**Do you agree or disagree with Buzz??? Comment Below**
The 4 lower Snake River Dams.
Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite
This contention has been going on for a long-time, but it seems that momentum is building. Buzz Ramsey, longtime tackle rep for Luhr Jensen, Yakima Bait & Pure Fishing to name a few, is passionate about this subject. Listen as he details his opinions on the best way to improve smolt to adult ratio on salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River basin.
Though there is fish passage, the reservoirs created by those dams warm temperatures and make the journey less safe from predators like birds and other fish.
By opening up the lower Snake, it would bring massive economic growth not just in those areas of the river, but it would also benefit the entire lower basin by lowering temperatures for lower river fish. There is opposition from irrigation, farming, barging and tourist ship industries. They have valid concerns, but the plan that Rep. Simpson is bringing will allocate money to create new opportunities for them to continue to flourish.
What are your thoughts? Comment below.
12 comments
Yes Mr Ramseys ideas would improve the fishing industry his business. But what about the millions of acres of farmland that would go back to desert and the power the dams provide for hundreds of thousands of residents. Those destroying power sources coal,dams and even natural gas and nuclear dream of solar and wind power whose true costs are hidden in subsidies and those short comings are never discussed by those whose money and jobs are invested in them and their government grants. As in most things follow the money and we have heard to many phoney retraining and replacement programs that fail to deliver.California blackouts are the norm now and it seems trading fish for brownouts might not be acceptable to many. We certainly can do better but those with dreams usually fall short when reality kicks in and dreamers go on to another goal and we are stuck with their left overs. Dams hold back water for public use without the dams the spring runoff would dry up as we see empty dams in a drought lately. Those who feel they can can control climate change just might make it worse as if they had any control anyway. As the other poster said what benefit be specific which he cant. I fish for steelhead but the benefits to the economy have a short seasonal benefit power is year long.
Do you realize the tribes fork over 80 percent of the funds, according to a National fish hatchery, above Bonneville. So…i understand the “White Man,”below Bonneville, which is far more than all the natives above Bonneville.
I moved here 33 years ago i live in Vancouver Washington ive fished the rivers from naselle to the klick the real problem is we have killed the wild lower columbia strains due to gill netting greed will continue to delete the runs so the obvious way to have a fishery is make netters biuld and maintain hatcheries to support their greed and maybe sport fishing will be open more than a week
From the late 1990s until the last few years we had amazing runs on the Grande Ronde. Daily catch numbers and excess returns led to increased keep limits. Since the big push to protect “native” runs hatcheries began to close and fewer smolts were released. Then the practice of trucking the smolts around the dams stopped and they began flushing them over dams nstead causing thousands of fish to die from nitrogen poisoning. How many posts have you seen of someone playing tug of war with a seal and a fish on the line? These mammals are consuming salmon, steelhead and sturgeon, swimming far up the Columbia. They don’t belong there and yet they are still protected. Taking out dams will take out one of the cleanest forms of electricity, something we need right now. Face it, it’s been a change of practices and politics that’s caused this. That’s what needs to change.
Let’s get the gillnets out of the Columbia. . Let’s kill less salmon .restrict sport fishing more .gillnets should not be in the river . Try that before destroying the four dams that provide a huge benefit for the region. If the gillnets don’t come out, then no one is serious about saving the salmon