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It's Always About Money by Randy Krout Sr. The Columbian, May 27, 2004

Where is the salmon capital of the world? Once upon a time, it was Westport, Wash., but now it's claimed by Michigan on the Great Lakes. Where did they get all the salmon and steelhead runs? They even have a special name for the steelhead they call them Skamanias.

What would the businesses that supply sport fishing generate to the states' revenues that border the Columbia and Snake rivers if the commercial harvest was theirs? The commercial fishing industry says it is providing fish from a public-funded resource and that the public deserves these fish. Yes, we do. The public demand of a funded resource is filled by tribal and ocean commercial fisheries. Commercial fishing on the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam is all but dead. Let it go and then look forward to the new salmon capitol of the world.

As always, in the end, it will be about the money. It always is.