Reclamation, state water boards, private utilities, and agricultural interests are making rivers unproductive. Eventually, there will be no more salmon to fight over, yet as the salmon becomes a scarce resource, the fighting among the user groups grows more intense. The Columbia River was once one of the greatest salmon streams in the world. We have grown up with salmon and. consequently, we do not realize what a rare resource it is on a worldwide scale. It is a special phenomenon that is nourished by the very land we live on. To remain closed and disinterested to the salmon’s fate is probably not important to the salmon’s survival, for the salmon can do all that on his own as long as its habitat is kept healthy. But when one realizes that by keeping the rivers clean, one has to check pollutants and keep the soil on the hill; that by doing it Oregon is a better place to live, then it soon becomes apparent that by protecting wild trout and salmon stocks and the waters which nourish them is the only way to keep this coast whole and a fit place to live for fish and for people. Yes. the salmon's habitat is our very own. On the Columbia River, habitat destruction, the elimination of spawning grounds by dams, the manipulation of the river for power and irrigation at the expense of the salmon, mixed stock fisheries, overharvest of wild stocks, user group wars, unrealized compensation for salmon and steelhead losses, and the misuse of hatchery stocks, are leading to the salmon's demise, assuring its status as a threatened and endangered species. This is especially true in the upper Columbia River Basin. To correct this trend and give the salmon a secure future in the Columbia River and in Oregon, there needs to be a coordinated salmon management plan with the authority to make it work. This would be formed from the federal, state and citizens groups involved in “The salmon’s passage is a quiet one, and i f it no longer ascends the Columbia River, few people will know about it, but it will be gone in all its fine diversity. ” JStv/fuid ‘fnnit the problem. Known stock fisheries must be created so that hatchery salmon can be harvested and wild stocks permitted to spawn. Natural production areas must be given protection above other resource considerations, justified on the fact that few unaltered natural production areas exist today in the basin. All the provincial loyalties of government agencies and fishermen’s groups have to give way if the salmon is to survive. Otherwise, the West Coast will repeat the history of the Atlantic salmon fishery. We must learn how to do more than merely take what we want from a resource and begin to give something of ourselves to it, to see it through this crisis. The salmon’s passage is a quiet one. and if it no longer ascends the Columbia River, few people will know about it, but it will be gone in all its fine, full diversity. This country will have lost some of its meaning and richness. What myth will we then be creating about our origins? How wilt we then describe our short stay on this land? SAVE THE FISHERIES OF THE NORTH FORK JOHN DAY RIVER The North Fork wilderness complex is the largest wildland left unprotected in Oregon. The value of the fishery resource is $3.7 million. The North Fork is being managed as a natural production area by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for wild stocks of summer steelehad and spring Chinook. This watershed is the spawning and rearing habitat for 90% of the spring chinook and 70% of the summer steelhead using the John Day River system. The Umatilla National Forest wants to log the watershed but it is more valuable as a production area for anadromous fisheries. President Carter placed it into Further Planning during RARE II, but in order to protect the watershed, the water quality, and the fishery it must be given the greater protection of wilderness. Time is short so please call or write to your Congressman and Senators, for they will be deciding the fate of the watershed in Congress as they vote on what wildlands will enter the National Wilderness System this next month. Representative:___________________ U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 Senator:_________________________ U.S. Senate Washington, D.C. 20510 For further information contact: North Fork Wilderness Council Box 9 Prairie City, Oregon 97869 820-3714 Bill Bakke is a former conservation editor for Salmon Trout Steelhead magazine. Is the Columbia River the most radioactive river in the world? Answer in our Xmas Issue. PORRETTA PIZZA 2239 SE Hawthorne TAKE OUT ONLY BEERAND WINE TOGO 232-2812 KONG HARVEST NATURAL FOODS BEST PIZZA IN PORTLAND Whole Wheat or White Cr- r-t Subs-Salads 2.W se 23S~-S3Sg Hours: Tue., Wed., Th., Sun. 4-10 Fri.-Sat. 5-12 6
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