While U.S. District Judge James Redden stews over the effect upper Columbia River dams have on endangered salmon and steelhead returns, on the East Fork of the Lewis River, with no dams, native endangered salmon and steelhead returns continue to decline.
Why? Because Clark County, Washington state and federal agencies continually refuse to take responsibility for protecting and restoring habitat for this precious resource. They have failed miserably. The lower 16 miles of the East Fork (home of the state-record 32 pound, 12 ounce steelhead) is beset by lethal, 80-plus degree temperatures, record-low summer flows, bank erosion, sedimentation of spawning beds, and lack of shade and cover.
Our only recourse now is the federal courts — at taxpayers’ expense. That’s shameful.
Ben Dennis
Vancouver
