Page 24 RAIN March/April 1985 to their native spawning grounds. For some, the journey is over 1,000 miles long and ~rosses dozens of giant concrete dams. There are "fish ladders" on most of the dams now, but some are outmoded, ~nefficient and dangerous. · The program requires operators at the dams and other responsible agencies to adopt flow and spill levels and timing that will assist the salmon in their uphill run. · They are also required to improve fishways and consistently maintain them using the best technologies available. Resident Fish and Wildlife But not only the migrating fish of the region suffered as a result of the elaborate system of hydroelectric dams. Fish.that don't migrate (called resident fish) and other forms of wildlife were de'prived of thousands of acres of their habitat, forage grounds and ranges by the flooding that created the reservoirs. Some of these are endangered species whose territory was already limited. To restore some of these areas, Northwest fish and wildlife agencies, tribes and others are determining which species were most damaged and what steps can be taken in each case. New habitat may be adapted through timber control, stream and streambank (riparian) repair, or artificial nest building. · Five Year Action Plan . In the past year the council went back to the community to amend its program. The new program (see Access) includes a prioritizing of,work in the basin with reporting periods to help monitor the success or failure of various measures. 0 0 Carlotta Collette is a features editor and fish and wildlife science writer with the Northwest Power Planning Council. She was an editor at RAIN between 1979 and 1982. ACCESS Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, Northwest Power Planning Council, 1984, 138 pp., available free from: Public Information and Involvement Division, Northwest Power Planning Council, 850 SW Broadway, Suite 1100, Portland, OR 97205. Or call toll free in Washington, Idaho and Montana, 1-800-222-3355, and in Oregon, 1-800-452-2324. The first Fish and Wildlife Program was adopted in 1982. From the very start it was seen as a flexible .device for integrating work to restore fish al)d wildlife in the basin, not a concrete treatise mirroring the dams themselves. Consequently, in 1984 the program was amended and this new version is much more than a compendium of projects. The program documents some of the specific problems caused by hydroelectric dams throughout the watershed of the.Columbia. It clearly-describes a series of actions designed to ameliorate these problems, and in most cases, pegs one or more institutions whose responsibility it is to correct the situation. This second version has incorporated new emphasis on maintaining wild and natural fish stocks as a way of broadening the region's salmonid gene pool, clarification on programs designed to improve mainstream pass<;lge and a five-year action plan that prioritizes all of the activities to be carried out in the short term. The Council is ·currently conducting its second power planning process. To be put on the mailing list to receive regular maili-ngs, agendas of public meetings, copies of issue papers and the bimonthly periodical, Northwest Energy News, call or write the council's Public Information and Involvement Division. ACCESS: P-olitics Embrace the Earth: A Green View of Peace, by Green CND, 1983, 44 pp., 90 p. from: Campaign fo~ Nuclear Disarmament · 11 Goodwin Street London N4 3HQ UNITED KINGDOM This booklet was put together by the Green wing of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Britain's most broadly based peace organization. It brings the perspectives of the peace and ecology movements together into a single vision, which consists of a comprehensive and' · integrated (though necessarily brief) critique of contemporary society, along with a proposal for an alternative. The alternative ("green peace") is based on unilateral disarmament initiatives, decentralization, nonviolence, and a shift in emphasis from national sovereignty to internatjonal responsibility.. Embrace the · Earth offers a clear and concise expression of the green view of peace emerging in European politics. -FLS · · I • Cheaper Gov't, by Jeanne Robinette, 1984, 284 pp., $7.95 from: CEG Press PO Box384 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 I suspect that both Karl Hess and Ronald Re<;tgan would like this book. It may be worth reading just for that reason ·alone. · The book addresses itself to what seems to be a very popular questio{l these days: '"How can we reduce the cost of government?" Robinette began to ask that question after many years working with government agencies and becoming' disenchanted with inefficient bureaucratic responses to social needs. I appreciated that the book is more concerned with what works than with ideological appeals, and is full of examples and checklists for evaluating options in any particular · situation. The book also addresses some of the stickier questfons involved in reducing government bureaucracy, such. as how to protect the environment and how to balance short-term gains with long-term interests. Although I disagreed with some things in the bo?k, these points of disagreement usually helped me clarify my own thinking. For instance, I think Robinette is a bit Ppllyari.i?h· abo~'t the workings of the fre'e market (though she's not as extreme _as · some lib~~tarians) . Though market forces can lead to increased efficiency, they are too often indifferent to social and ecological welfare, especially in the l.ong term. Also, sh~ is a bit tqo celebratory of what she calls "Individual Self-Interest Ener- · gy." It seems to me .that 11self-interest11 is
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