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Letter: Easy to blame dams

The Columbian
Published: June 1, 2012, 5:00pm

Reading Jon C. Anderson’s May 26 letter, “Salmon ‘recovery’ isn’t working,” I’m struck by some misguided information.

Blaming the dams entirely for the salmon recovery failure is one example. A look at the fish count records of Bonneville and McNary dams will show the runs actually increased after the states outlawed fish wheels and gillnets above Bonneville. The same records will show a decrease in the count after the Native American fishery began using gillnets as the usual and accustomed manner of fishing.

I would agree with Anderson about over-fishing. Gillnets should not be used on the river at all, especially set nets, of which there are now hundreds between Bonneville and McNary.

The Native American fishery needs to be controlled, and we, the people, need to know the fishing rights were bought and paid for when the dams were built. Fishing should only be by dip net, as per the treaty rights.

Fred Cloe

Skamania

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