RE: Center that counts

[David Paul Williams]

Title: Message

I can see why it was really important to save that budget money when we need all the money the federal government can get after the Republican Congress cut taxes for the super rich.

 

David Williams

The Williams Lawfirm

425.990.8800

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dan Hall
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 10:18 AM
To: waflyfishers@waflyfishers.com
Subject: Center that counts

This was in the Times today.  I guess the reasoning is: if there are no counters, then there is no data, then there is no problem.

 

 

 

Pacific Northwest

Center that counts

fish loses funding

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has eliminated a little-known agency that counts endangered fish in the Columbia River.

The Fish Passage Center, with 12 employees and a budget of $1.3 million, has been killed because it did not count fish in a way that suited Craig.

"Data cloaked in advocacy create confusion," Craig said on the Senate floor this month, after successfully inserting language in an energy and water appropriations bill that bans all future funding for the Fish Passage Center.

Michele DeHart, a fish biologist who is the longtime manager of the center, said she is not mad at Craig.

"What's the point?" asked DeHart, 55, who for nearly 20 years has run the agency that keeps score on the survival of endangered salmon as they negotiate federal dams in the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The center has documented, in statistical detail, how the Columbia-Snake hydroelectric system kills salmon. Its analyses of fish-survival data also suggests that one way to increase salmon survival is to spill more water over dams rather than feed it through electrical turbines.

That suggestion, though, is anathema to utilities — and to Craig — because water poured over dams means millions of dollars in lost electricity generation.