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I. Introduction
William Jackson Turner may have had it wrong when he announced at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago that the American frontier had closed, at least if he intended to include the Columbia River Basin.' In the Columbia... |
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I. Introduction
William Jackson Turner may have had it wrong when he announced at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago that the American frontier had closed, at least if he intended to include the Columbia River Basin.' In the Columbia... |
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development of the rivers, the laws and institutions that accompanied water development, the effects on salmon, and efforts to remedy the salmon losses. This survey leads to several observations:
First, 150 years of water development have...
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seem to pose questions for which there are few good answers. The most recent, comprehensive scientific advice is that salmon recovery programs cannot reverse the salmon declines with the approaches taken to date. Salmon recovery programs have...
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in the ocean and in-river; the world's largest hydroelectric system; a major artery of navigation; a regional flood control system; and a sprawling system of fish hatcheries. Each of these factors is connected to all of the others, and so water...
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in the ocean and in-river; the world's largest hydroelectric system; a major artery of navigation; a regional flood control system; and a sprawling system of fish hatcheries. Each of these factors is connected to all of the others, and so water...
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work. The logic of this approach is unassailable; the problem is implementation. Implementing a rigorous monitoring and evaluation program in a world of fragmented jurisdictions and political pressures requires a much more serious commitment to...
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transportation, and so the ultimate choice is anything but obvious. However, the longer we avoid this choice, the more pressure and uncertainty there will be in headwater areas.
Government policy has a looser foothold in tributaries compared...
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In the area of inter jurisdictional collaboration, the report has several recommendations. The division of federal, tribal and state authority over water raises several interrelated problems, none of which can be addressed by any single government...
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Both the United States and Canada see signs of strain in current approaches to Columbia River management: not just the dilemmas posed by the salmon declines, but demands for participatory management, pressures from traditional constituencies, and...
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Currently, the river is shaped in a collection of power centers:
• Much of the management of the river's mainstem is oriented to the traditional purposes and coordination-arrangements, which are largely federal or federally-administered....
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The changes suggested in the recommendations of this study would push traditional political boundaries incrementally toward the National Research Council model: toward more coincidence between governmental and ecological systems, more effective...
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relationships with rivers and diverse species. But no one should think that shifting an ecological template is anything but heavy work. It is slow, difficult and risky. And it will take a brand of patience and good will that seems all too rare in...
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II. The Setting
A. The Physical Environment The headwaters of the Columbia River are in Canada, near the Selkirk Mountains, the "high roof of the continent."1 The river is 1,214 miles long, measuring from the Canadian headwaters.' By the... |
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back south along the crest of Washington's Cascade Mountains, then west across southwestern Washington to the ocean. The basin covers about 259,000 square miles in the United States and Canada.'
In some ways it is hard to think of this sprawling...
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back south along the crest of Washington's Cascade Mountains, then west across southwestern Washington to the ocean. The basin covers about 259,000 square miles in the United States and Canada.'
In some ways it is hard to think of this sprawling...
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fastest growing urban areas, a place of some sophistication and a noted collection of water lawyers. Lewiston, at the Idaho-Washington border, is the Basin's furthest inland port, 465 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The Dalles, located where the...
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in Idaho, Lewiston and Clarkston on the lower Snake, Wenatchee in the mid-Columbia, and Kennewick, Richland and Pasco, "the Tri-Cities," near the confluence of the Columbia and the Snake.'
Population in the Northwest is expected to increase by...
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equally among all communities and industries. 26 Moreover, development in the "recreation counties" is "threat[ening] the qualities that make such places attractive for recreation, retirement and new businesses." 27
C. The Natural Heritage...
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equally among all communities and industries. 26 Moreover, development in the "recreation counties" is "threat[ening] the qualities that make such places attractive for recreation, retirement and new businesses." 27
C. The Natural Heritage...
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rivers and lakes and migrate downstream as juveniles. In the estuary at the river's mouth, they transform from freshwater fish to saltwater fish, then enter the ocean where they migrate far north or south, feed and mature for several years. They...
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rivers and lakes and migrate downstream as juveniles. In the estuary at the river's mouth, they transform from freshwater fish to saltwater fish, then enter the ocean where they migrate far north or south, feed and mature for several years. They...
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16 reservoirs in the Middle Snake River, and a number of other storage projects that irrigate some 3 million acres of land: 35' 53.9% of all Washington's irrigated land, 41.8% of Idaho's, and 22.5% of Oregon's.
The U.S. Department of Energy, the...
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III. Putting the River to Work
In its undeveloped state, the Columbia was the mainstay of a well-developed salmon culture, and the center of a far-flung trading network. Non-Indians, however, wanted to use the river in different ways, and felt... |
