I make my living as a fishing guide, so I was dismayed to read the president’s decision to recognize bad science, ignore a federal judge and likely bury forever family-wage fishing jobs and Northwest traditions.
To adopt the Bush-era Columbia Basin salmon plan as his own, President Obama abandoned his promise to ensure that science drives policy, Based on the comments of the administration officials releasing the Bush/Obama salmon plan, it would at best maintain current levels of depressed populations and at worst, allow them to decline further toward extinction.
With this plan, the restoration of healthy salmon populations is not an option, even though restoration will re-create lost jobs across the region, increase opportunities for recreational fishing, and ensure the future of an irreplaceable regional icon and national treasure.
That is the change we need, but that is not the plan we got.
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