribal she earned, she traveled by steamboat pension and per capita payments that to Portland to buy enough supplies for exisr in large part because the a year. ,~ut the family's caches of Confederated Tribes banked their dried salinon were their real wealth; portion of the Army Corps of they ate, from their supplies through Engineers settlement for Celilo. Sothe the winter or traded them to Indians Columbia River is still supporting from as far away as Montana for Ellen Heath. buckskin and meat, Ellen was prepared to live out her .. Cynthia D. Stowell Bllen Heath fishing at Sberar's Falls on the Deschutes River High Country News -. O~tober 13, '1986-17 j I,

Steelhead trout A working relationship

president of the lower-river gillner-: spilling motewater over dams so as to . Af(!w years ago, the Fish Wars were raging between the rers' union, began to understand that minimize the number of smolts killed Indian' fishing tribes and. the states' of Oregon and upriver Indian fishing was not the by going through the turbines. Fifteen major threat to their livelihoods. And percent of the young fish heading Washington, with the salmon taking most of the casualties. finally,realizing that a very important downriver ate killed by each dam, with 7:.o!lay,jhe. spirit of war has~beenreplaced by a working !.. renewable resource, ·the anadromous total mortalities up to 95 percent in relationship, and the salmon are doing (relatively)well. fish, was about to disappear because low-water years. Northwest Power of "blind progress," a consensus Planning Council has ordered darn formed in the Pacific Northwest to try operators to achieve at least a 90 ___ 'p'by ChuckWilliams In addition to the commercial to restore fish runs. percent survival rate at all dams, a fishing interests opposed to realloca- figure fish agencies and tribes' are he infamousPacific Northwest tions, fighting Indian fishing rights n1977,the four ColumbiaRiver trying to get increased. Fish Wars, pitting non-Indian became. a major cause for some tribes with established treaty Another success due to increased Tfishermen against Indians and conservation organizations such as the Ifishing rights .. the Warm cooperation has been the beginning of the United States against Canada, are state affiliates of the National,Wildlife Springs, Yakimas, Umatillas, and Nez restoration of upriver runs. Congress fortunately waning. The Fish Wars Federation, which is composed Perce .- formed the Columbia River passed the 1938 Mitchell Act to fund came to a head in the late I%Os, when primarily of hunters and fishermen. Inter- Tribal Fish Commission hatcheries to mitigate for damage Northwest tribes that had reserved . Meanwhile, fish runs were collapsing. (CRITFC)tobe the tribes' fish agency. done to natural runs by the maoy fishing rights in their treaties began to As numerous observers noted, the CRITFC has formed good working dams. Most of those hatcheries, successfully exert those rights and various fishing. interests seemed relationships with most fish-related however, were built below Bonneville when ocean fleets began to catch more determined to fight to see who got the agencies and conservation groups, Dam, in large part .. as proven in and more Columbia River salmon. last fish. and its staff of biologists has become documents obtained by CRITFC .. to Many of the animosities remain, but The collapse of the Columbia widely respected and effective prevent Indians, who don't fish below cooperation is coming fast. As a" River's once-bountiful salmon and advocates of increased fish runs. The Bonneville, from getting the fish. The result, fish runs for the most part ate steelhead runs had many causes. formation of CRITFC and its Puget result was that the upriver sports rapidly coming back. Dams.blocked downstream passage of Sound/western Washington counter- fishery was decimated along with the In a, series of treaties signed in , srnolts rrying to reach the sea, as well part, the Norrhwest Indian Fisheries tribal fishery. Mandating the restora- 1855, many Northwest tribes gave up as aduIrs fighting their way upsrream Commission, set the stage for serious tion of upriver runs will be part of the title to the vast majority of their lands. to spawn. Clearcutting along streams cooperation between feuding fishing (hopefully) forthcoming settlement of (See map on page 22). In exchange, caused erosion that destroyed spawn- groups. the long-running U.S. v. Oregon suit. they reserved the right to fish, hunt, ing grounds. Poor agricultural prac- One ';f the most important steps in Most tribal and sports fishing gather roots and berries and continue tices also hurt spawning streams; and restoring Columbia Basin fisheries organizations prefer wild and natur- other such traditional practices within irrigation withdrawals took water was the passage of the Northwest ally spawning fish to hatchery fish, the lands they gave up to the United needed by fish. Over-harvesting by PowerPlanning Act in 1980.Congress which are vulnerable to diseases aod States government. The states, non-Indians , first in the rivers and initially considered legislation to budget cuts. Since non-hatchery runs however, continually tried to prevent later in the sea, was alteady hurting establish a Northwest powet councilto require good spawning habitat, tribal members from exercising those runs by the turn ofthe century, but the bail out Northwest power interests, habitat protection lias become the rights. Violencebroke out repeatedly, decline was not obvious because which were suffering because of un- focus ofmuchcooperation. In 1984,for especially in the Puger Sound area, fishermen just moved on to other wise decisions such as' the WPPSS example, the tribes, the Oregon between Indians trying to fish and species as the favored ones, especially nuclear-plant fiasco. However, en- Natural Resources Council, Audubon, non-Indians opposed to rheir fishing. summer chinook, were depleted. vironmental groups and Indian tribes Oregon Trout, and other environ- Finally, in cases generally referred In the late 1970s, the picture persuaded Congress to add importaot mental groups helped establish the to as the "Boldt" (U.S. v. W4shington started to change. Having successfully conservation measures, such as giving I21,OOO-acreNorth Fork John Day for western Washington) and "Bel- reasserted their treaty rights, the fish runs equal consideration with Wilderness, the spawning grounds for lorn" (U.S. v. Oregon for the tribes assumed ao active role in power generation in river-manage- .the largest wildspring chinook run left Columbia) decisions, the courts ruled fisheries' management and began to ment decisions. in Oregon. that those tribes with reserved fishing realize the importance of alliances Among the successes of the Protecting spawning habitat, rights are entitled to up to half of the with conservationists. Sport-fishing Northwest Power Planning 1I.ct has something that benefits all fishing fish rerurning to the tribes' "usual groups began to place far more been the Fish Passage Center interests, provided an easy opening and accustomed" fishing sites •. and emphasis on protecting fish runs and (formerly called the Water Budget for cooperation. In a radical turnabout that there was also a right to habitat than on who got to carch the Center). It coordinates fish agencyand from previous decades, Warm Springs protection of fish habitat (i.e., half of remaining fish. Commercial river tribal requesrs for increased flows nothing doesn't fulfill treaty rights). fishermen, such as Russ Bristow, when needed ro help fish runs, such as (Colliinuetl Oil page 18) Ref T l

18.High Country News " October 13, 1986

~ "-... A working... "- .~ .., * (Contim,ed fr'01n page 17) e" ~ Indians now serve on the board of the ~ Oregon Wildlife· Federation, which ' The flip side of conservation/pro- duction is, of course, allocation of harvests. Here, too, much of the . previous divisiveness is evaporating. Year after year until very recently, the states of Oregon and Washington tried to deny Indians their legal share of fish. And year after year the tribes would go to court to get their fair share. Now, thanks in large part to Bill Wilkerson, director of the Washington Department of Fisheries, and Jack Donaldson, retiring director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Bonneville Dam and semi-circular fish ladders, whkh lead fish around the dam Wildlife, tribal seasons are set Pacific Salmon Treaty Coalition salmon and steelhead runs are in place those fish were in the ocean. through negotiation, not litigation. formed and convinced the interested -- and, although much work remains to Meanwhile, U.S. fishermen were Only the Idaho attorney general parties to each give a little .so that be done, the results of the cooperative harvesting Canada's Fraser River and Department of Fish and Game still agreement could be reached. The efforts of recent years are already ,stocks. prefer to settle disputes in court -- and Pacific Salmon Treaty .. controls on evident. The fall chinook and fter almost two decades of this year even Idaho didn't file suit steelhead runs returning as you read fruitless attempts, the treaty ocean harvests' .. was the missing link against treaty fishing of fall chinook needed to obtain "gravel to gravel," this are the largest in many years. and salmon. A became a reality because of a cooperative effort that .would have or life-cycle management of Columbia The crowning piece of cooperation been inconceivable only a few years River salmon. Within a year, the Unfortunately, all is not yet calm in came In 1985, with the signing of the earlier. Led by such' unlikely allies as Alaskan-Canadian catch of Columbia the Columbia River Basin. Some fish. long-soughr U.S.-Canada Pacific Sal. Mark Cedergreen of the Washingeon River fall chinook has dropped from 45 ing interests, especially in Idaho, mon Treaty. Columbia River fish State Charter Boat Association, Jerty . percent of the run to 35 percent -- and seem bent on reigniting the 'fish wars' interests were increasingly frustrated Pavlerich of Trout Unlimited, and Tim is expected to drop to 25 percent next by trying to keep. treaty Indians from -r: because their efforts to increase fish Wapato of the Columbia River year. ~ getting their share of the runs and runs were undermined by huge Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, the Now most major components from being co-managers of Columbia Alaskan and Canadian harvests while needed to restore. Columbia River River fisheries. An Indian leader puts his faith in the private sector

he Wascos were once the most booming. Kah-Nee-Ta Resort had "'....------_ ...._------::=:::-.. ~ influential people along the been launched, the sawmill was ~ , Columbia River. Skilled fish- operating in the black, job opportun- T .~ ermen and traders, the Wascos knew ities had mushroomed and the -se. . wealth and power because of the reservation's standard of living was & chinook salmon that seasonally swam rising visibly. Smith guided the tribal upstream into their nets and traps. corporation through the halcyon '70s. On the Warm Springs Reservation By the time he was tapped by the in Central Oregon, the Wascos who Reagan administration, Smith was descend from these river enrrepre- known for his commitment to tribal neurs have taken leadership roles in self-sufficiency through economic tribal business and government. One development. "To be really self- leader is Kenneth Smith, who was the governing," he said while carrying out Confederated Tribes' general manag- his D.C. duties, "tribes can't have er for 12 years and then took his rheir strings pulled by the federal expertise to Washington, D.C. , as government. I have to push and Assistant Secretary of the Interior for challenge them to realize that it's not Indian Affairs from 1981to 1985. the government's money they need. He was raised by his grandparents It's help in strengthening the on a reservation ranch, far from the capabilities of Indian governments." Columbia River. Although the family journeyed to the river each September Still, when Smith began trimming to meet the migrating fall chinook, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, budget, their livelihood depended on the cattle merging area offices and eliminating back home. Smith grew up knowing some Indian schools, even his . the meaning of a hard day's work bur supporters at Watm Springs were his grandparents also taught him more skeptical. "I think 1 had some of the than that. Uneducated themselves, councilmen scratching their heads a they believed that education was the little bit when I was saying we had to key to their people's future, and they . rely more on the private sector for our pressed Ken to continue his schooling. financing," he said. . Smith's degree in accounting Smith has since joined the private landed him a job in tribal sector. himself, working as an administration where he was soon economic-development consultant to being groomed for management. By Indian tribes, including his own. the time he was appointed general . manager in 1969, tribal business was --Cynthia D. Stowell T LRT

High Country News -- October 13, 1986-19

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/~ o " ..':"--

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-:, .1 The view from the upper basin

pleted the prized fish -- big spring and Indian and non-Indian sport and , summer chinooks returning to Idaho .. commercial fisheries on salmon and It is in the nature of river basins to create enmity between and then shrank other runs as well. On steelhead produced in Idaho, although upstream and downstream. The Columbia River is no the other hand, habitat was steadily only a small part of those fisheries I exception. Idaho and the Sho-Ban tribe see the downstream lost as settlement, irrigation, logging, were in Idaho itself. Major hatchery grazing and mining dewatered and and passage efforts did not keep pace interests as shutting them out offishery decision-making. The dirtied streams. with the loss of habitat and staggering downstream tribes see Idaho as having earlier cheerfully Then came the greatest blows, the loss of fish. It is estimated that nearly dammed the Snake River to within an inch of its life, and now massive hydroelectric darn projects 44 millionsalmon and steelhead worth interested only in flooding the river with that sportsman's built on the Snake and Columbiarivers $6.5 billion were lost to Northwest between 1938 and 1975. They fisheries from 1960to 1980. delight -- hatchery reared steelbeads -- to the detriment of a inundated hundreds of miles of The result of this widening gap balanced and healthy fishery. spawning habitat and migration between supply and demand was corridors. Then in the 1960s,darns in increasing conflict among fishermen Hells Canyon blocked all fish passage competing for a dwindling resource, _____ .by Pat Ford salmon and steelhead plunge into to the upper Snake River, entirely and the loss of major economies. Idaho and up its streams, from spring eliminating 50 percent ofsalmon and Indians and non-Indians fought a I dahosalmon and steelhead are through fall, each year. sreelhead habitat in Idaho. (See map destructive political struggle, which I ocean-going fish, Born in For many thousands of years, on page 22.) achieved national notoriery as the I" Imountain creeks 'and streams, these overlapping runs of protein-rich The eight dams that are passable Columbia River Fish Wars. These I they migrate up to 900 miles to the fish supported major Native American tofish, which form a gauntlet between wars diverted combatants and specta- I, Pacific Ocean. They range widely in fisheries and cultures in and around Idaho and the ocean, claimedup to 15 tors alike from confronting the the ocean for one to four years, and the present state of Idaho. In 1805, percent of each run .. both returning problems inexorably reducing the then return -- in a long, ferocious Lewis and Clark descended Lolo Pass adults and migrating juveniles .. at number of fish to be fought over. migration upstream -- to their stream and bought dried salmon from some each darn year after year. Up to 90 In Idaho, non-Indian recreational of birth to spawn. Most then die; each Nez Perce Indians. Within 75 years, percent of all Idaho migrating suppliers were put out of business spring the cycle renews, non-Indians were in control of juveniles were killed in low-water throughout central Idaho. Indian The Columbia River drainage settlement and development; in 1890, years. Compensation in the form of subsistence fishing was virtually I historically supported the world's Idaho,was a state. From that time to artificial production in hatcheries and stopped. Records aren't available fish passage facilities either .was not largest runs of chinook salmon and the present,. a series of great blows earlier, but in 1975·1976,three central 11, steelhead trout. Idaho's Salmon and devastated Idaho salmon and steel- provided, did not work when built, or Idaho counties totalling 8\000 people Clearwater river drainages, high in head and those dependent on them. worked only slowly. lost 122 jobs as a result of declining the Columbia basin, are its largest Non-Indians quicklybuilt intensive runs. And this was after the greatest J intact nurseries for wild salmon and subsistence and commercialfisheries, Collision was brewing. By the declines had already occurred. steelhead. (See map on pages 12·13.) in river and ocean, on seemingly late 1950s, there were. grow- , Hundreds of .thousands of adult , inexhaustible runs. Overfishing de- A ing and apparently insatiable (Continued on page 2rJ) 20-High Country News -- October_13, 1986 Upper hIlS;•.•• (Continued from p"ge 19)

Blows to the runs and resulting conflicts were basin-wide. Idaho's special frustration' was legal and political inabiliry to affect -decisions spelling life or death for Idaho fish. 'I Idaho salmon and sreelhead, and related Idaho economies, were devastated largely by downstream I dams and fisheries that Idaho does not y control. Idaho salmon, for instance, are' fished under 16 separate state, I federal, tribal and foreign jurisdic- i tions. Idaho controls one of those. ~ This legal morass led Congress to 'enact the Salmon and Steelhead lI Conservation and Enhancement Act of 1980to establish coordinated manage- ment. But Idaho was not included in the new law. So in salmon and steelhead management in the Co- lumbia basin, Idaho is at the end of the funnel.

I ook at the Columbia River . system through the eyes of the Llast fishermen .. ' the. Sho- shone-Bannock tribal members. Be- Wild salmon in a clear stream fore white settlement, they fished the upper Salmon River and its tribu- consulted, and their major decisions and sought political redress; violent resisted. Judge Craig said no, but was taries, _and parts of the Snake River run the rivers. confrontations, fed by diminished fish reversed on appeal. Today, Idaho sits now dammed to salmon and From the time in the 1800s when runs, erupted. But the tribes' rights at the table with Oregon, Washington, I sreelhead. The 1868 Fort Bridger white fishermen began pushing remained firm, and they began a slow the federal government and the four ~ Treaty, which put them on the Fort Indians aside, there have been three climb toward co-management .of the -tribes. H Hall Reservation in southeast Idaho, I· related issues at the heart of Columbia fisheries and river. In October 1985, the Sho-Bans i;. recognized their right to traditional River fish conflicts: representation, Recognition of those rights helped followed Idaho's path and asked to IU hunting and fishing. allocation, and management. All exist Idaho fishermen by breaking the become the ninth parry to U. S. v. Today these Shoshone-Bannock today. stranglehold energy and irrigation Oregon. "Our purpose is to get more fishermen offer contrast on several interests had on the Columbia and fish in Idaho," says Larry Echohawk, counts. As they fish upper Salmon epresentation . There have Snake river management. But it did then the She-Ban's attorney. "The streams, 900 miles from the mouth of . been two modern phases of not bring Idaho fishermen to the table number of wild fish returning to the the Columbia, they have been representation, or who makes where management and allocation Salmon River basin isn't large enough preceded by ocean, non-Indian R the fishery decisions. The first, from were being decided. One observer for our traditional fishery. commercial, Oregon and Washington the late 1800s to the 1970, had says that in the 1970s, "Everybody . "It is painful that there are so few sport, Indian commercial, Indian non-Indians in charge. From the 1930s else did to Idaho what Idaho and our elders cannot pass on the fishing ceremonial and subsistence, and on, those non-Indians were energy, others did to the tribes earlier _. shut tradition. We need a voice in Idaho sport fishermen. The Sho-Bans irrigation and industrial interests them out." downstream management decisions. use only the traditional spear _pole; rather than fishermen. The result was The lower basin tribes' lawsuit -- We didn't want conflict with the their downstream counterparts use the devastation of the runs. Idaho's its shorthand title is U.S. v. Oregon -- downstream tribes, so we've tried drift nets, gill nets, rod and reel, hook energy and 'irrigation interests were is now an institution. For roughly a since 1977 to join the Columbia River and snag -- .modern equipment they pari of that ruling - group. Idaho decade most salmon and steelhead Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. But adopted after their traditional fishing Indians, like the downstream tribes, allocation decisions have been made they rejected us." spots were flooded or otherwise were on the outside. under its umbrella. In 1983, when CRITFC, often called Inter-Tribe, destroyed. The second, current phase began presiding Judge Walter Craig told the was formed by the four treaty tribes in The bread and butter of each when the Warm Springs, Yakima, parties to begin negotiating a 1977. Its attorneys, biologists and downstream fishery are hatchery fish; Umatilla, and Nez Perce tribes forced long-range management plan, Idaho publicists have made it an influential the Sho-Bans' aim is wild fish. The judicial recognition of their treaty sought entry to the case. Oregon, advocate on every aspect of salmon downstream fishermen take hundreds fishing rights. Non-Indians howled, Washington and the lower basin tribes and sreelhead management. of thousands of fish. The ShooBans, '

painfully but purposely, now take ,.::~ just a handful each year. The ~ downstream fishermen have some i; ." legal voice in management and ~ allocation. Until very recently, the -e" • Sho-Bans had none. it: Mter debating the right course for "0' years, the Sho-Bans went to federal court in October 1985 to seek an equal voice in the Columbia basin salmon r and steelhead fishery. Their motion ( was supported by Idaho- and opposed by Washington and the Warm Springs, Yakima, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribes. The sides make clear that roday's Columbia Basin fish conflicts are not exclusively between Indians \ and non-Indians. They are also between upstream and' downstream. r: In the Colorado and Missouri river basins, the upstream-downstream conflicts are inainIy about water quantity. On the Columbia, they are about fish. But the conflicts are similar in the sense that positions are strongly held, are emotional, and at times the two sides seem to speak different languages. Words and agreements mean one thing downstream, another upstream. The courts are frequently H"tchery salmon n un

High Co,mtry News .. October 13, 1986·21

CRlTFC's tribes opposed the She-Ban incidental catches of 43 to 50 percent intervention in U.S. v. Oregon, of the sreelhead run into the claiming its treaty rights are not on a Clearwater River. So Fish and Game par with their own. filed a court motion seeking to be a "We took a chance," Echohawk signatory to the fall chinook says. "The federal court could have agreement. lt was denied. weakened our treaty right. The Next year there will undoubtedly downriver tribes have gone right to be another string of disputes over the point of saying we don't have a particular fish runs. They will continue treary right." until the stalled long-range manage- However, in late July of this year, ment negotiations succeed. Judge Edward Leavy, who replaced There have been a few agree- deceased Judge Craig, admitted the ments. The Nez Perce are the only She-Bans as intervenors in the case. Idaho tribe to belong to CRlTFC. The decision is not appealable. The While the broader disputes have Sho-Bans, who have had observer flared, the tribe and Fish and Game status at the long. range management agreed in 1985 and 1986 on small negotiations Judge Craig had insti- tribal and sport fisheries on spring tuted, are now a partner in them. chinook returning to Idaho's Rapid Negotiating sessions have occurred River hatchery. "We have, by and irregularly for two and a half years. large, been able to work out our Progress has been slow, with both differences in state," Conley says. sides saying difficult issues remain. "Even so, we have a difficult time In the interim, downriver fishing .understanding each other ... allocations and seasons are generally set a year at a time by Oregon and Washington, often based on agree- anagement is where the ment with the treaty tribes. Idaho says arguments over wild fish and it is not always fully involved in these .M harvest reach the ground. decisions; the other parties say Idaho Downstream fishermen and Idaho join is involved. together on water flow and fish passage issues to spar with the Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power llocation, or who gets what Administration and utilities. There fish when, is the most visible are, however, two areas of dispute: A and emotional conflict. "Not the mixed-stock fishery, and the enough fish .. particularly wild fish .. production issue of wild and hatchery are getting back to Idaho," says Idaho fish. Fish and Game Ditector Jerry Conley. On the main-stem Columbia, .;'Too many are caught downstream." different species and different stocks . The She-Bans agree. But of those species are in the river CRlTFC's Doug Dampier says, "The together. In August and September, Salmon River, Idaho (CRITFC) tribes take far less fish than large numbers of hatchery and they have a tight to. And wild fish. narural-spawning fall chinook are in ment to Idaho is going up:We are not does call fat rebuilding natural stocks numbers into Idaho are increasing the river bound for Idaho. These are taking undue numbers. This last year in cdrtain streams. We are moving ~ach year.!". heavily..fished in the.tribesv.cornmer- we g!'-veup 60,000 sreelhead we could slowly because. it's difficult and risky. ~ In 1984, Idaho Fish and Game cial fishery from Bonneville to McNary have caught so escapement would be But there's no way we can outplanr predicted an excellent Salmon Rivet dams. But large numbers of hatchery high. The mixed-stock fishery is hatchery fish into the vast areas of the steelhead run; fishermen and their and wild sreelhead bound for Idaho already efficiently managed to protect Clearwater and Salmon; it's physically suppliers got ready. When the run are also there. They are close in size to the various stocks . We know exactly and ;economically impracrical.. and didn't meet expectations, Fish and the fall chinook, and many are taken in what's happening, and we shape our biologically dangerous. Those wild Game led an attack on the downriver the nets. gear and timing accordingly." stocks, in the Middle Fork of. the tribes. It charged that the tribes'. "The result is that wild steelhead He continues, "Idaho cannot rely Salmon at the Selway are adapted commercial gill-net fishery on fall are fished at the same intensiry as on the 'wild' runs to rebuild through thousands of years to do that chinook had taken far too many Idaho hatchery chinook and sreelhead;' Fish themselves. We believe they should job for us. We are committed not to steelhead. The two species arcin the and Game's Conley argaes. "Bio- be rebuilt" by placing the right lose that genetic flexibility. " river at the same time, leading to logically, it doesn't matter much on hatchery stocks into the streams. 'Outplants' are hatchery smolrs so-called incidental catches. Fish and hatchery fish, but the wild ones can't "That way, naturally spawning stocks placed in unused habitat (and Idaho Game's charges were amplified by take that level of fishing. We are not can be built in all the unused habitat has enormous amounts of unused . editorials, Idaho sportsmen and getting enough back to Idaho. " Idaho has now. We've got to do that habitat thanks to dams and pollution) politicians calling for a law to make Conley says changes in the tribes' rather than just continue dumping in the hope that they will return there steelhead a national game fish, fishery -- more careful use of net sizes, increasing millions of hatchery smolrs to spawn after their ocean journeys. If off-limits to commercial harvest. better timing, moving some fishing out." 1: . The tribes replied that Fish and above the Snake's juncture with the Conley counters, "Out program (Continued on page 22) Game's own mistake caused the small Columbia _. would reduce the impact ~tee!head run. They said Fish and on wild steelhead while allowing a Game had released diseased hatchery sizeable tribal catch. kmolts two years earlier, causing the The She-Bans concur, in their case l-educed run. They cited documents to for spring and summer chinook. "Our supp.ort theit counterattack. view of fishing is primarily religious," , Another cause of friction carne in Echohawk says. "The wild fish are early 1985, when the tribes decided to special to us. They have survived. Not increase their ceremonial and subsis- that we have no interest in hatchery tence fishery on spring chinook from fish, but our priority is wild fish. roughly 2,000 to 3,300. Idaho sought a Strangely enough, we get little conservation closure, contending the sympathy for that from the downriver run was too small for such a take. The tribes.' , " court denied the request, possibly The downstream tribes have a because the tribes argued that the different view. They say the state of spring chinook run had almost Idaho, whose politics have a strong doubled, from 50,000 to 90,000. anti-conservation element, is only , This year has been quieter. The intent on rebuilding a sports fishery CRlTFC tribes' 1986 ceremonial based on sreelhead, They say Idaho is spring chinook catch was 8,100. Fish willing, and has even let, non-sports and Game was unhappy, but didn't species and their habitats disappear, act. However, a draft 1986 fall chinook and let the Snake be dammed and agreement made public this summer blocked to fish. The tribes claim Idaho got things back into court. The sheds crocodile teats over wild fish Technical Advisory Committee (a and genetic adaptaion, but that it broad-based gtoup of biologists which cares only about sports species, provides information and best es- "';hether wild or hatchery. timates to all parties) estimated the CRITFC's Dampier says, "Our planned season could result in , numbers show wild sreelhead escape- jerry Conley Larry Echohawk 22-High COllntry News .. October 13, 1986

The chainsaw massacre

the South Fork attracted over 5,000 industry asked the state agency to High mountain-streams don 'I have dams, bUllhey do have returning chinook salmon and ac- relax its standards fot water pollution loggers, and Ihe mud spawned by roading and logging in counted for about 20 percent of the from non-point sources, such as Idaho can be as deadly to salmon reproduction as the highest chinook salmon redds in Idaho. But in logging. The pair argued that the years following the storms, the enforcing the standard would elirn- concrete dam. number of returning adults dropped inate many potential Idaho timber drastically. sales. ___ ...J;by Hadley Roberts logs across streams. Both actions As a substitute for' the state reduce stream stability and widen standard, the Forest Service and streams. The removal of streamside he devastation caused the timber industry proposed the use of or eons, the anadromous vegetation reduces fish cover and Forest Service to put a something called Best Management chinook salmon and steelhead increases stream temperatures. Road Tmoratorium on,logging above Practices. Under it, a sale could go Ftrout have coexisted in the building, an integral part of any the chinook spawning area and to start forward, whatever the effects on water forested watersheds of the Northwest, logging operation, can be mote a watershed rehabilitation program. quality and fish, so long as the loggers which are important for the production devastating than the logging itself The action took the pressure off the used the best avaiiable technology. of both timber and fish. Since the since roads contribute more sediment South Fork and it began to cleanse After the Department of Health 1950s, however, when there was a to streams than all other land-altering itself naturally. By 1974,the sediment and Welfare rejected that proposal, large-scale increase in the demand fot activities. load was reduced, 84 percent from its industry turned to the Idaho all resources, fish and tree production Examples abound of damage to high point a decade earlier. However, Legislature in the last session. Its HB have clashed. In Idaho, fot example,. salmon habitat by roading and from 1974 to 1983,the load remained No. 711 sailed through both houses of two rivers are being fought over, with logging. An infamous example constant, and it is impossible to the Legislature in 12 days despite loggers on one side and commercial occurred on Idaho's, South Fork of the predict when, or if, the river will objections from 11 sportsmen's and sport fishermen on the other. Salmon River in the Payette National return to pre-logging sediment loads. groups. The issue is the health of the fish. Forest. (See map on pages 12-13.)The With the memory of these grisly But Gov. John Evans, reportedly habitat. Anadromous species repro- forest, made up of steep, highly events only a few years old, a new under pressure from the federal duce in freshwater, and the juveniles erosive granitic soils of the Idaho controversy arose in 1981, when the Environmental Protection Agency, spend time there before swimming batholith, was heavily roaded and Nezperce National Forest proposed to which warned that it would impose its toward the sea .. To be productive, logged from 1950to 1966. log Meadow Creek, a chinook salmon own standards on Idaho's rivers, these spawning areas and nurseries Toward the end of this period, spawning tributary of the Selway vetoed the bill. The governor said it must have cool, flowing water, clean severe storms in 1962, 1964 and 1965 River. The agency's environmental "created more problems than it gravel for spawning, clear water to accelerated erosion from the roads, assessment predicted a 20 percent resolved.' , allow sight feeding, invertebrate food and portions of the South Fork had decrease in the fishery, due to the That veto and the salmon it organisms, lots of dissolved oxygen, sediment .loads 350 percent higher logging. protected have become issues in the and access to the sea. The lack of any than the pre-1950 period. The As a result, the Idaho State current Idaho election campaign for of these qualities harms or dooms coarse- textured sands' buried the Department of Health and Welfare the U.S. Senate. Incumbent Sen. habitat for salmon and steelhead. newly constructed ch.inook salmon informed the Forest Service that its SteveSymrns, who is being challenged Logging can harm fish habitat in nests called redds under a blanket of proposal was unacceptable. The by Evans, ran a large advertisement several ways. The fine material mud, and fish that managed to hatch agency said logging would injure a reading: released by disturbed soils is washed found the pools that past generations protected, beneficial use of the water "J ohn Evans is again stamping out into streams, where it settles on gravel had used for food and shelter filled .. chinook salmon spawning. State timber jobs." In small letters was the beds and smothers fresh eggs. Other with sand. standards say that no injury to message: "Senator Steve Symms damage comes from the logging of Surveys substantiated the damage beneficial use may occur. working effectively for Idaho timber streamside trees or the skidding of visible to the eye. In the mid-1950s, The Forest Service and timber jobs."

I Economics is a language our Will hatchery fish be used to build rebuild themselves? There IS no 'lJpper society understands well. For Idaho, naturally spawning stocks in now agreement on the answers. when applied to salmon and empty habitat? Will the wild stocks basin ... sreelhead, it is a powerful but double-edged sword, Fish can be (Continued from page 21) compared directly, and favorably, with they do, a self-sustaining, naturally kilowatts and crops. As a result, INDIAN LANDS OF PIlE NONTllJll/E5T spawning population can' establish political alliances among fishermen, itself. Presumably, at some point businesspeople and elected officials established natural spawners can be have been forged in the name of called wild. There is precedent for economic development. ourplanring. The best example in Economics is quantitative, and the Idaho is the Clearwater River's 'wild' hatchery system fits into it more easily salmon, which were ourplanred there than dowild fish. The hatchery system 30 years ago. represents an investment paid for by The lines between hatchery, the nation's taxpayers. CRITFC's , adopted by M.Mcll"11h desire to use those hatcheries to f""" 0 m~ebV tl.e naturally spawning and wild fish are, Columbia. Ril/Qr 1ntt1"- vague, and their political use by all restock a vast, empty habitat is rribal r:'ish Commission parties makes them more slippery. To economically efficient. Wild and Idaho Fish and Game, the Clearwater hatchery fish are equally valued on salmon ate wild; to CRlTFC, they ate balance sheets. The Sho-Bans ' natural spawners. Both accuse the religious and cultural arguments make other of over-reliance on hatchery fish little economicsense. And many Idaho WARN and selective rhetorical use of 'wild' fishermen and their suppliers just '5prmJ6S and 'natural spawners. ) want fish; it doesn't much matter Overlaying, perhaps determining, whether those fish are born in the these biological and political argu· clear gravels ofLoonCreek or in a tank ments is economics. Columbia basin at the Sawtooth hatchery. < salmon and steelhead are enormous Because mote Idaho hatcheries economic resources. Multimillion will come on line in the next five years, dollar commercial and recreational with total annual production approach. fisheries depend on the runs. Their ing 20 million by 1990, the prospects '. resel'"lIO.Tion [/'"'/traditio, nal Indill" Illndsj lowebb in the late 1970scontributed for continued rebuilding of Idaho 'runs lands L.d ceded 1'0 +11e u.s. govarnment substantially to regional unernploy- are good. But the nature of the This map shows the reservation and River Inter- Tribal Fish Commission rebuilding remains uncertain. Will it memoTheir current climbis sparking ceded lands of southeastern Idaho's- mbes. Traditional fishing places of the great economic expectations through- be hatchery based, with natural Sbosbone-Bannock Tribe, and the five tribes extend tbrougbou: the out central Idaho, as well as habitats left in deteriorated condition individllal reservations and combined Colllmbia River basin, both inside and regionally. or with healthy habitats left empty? ceded lands of the four Coillmbia oetside the ceded lands. -, LRT 4-112

Showing the t.,

West the way lrngatio» comes for tbe first time to Valley, April, 1945 F. W. Barlow's farm in tbe ,Yakima federal and one composed of the four in the Northwest's experiment in Northwest states. state-federal cooperation. The reaction to the intense development of the Columbia The federal agency is the The Actbroadened BPA policies in River basin led Congress to enact the Northwest Power Bonneville Power Administration, or two ways. First, it encouraged . Planning Act, and the four northwest states to create the , BPA, a $3 billion per year part of the conservation and efficiency, rather Northwest Power Planning Council as a balance to the giant, Department of Energy. Its transmis- than power plant and dam construe- sion lines collect 20,000 megawatts of tion. Second, through the Council, it pro-kilowatt Bonneville Power Administration. The council power at federal dams for distribution gave consumers, state, tribal and local has tilready played a majOrrole in the Northwest, ind it may c to 54 electric co-ops, 37 towns and government, and fish and wildlife also serve as a model for the West in its search for a regional cities, 27 public utility districts, 17 agencies a strong voice in the use of iindusrrial firms, nine investor-owned existing energy sources and the way to deal with resource questions now dominated by the i utilities, six federal agencies, and 14 development of new ones. The Act ." federal government. rcusromers outside the Northwest. It called for the protection of fish and 'disrributes roughly half the power wildlife, including improvement of generated in the region' and provides Columbia River basin spawning nearly 80 percent of the region's grounds and habitat, and required ____ -Pby Verne Huser southern Utah or forest planniog ]transmission capacity. When the that electric power revenues be used fights in Montana and Idaho. But to Reagan administration recently pro- to restore fish and wildlife values the lmost from the moment of those in the Northwest, the experi- posed selling BPA, it priced it at $9 hydroelectric projects had destroyed. their creati~n, th~ Western ment is not academic. At stake are the billion. The Councilhas initiated a number A states began to search for a electric bills of nine million people, : The marketing of electricitysounds . of programs for implementation by the way to deal with federal control of so recovery of the ColumbiaRiver salmon benign, but there is potential for BPA. They include model conserva- much of the West's land and natural fishery, and the. ways in which the controversy. BPA once planned a' tion standards in home and office resources. Approaches ranged from region earns its collectiveliving. transmission line through a national construction; the Water Budget to aggressive: the Sagebrush Rebellion The Northwest's present economy wildlife refuge, only to meet flush young salmon thtough reser- and former Interior Secretary James rests on cheap, plentiful hydroelectric considerable opposition. So it simply voirs; and the $46 million Yakima Watt, to cooperative: massive propos- power. The low electric rates attracted built the line up to the preserve Basin Enhancement Program, to bring ed land trades, such as Utah's Project the electric-hungry aluminum smelt- boundaries, presenting opponents salmon backto the Yakima Basin. (See Bold, and various federal-state oil ers and encouraged a wayof life based with afait accompli. The effects of its map on pages 12-13.) Major salmon shale and coal advisory committees. on "living better electrically." The energy policy are more far-reaching: runs had been destroyed by diversion drive for cheap and plentiful electricity BPA's decision in the 1970sthat the Varied as they might appear, the of Yakima River water to irrigation, helped lead to the pushing aside of the Northwest's future depended on new approaches had one thing in common stranding srnolt heading for the ocean rights of Native Americans, to power plants, rather than on __ they all failed. Now, however, a and -dewatering the river when adult lalting-up almost every major stretch conservation, led to WPPSS -- the five-year-Iong experiment in Oregon, salmon were running upstream to of river, and to the nation's largest, disastrous attempt to build five Washington, Idaho and Montana spawn. most disastrous nuclear power plant nuclear power plants. holds the possibiliry of success. If it The Yakimaprogram is being done project. BPA's policies in the environrnenr- works, this multistate guidance of the in cooperation with the Bureau of allyaware Northwest created pressure federal presence could provide a Reclamation, and if successful will for reform. At the same time, BPA f-· model for other areas and resources. develop more water for both ow, driven by higher electric itself wanted new powers that could agriculture and. fish. Yakima tribal The Northwest experiment aims at rates, by conservation, by only be granted by Congress. These fisheries official Bill Yallup says the turning back the clock on the NNative American victories in forces came together in Congress to number ofredds, or nests, has Columbia River by recovering lost the Fish Wars and by a new mandate produce the 1980 Pacific Northwest increased thirty-fold in the past natural values. Although no one talks from Congress, the Northwest is Electric Power Planning and Conser- decade. . of tearing down dams or of letting under 'pressure to change. The vation Act. The Act satisfied the irrigated fields return to sagebrush, changes are being implemented various interests enough -to gain a '- kilowatts are sacrificed to smolts, through a unique attempt. to give the majoriry, but some say it achieved he financing of energy irrigation projects are modified to Northwest states more power Over the consensus not just through compro- conservation. and of salmon keep salmon outof apple orchards and federal presence in the region. mise, but also thtough vagueness. T. and wildlife recovery pro· wheatfields, and the region's energy Although the result of this effort to The heart of the Power Planning grams comes directly or indirectly policy is modified to minimize or change the direction of the Columbia Act is authorization for Washington, from electricenergy users through the eliminate newdams and power plants. River basin will be determined by Oregon, Idaho and Montana to create BPA-.TheWater Budget, for example, It is easy to take an elevated view millions of residents scattered' over the eight-person Pacific Northwest indirectly costs Northwest consumers of the experiment, and to wonder if it four states and 260,000square miles, Electric Power arid Conservation could help resolve wilderness fights in at its center are two agencies: one Council.With BPA, it is a key element (Continued on page 24) 24-High COllnlry News -- Oclober 13, 1986 _Showing...

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between $~4 and $74 million in electricity not generated because the - water is released to move the fish -through the reservoirs. The BPA. is also committed to spend $200 million ($10 to $20 million a year) from its revenues to improve fish-passage facilities such as screens and spillways_ at main-stein dams. The Council has also undertaken a broader attempt to influence BPA. It developed a 20-year energy plan in 1983to guide BPA over the long-term, BPKagreed with 84 of the 96 specific conservation suggestions, but said the remaining dozen "face-d serious impediment to implementation." Those few words of jargon are part of a struggle that has been going on since the Council was formed. Giant - BPA, with its 3,000 employees, recognized that the 1980 Act was a mandate for change. BPA also recognized that the -eight-person Council and its 42-person Staff were instruments of the change. But'BPA Fish wheel, which scoops up fish, in Ihe Columbia River didn't conclude that it had to take orders from the tiny, youthful upstart. were provoked by 'the Council's relationship between the two bodies. Council's fish and wildlife program. Instead, it saw the Council as running attempt to impose an energy But Kai Lee, a Washington member of The Council has joined the suit on a public involvement process that conservation code on BPA customers. the Council and a professor of political the side of the NWF. If the NWF and would provide BPA with advice. Among the Master 'Builders' several science at the University of Washing- Council position wins, the Council's allegations Was a claim that the ton, disagreed. fish and wildlife program for BPA For its part, the Councilrecognized Council was unconsrirutional because Lee said Congress gave BPA ' would presumably also apply to the that issuing orders to BPA would lead 'a state group Wasgiving orders to a 'strong powers in the Act, letting Corps and Bureau of Reclamation. to pitched battles and years of federal agency. it acquire new sources of electric litigation. The resulr :has 'been a BPA, avoiding an open attempt to power, in addition to its long-standing complex dance, made up of' both gut 'the Council, intervened in an right to market power from federal feuding and cooperation. -Dulcy interesting way. It said that, as it read darns. BPA's ability to acquire new or the Northwest,. these Mahar, the-Council's information di- the 1980 Att, ,the' Council could Dot sources of power, Lee said, meant that matters are -all important. For rector, says: direct the BPA, but only make the states gave up much of their Fthe West in general, the most "The rhetoric doesn't indicate the suggestions. The BPA said that since traditional role in power planning. interesting question is: Has the, close day-to-day working relationship the Act didn't tell BPA to take orders In return, according to Lee, the Northwest approach worked well between BPA and the Council." ID from the· Council, there was _no Northwest got the four-state Council, , enough to consider spreading it far public, she says,· the "creative constitutional question. For their part, and the Council got the authority to and wide? Bob Saxvik of Idaho, the tension " often results in friction. But the Council and its tribal and develop guidelines, checks and new chairman of the Council, believes privately, the two staffs cooperate. environmental supporters argued that balances. According ~o Lee, BPA, in that the Act and the Council have Former Oregon Council member the Council could indeed give orders the Master Builders' suit, appeared to "been a good national model for other Roy Hemmingway has 'another view. to the BPA, and that there was be trying to back away from that regions to take a look at, whether" "On the whole, BPA has protected it- nothirig unconstitutional about it. delicate balance between federal and those regions are concerned with self as an institution more than it has· state power hammered out in the Act. energy, or ,.other shared.resources.·· furthered the regional interest. " On April 10, 1986, the Ninth If the Master Builders' suit .was an Timothy Wapato, head of the Mahar suggests that while BPA Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the attempt to shackle the Council, a suit Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish doesn't move fast enough for the Council was constitutional, and that filed - by the National Wildlife Commission, says, thanks to the Act Council, it moves a lot Jaster than it there is no bar to a state-created Federation against the Federal Energy and Council, "the whole climate has did before the Council was created. regional body like the Council giving Regulatory Commission attempts to changed dramatically." Chip Green- The differences have spilled into direction to a federal agency. interpret the Council's powers more ing, a Portland attorney and public court. The Seattle Master Builders The BPA had threatened in the broadly. The NWF says the Council interest lobbyist, said in 198~ that, sued in 1983, challenging the' Master Builders' suit that the was created to do more than just thanks to the Act: "Utiliries could no constirurionaliry of the Council, and assumption of such powers by the oversee the BPA; it is asking the court longer ride roughshod over the public BPA joined the suit. The Builders Council would destroy the working' to order FERC to also complywith the interest."

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