http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp=49351299&#49351299

MSNBC’s article on the huge numbers of returning chinook to the Klamath River is the above link.

Question: If the salmon numbers are so high and the dams are still in the Klamath River, why do they need to be destroyed?

Answer: Destroying the dams will kill the salmon runs for years.

Answer: Destroying the dams will pollute the Klamath River with 20 million cubic yards of sediment built up behind the 4 hydro-electric dams that will corrupt the gravel beds, where the salmon lay their eggs.

Question: How can the dams that are 200 miles up the Klamath River truly hurt the salmon runs, when the Iron Gate fish hatchery produces millions of juvenile fish and can potentially produce much more than that.

Answer: The “powers that be” don’t want healthy salmon runs. Blaming the dams and agriculture is all a lie to destroy local economies in Siskiyou and Klamath Counties.

TRUTH: The hydro-electric dams do not harm the salmon. By the time these salmon have swam the gauntlet of the Yurok’s fishing nets that stretch 90 percent across the river and made it 200 miles to the first dam, they have sores and are in bad shape.

TRUTH: The salmon return up the river to spawn and die.

TRUTH: Destroying the dams will only provide 35 miles of additional river habitat — there are NATURAL barriers 35 miles above the last dam that will naturally STOP any migration. Secretary of Department of Interior Ken Salazar lied last year, when the San Francisco Chronicle quoted him as stating that the removal of 4 hydro-electric dams in the Klamath River will provide 450 miles of habitat. Apparently, Sec. Salazar has been listening to the Greenies and the “powers that be” and their lies.

Bottom line: There are lots of chinook. The Greenies and “powers that be” typically blame the dams and agriculture for poor salmon runs. Yet this year there are lots of salmon.

So in 2012, the dams and agriculture are good for salmon!

Save the dams and you will save the salmon for years to come!

Editor Liz Bowen