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Salmon Recovery: The Reckoning by Mary Lynn Gregson The Oregonian, February 20, 2011

Paul VanDevelder's Feb. 13 opinion piece strikes me as an evil twin of the State of the Union speech that President Obama delivered last month. While the president emphasized innovation, job creation, efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and effective and accountable government as the way to "win the future," "The reckoning" documents a government approach to salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin that is exactly the opposite. The federal government is spending billions of dollars on failed programs developed at the end of the last century; they didn't work then and they are not working now. Back-room deals are being cut beyond the view and influence of "regular" people, serving special interests, not public interests.

Done right, real salmon restoration could be a huge opportunity to rebuild not only our struggling fishing communities, but also to make needed investments in our region's transportation infrastructure and clean energy economy. That, Mr. President, is starting to sound like a future that is actually worth winning.