[env-trinity] Bee Letter: A Fishery Nightmare Made in Washington

[Daniel Bacher]

Here's my letter regarding today's Sacramento Bee article, "salmon harvest 
will be slashed":


A Fishery Nightmare Made In Washington

"Salmon harvest will be slashed," May 31: It is outrageous that commercial 
fishermen, recreational anglers and the Klamath River Indian tribes have to 
suffer drastic cuts in salmon harvest this year because of a man-made 
environmental disaster that was engineered in Washington by Bush 
administration officials.

In a year when fishery managers expect to see the largest ever ocean 
abundance of Sacramento fall-run chinooks, commercial fishermen face severe 
harvest restrictions because these fish mingle at sea with the beleaguered 
Klamath fish. The only reason why Klamath stocks are so low is because the 
Department of Interior in 2002 changed Klamath Basin water policy to deliver 
irrigation water to subsidized growers at the expense of fish and downstream 
users.

Over 200,000 juvenile chinooks perished in the spring of 2002 and 68,000 
adult salmon died before spawning that fall because of low, warm water 
conditions caused by the water policy change. The very least that 
administration officials can do, after causing all of this environmental and 
economic devastation, is to issue an economic fisheries disaster 
determination. I agree completely with Glen Spain that “The Klamath River is 
an ESA disaster.”

Dan Bacher, Sacramento