The Feds successfully bribe tribes to back off Columbia river complaints
April 8th, 2008
Warm Springs and other tribes get hundreds of millions (through higher electricity rates) in exchange for not advocating for dam removals.
Federal agencies approached Oregon officials about joining a similar agreement about 18 month ago. But the talks ended when federal officials would not consider higher spills and other changes in dam operations, said Michael Carrier, Kulongoski’s natural resources advisor.
Many salmon advocates share that sentiment. The habitat and hatchery improvements in the agreements are laudable, said Bill Shake, a former fisheries biologist and U.S. Fish and Wildlife official now advising the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association. But the agreements “keep in place the status quo of federal dam operation,” Shake said. “The status quo will simply not get this region to healthy levels of salmon and steelhead.”
Critics such as the nonprofit law firm Earthjustice says, the agreements are of little benefit to the salmon because the four dams that block their access from stream to ocean and back again are still there.
“This new deal would roll back recent victories improving dam operations for salmon,” said Earthjustice attorney Todd True. “The opportunity to restore these fish is rapidly slipping away. BPA and the other federal agencies under this administration have consistently been more interested in protecting the status quo than in restoring wild salmon. Today’s deal is a good example of that failed approach.”
But $900 million is a lot of money. How will it be used exactly? That is a bit amorphous… but according to the article it will include expanding fish hatchery operations. So more salmon in the rivers (thanks to fish hatchery stock) will continue to mask the continuing and appalling decline of native runs. Next time you go to the fish viewing window at Bonneville, you can marvel at how the current years salmon count is so far above the 10 year average… and you may wonder what the problem is?
So maybe now that they’re flush with cash, Warm Springs will back off their off-reservation casino plans for the Columbia gorge?
Unlikely.
Greed is a powerful thing.
3 Comments Add your own
1. Gary Tyler | April 8th, 2008 at 9:36 am
$900 million IS a lot of money, but the charge that how it will be used being a bit amorphous is completely off the mark. If you look at the actual Memorandum of Agreement, which is available on salmonrecovery.gov, one of the appendices is a project-by-project breakdown of where each and every dollar would be spent and on what.
And if you took the time to learn how the tribes use hatcheries, perhaps you would see that they don’t operate them like the states or feds do. In fact, there’s an article about how they operate their hatcheries here. In most of those cases, they only spawn wild fish and outplant them to streams to imprint. The only thing that differentiates them from their wild cousins is that they spent the first months of their lives in a hatchery–one that mimics a cobbled stream and prepares them for life in actual waterways.
Lastly, you have an interesting definition of greed. Getting a settlement destined to be used on behalf of another (and in this case another SPECIES, even) is called altruism. And the tribes would call it duty to the most important animal in their culture. To imply that the tribes should just continue to sit in courtrooms with the hope that someday the dams would be breached, all the while salmon, sturgeon, and lamprey numbers continued to decline to oblivion hardly seems like what is in the best interest of the salmon.
2. Peter | April 9th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Thanks very much for the comment Gary… For the way of record, I note from your email address that you are connected with one of the tribes.
Thanks for the pointer to the Web site, which indeed has great details on the many outstanding habitat projects and other work that this money will do. To the extent that that work will be done, that’s good news. And I was indeed wrong in my initial characterizations of the projects that this money will buy.
In terms of defining their actions as “altruism”, as you do, it is worth noting that this deal seems to be universally criticized by environmental groups. If this deal is so good for the salmon, one would expect the environmental NGOs to be on the side of the tribes on this one. But they aren’t.
I suggest that the differences in opinion come down to the fact that that $900 million is benefiting the tribes in more ways than just the possible increase of salmon, lamprey, etc. Indeed, from my understanding, some of the money will preferentially favor tribal scientists and tribal activities. As such, these portions of the monies will indirectly flow into tribal coffers or to individuals within the tribes. While there isn’t anything wrong with this, it suggests to me at least that the indirect monetary benefits to the tribes do play a role.
Beyond that, I don’t necessarily think that the tribes did something bad. A billion dollars is a lot of money. And the government was smart in its strategy to divide and conquer by offering a large sum to a faction so that they can avoid paying even a larger sum down the line (dam breaching).
(There is precedent for this type of divide and conquer tactic, of course. The Forest and Fish Agreement in Washington State. The FFA was once heralded as a huge step forward for habitat protection on private timberlands, and there were some gains but a whole lot of back steps too. They bought off many of the Tribes with money for monitoring and habitat restoration.)
While this deal will doubtlessly offer more employment and other economic opportunities to the tribes, it seems pretty shortsighted.
I suppose in the future all salmon might be reared in the types of hatcheries you describe — and this money will go a long way, presumably, to advance HUMAN propagation of salmon. And I see lots of money going to “sea lion harrassment”. You end up with salmon that seem to rely on humans for every step of the journey.
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