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Saving Salmon: Northwest Businesses Deserve Seats at the Table by Lisa Schroeder and Kristofor Lofgren The Oregonian, November 9, 2011

Remember when President Barack Obama cracked that salmon joke during last January's State of the Union address? Lamenting what a convoluted mess salmon management has become, he delivered the punch line: "I hear it gets more complicated when they're smoked."

That was 10 months ago. Since then, U.S. District Judge James Redden rejected the president's salmon plan for the Columbia and Snake rivers, making it the third straight illegal plan.

The time has come for President Obama and our Northwest elected leaders to uncomplicate the situation for wild salmon and recognize that saving wild salmon is about more than just saving fish. Recovering salmon in the Columbia-Snake basin provides us with a real opportunity to create jobs, protect an important food resource, invest in our transportation and energy infrastructures, and reduce uncertainty on both sides of the Cascades.

Communities with a genuine stake in healthy rivers and abundant salmon populations -- including fishermen, farmers, tribes, and energy producers and users -- deserve seats at the table on a level playing field with federal agencies. That's why we signed a letter to the president and members of Congress from more than 1,100 businesses nationwide -- including nearly 200 here in Oregon -- urging them to bring stakeholders together to craft a workable solution.

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Related Pages:
Nez Perce ask Crapo to Help Set Table for Salmon Talks by Rocky Barker, Idaho Statesman, 10/1/11