Editorial, April 21st, 2010
Give the feds credit for spreading the risk - and for finally listening to the experts. The federal government will use some of the Northwest's limited water to "spill" some young salmon over dams and push them toward the Pacific Ocean.
This should give fish - especially Idaho's endangered sockeye salmon - their best chance at surviving a low- water year.
That's why scientists joined salmon advocates in urging the feds to continue the spill past May 1 and during the critical migration season for sockeye and other runs.
For young salmon, navigating past the eight dams in the lower Snake and Columbia rivers constitutes a severe risk. (That's why we have advocated breaching the four lower Snake dams, a position shared by many scientists.)
In the meantime, though, there are two ways to mitigate the risk.
