The fate of the Snake River salmon may seem a distant issue to Minnesotans, living so far from the dammed-up waterways of Washington and Oregon. But it is worth careful attention here and everywhere across the nation, for it raises core questions about the American commitment to species preservation, the future of industrialized rivers and, not least, the political courage of Al Gore. The salmon and steelhead facing extinction in the Snake and Columbia rivers have been part of American legend since they fed the last westward push of Lewis and Clark.
Federal agencies are under court order to develop a recovery plan but keep missing the deadlines.
There is little question about what a realistic plan must require, since the reasons for the salmon decline are clear. Habitat destruction and overfishing have long taken a toll, but the real plunge followed the construction of four hydroelectric dams on eastern Washington's Lower Snake River in the 1960s and 1970s. These federally financed dams extended barge shipping 140 miles farther inland to Lewiston, Idaho. They now provide about 4 percent of the region's electric needs, at rates among the nation's lowest, and make irrigation somewhat easier for 13 grain farmers. Taxpayers across America have paid to build and operate these dams, and also to conduct salmon-preservation programs whose ineffectiveness might be comical were less at stake.