After the end of World War II when my father was discharged from the Army Air-Corps, he went home to Nebraska, married my mother, packed up his 1937 Oldsmobile and they headed for a new life in Oregon. They chose The Dalles in part because it had a river to match the Missouri my father had grown up with, fishing its murky waters and hunting and trapping along its banks. The Columbia River more than filled the bill.
TIM MAYER, Hydrologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
In the United States, the era of big dam building ended some 30 years ago. That’s primarily because most of the best dam sites are already utilized and we’ve become much more aware of the environmental problems associated with dams. In the developing world, dam building is just getting started. River systems in Latin America, Africa, China, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe are being dammed at a staggering pace.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Columbia River Restoration Act has passed in the House and the Senate as part of the Water Resources Development Act. The legislation will now be sent to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law.
The folks who worked to get Measure 14-55 on the ballot deserve credit for action based on concern, and they raise important questions about resource use and the scope of decisions made by government in the interest of business.
Blue tributaries lined with sticky red clay, cascading towards the Columbia River, wind whistling through the narrow verdant Gorge, ancient lava flows creating fortress-like cliffs of columnar basalt — the dramatic landscape is what defines the Columbia River Gorge region.
ASTORIA (AP) — The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld state rules curtailing the use of gillnets on the main stem of the Columbia River. Commercial fishermen shunted to side channels and tributaries by the rules challenged them in court. The nets have long been the primary method of commercial fishing on the Columbia. Critics said the nets hurt salmon because they catch fish indiscriminately, hauling in endangered species.
