The Nespelem tribune. [volume] (Nespelem, Wash.) 1934-1936, 1935-11-13
ROMANCE UNDER THE WATER
By FRANK T. BELL
United States Commissioner Of Fisheries

A story about stairways for fish,
and elevators designed to raise a
carload of finny passengers height
of 70 feet, may sound like a chap
ter out of "Alice in Wonderland
On the contrary, these seemingly
fantastic devices are being recorded
in the history of our own United
States in the year 1885. They rep
resent a serious and carefully plan
ned effort on the part of those
charged with the preservation OF
our natural resources. They are an
attempt to save from destruction an
industry which yields an annual
income of ten million dollars. For
the famous Columbia River salmon
run Is threatened with extinction.
The preservation of the industry
depends upon the ability of the fish,
migrating from the depths of the
ocean, to reach the headWaters of
the river to spawn. The salmon is
fighter in every ounce of his
graceful body. He can force his
way through any rapids and over
any falls nature ever placed in his
way up a thousand miles of the
Columbia. But against the Gargan-
tuan barriers of steel and concrete
which man is erecting at Bonneville,
at Rock Island, and at the Grand
Coulee, he is helpless.
Denied an opportunity to reach
their natural spawning grounds, the
migrating salmon would die without
producing the next generation, and
the most famous run of salmon in
the world would he destroyed. Now,
above the tunult and roar Of the
machinery which is erecting these
giants of civilization, is heard the
question: How shall we save the
Salmon?"
Picture for a moment the setting
in which is being waged this dra-
matte battle to reconcile Nature
and Civilization. From it's source
among the g1acier-fed streams of
British Columbia, the mighty river
makes it's way southwark and west
ward fourteen hundred miles to the
sea. In the shallow upper tributar-
les of the Columbia, spreading out
over three states, are the principal
spawning grounds of the Chinook
salmon.
Every spring and summer the
adult fish leave the ocean and fight
their way up to these gravel-be dded
streams. The parent fish never
make the return journey, but die
after spawning. The young fish,
however, after spending from sew
eral months to a year in fresh
waters, return to the ocean.
"Rivers are moving roads" and to
the young Chinook salmon, the Co
lun1bia is mighty road which leads
him down to his feeding grounds
in the sea. After several years in
the ocean, where he reaches a
weight of twenty or thirty pounds,
he, like his parents, will make the
journey up the Columbia, returning
to the very tributary where he was
Matched.
In the days before the white man
invaded the northwest, immense
numbers of salmon made up the
annual run. Only the predatory
animals along the shore, and the
Indians with their fishing spears,
took a small and insignificant toll.
With the advent of the white mans
civilization, destructive forces have
multiplied with telling rapidity.
BY far the most serious menace
to the salmon is the construction
of titanic dams for power and irrl-
cation projects. A way must he
found to pass upstream migrants
over the dams, and to insure the
safe return of their offspring to the
sea. Biologists of the Bureau OF
Fisheries, working in cooperation
with the conservation authorities OF
Washington and Oregon and with
Army engineers, have been at work
on the problem for the past two
years. Their solution is: StairWays
and elevators for the migrating fish.
It should be understood at the
outset that there are no .precedents
to serve as guides in the solution Of
the problem, for never before has
there been serious attempt to pas
large numbers of migrating fish over
Instructions Of this size.
The first obstacle the salmon will
meet as they ascend the river will
A Quick Pick-Me-