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Take a Fresh Approach to Salmon Policy by Reader Comments Wenatchee World, May 25, 2009

Selected reader contributions to Tracy Warner column about a judge's ruling on a plan for Northwest salmon:

• The salmon recovery issue is not a zero-sum game where there have to be huge winners and big losers. With the thoughtful planning, the lower Snake River dams can be removed, farmers can get their wheat to market affordably, and the NW can meet its carbon reduction goals - salmon can get back to the wilderness of the Salmon and Grande Ronde rivers in numbers that have not been seen since at least the 1950s. Wild Snake River fish have been doing poorly in recent years, and this year looks like another bad one despite hopeful early season forecasts.

• The only hopes that were dashed by that letter from the judge on Monday are those that continue to want to stay the course on the dramatic salmon declines in the Columbia-Snake River Basin. Actually, Judge Redden's letter is the best thing that could have happened for endangered wild salmon in the Northwest. These fish are barely holding on to the levels they were at when they were listed under the Endangered Species Act 20 years ago.

  Hopefully, the Obama administration will take a fresh approach to salmon policy. They have already agreed to a review of the poor plan that the Bush administration gave us in 2008. Now they can heed the judge's advice and take the next step: convene a solutions table that brings together all stakeholders - farmers, fishermen, clean energy groups, tribes, scientists, taxpayer advocates and conservationists -- to craft a real solution to the Columbia-Snake salmon crisis, one that is based on science and law.