Hey, if you think those hatchery fish are expensive. Do the calculations for a bushel of Columbia basin wheat!

Read yesterday's Oregonian about the $180-BILLION farm subsidy bill.

Basically, the choice was made to sacrifice the Columbia river to farming interests so they could have free water, cheap power, and barging to move large quantities of low-value goods.

The Columbia hatcheries were supposed to 'mitigate' the damage done.

The danger is, at some point there may not be the willingness to accept the escalating costs of mitigation, nor change/improve the river enough to make it favorable again for salmon.