I just read and copied this post and reply to it off another northwest fishing site:
------------

What is your opinion?

Officials announce salmon restoration initiative
01:04 PM PST on Monday, January 26, 2004

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI, Associated Press Writer


STEVENSON, Wash. -- Senior Bush administration officials announced a proposed $10 million increase for Northwest salmon restoration on Monday at Bonneville Dam.

The increase brings to $100 million the total that will be used to restore salmon habitat throughout the Northwest.

"Habitat restoration is making a difference," said Conrad Lautenbacher, administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But environmentalists called the appearance, and the choice of venue, ironic.

"They are making salmon speeches at big dams -- dams are extremely lethal for fish," said Charles Hudson, spokesman for the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission.

Tribal groups applauded the increase in funding, but stressed that the figure fell far short of their expectations. The Intertribal Fish Commission said a $110 million increase is needed to fund all ongoing restoration projects.

Bush administration officials, though, said they had to weigh both economic and environmental concerns.

"It's a balancing act," said James Connaughton, chairman of the president's council on environmental quality.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sandy,

On this issue, I have to agree with the Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. This is like throwing a bone to enviromentalists and all Columbia fish user groups. Much more is needed. But the Bush Admin. will always look out more for the interests of big business. Habitat restoration (which not only help native fish runs; they help the environment we all live in) unfortunately flies in the face of big biz profits. And they are the real constituents of the Gee DubYa Bush administration.

On a related note: We tried a couple years ago to get responses from Columbia Tribal colleagues of Mr. Hudson, their present spokesman, about the 6 1/2 times larger share of the Columbia springer runs they get. Of course, no responses to the pertinent questions asked. You see, those Tribes are also big dollar constituents of the 'powers to be' politicians, who then turn around and ignore the illegal U.S. Dept. of the Interior Sec. Order #3206 (which essentially states the quota negotiations should favor the tribes, due to dam destruction of a % of the runs). That order is a Federally illegal counter to Northwest Treaties and Fed. Court mandates for the proper 50-50 % split of harvestable fish!

Maybe some individuals, or group of you, could write a diplomatically polite letter to Mr. Hudson asking him the reasons for the 13% ESA impact on springers going to the Tribes, compared to 1% for sportfishers and 1% for commercial netters. If they reply that we get to sport fish for them up tributaries such as the Wind, Klickitat, Deschutes, Umatilla, Icycle, etc. rivers ... then it should be brought back to his attention that we also are aware of what he knows but tends to hide. That is the Tribes also dipnet harvest fish from those tribs too. And far beyond that they are given tons of surplus quality hatchery springers from more than those rivers open to sportfishing - they also get tons of surplus hatchery springers from Columbia tribs not open to sportfishing in recent years. That would include such as the Entiat and Methow rivers! If he mentions the dams lowering fish run potential, then it should be pointed out how dependant the Tribes are on those dams for ultra high electricity usage at low to no cost to run their many super lucrative gambling casinos that were allowed to them partly because of lost income potential via fish runs! Potential we've all lost too. And that only a very small % of sportfishers ancestors built those dams - so "we" did not build them either.

I really hope someone in regard will take these factors to Mr. Hudson and the Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission for a justification response! Is anyone up for doing this? A group of us? Perhaps newspaper journalists?