Federal Ruling Helps Fish...But

[Dave Neal]

Read this on Sac Bee online this morning...

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1920924.html

One more speck of sand through the hourglass...

Reading articles like this always gives me some hope. But then I make the mistake of reading the public comments after the article... and get bummed out again.

[Jgoding]

Sounds like a stupid idea to me.... So the fish enter a huge resevoir then try to find their way to the river which probably doesn't have the right habitat to spawn in anymore anyway??? And how are all the smolts supposed to get back downriver?

[shawn kempkes]

trap and truck is a very costly proposition and it never works very good. I think the feds are proposing this because of all the talk of raising Shasta Dam. I think any project that raises the dam should also mandate a fish ladder.

[Ed Wahl]

A fish ladder would only help in the upstream migration of the adults. You're still left with the question of how to get the smolts downstream past the reservoirs.

Trucking and barging have both been tried on the Columbia with limited success. High expense and mortality make these unappealing.

The Upper American still has miles and miles of pristine water, plenty of good habitat, but with the huge lakes barring the way, I don't see any way to utilize it.

Maybe a 30 mile long fish ladder/canal to go all the way from the lower American to above Clemintine or Oxbow?

Yeah, that'll happen.

Ed