Trout Unlimited, the nation's leading coldwater conservation organization, today commended the governors of Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Washington for attempting to put substantive salmon recovery ahead of politics in the joint Regional Strategy to Fish Recovery announced today. However, TU's assessment of the Strategy found it differs little from the federal plan set for release later this week, and therefore still falls well short of the measures necessary to meet salmon recovery goals. But the common ground the governors seem to have found still won't get the region and the salmon to where they need to be. You have to keep coming back to Judge Marsh's admonishment that the system calls for a major overhaul. It seems we're still in the neighborhood of a minor tune-up.
Snake River fall chinook spawn in the river's mainstem.
For Snake River stocks, you get to habitat by improving the hydrosystem, and there's no way around that. Let's rebuild this Mother Earth.