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Reads It Differently by Steven R. Evans Lewiston Tribune, May 24, 2022

The larger truth recognizes without that last wound,
there may have been a chance of healing and recovery.

Thank you, Gene Spangrude, for your April 20 letter showing the salmon decline in the upper Columbia River came before the construction of the lower Snake River projects.

I believe he is correct and his proof is valid.

Unregulated industrial fish harvests in both the Columbia and Fraser rivers came before dams. Hi-tech for their time, industrial fisheries in the U.S. and Canada sorely depleted the fish runs before a single big dam was built.

A lot of destruction came in the 19th century and the earliest large projects on the Columbia began with Bonneville and Grand Coulee in the first half of the 20th century.

However, these facts, recognized and understood by many, do not translate into a conclusion that millions of tons of concrete and steel thrust into the Snake and Columbia system is good for anadromous species.

There is a small truth, if one argued that the last blade doesn't kill the fighting bull in the ring. The poor creature was already exhausted and bleeding before the final thrust.

The larger truth recognizes without that last wound, there may have been a chance of healing and recovery. The multitude of dams and reservoirs in the Snake-Columbia constitute the fatal blow despite the proof of previous damage.

Give the fighting fish a fighting chance.