Thanks to the efforts of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. - and despite the appalling disinterest of the Bush administration - West Coast salmon fishermen are a big step closer to eligibility for disaster assistance.
As Register-Guard reporter Winston Ross reported last Sunday, commercial salmon fishermen along the Oregon and California coasts are struggling to cope with severely restricted seasons this spring and summer that are the result of a collapse of the Klamath River's wild chinook run.
When the restrictions were announced, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski asked the Bush administration to declare a federal disaster. Since then, neither the president nor his commerce secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, have bothered to lift the pen necessary to issue such a declaration. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have squelched three bills introduced by Northwest lawmakers seeking federal assistance.
Wyden and Boxer then responded with a desperate ploy, utilizing a Senate rule that allows individual members to block legislation. They placed a "hold" on a bill reauthorizing the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act - the major federal law governing fisheries in the United States - until the Senate took steps to help the fishing industry and coastal communities survive the curtailed salmon season.
The maneuver worked. Late last week, Wyden and Boxer agreed to lift their hold after Senate leaders consented to a provision making West Coast fishermen eligible for disaster assistance.
But a disaster declaration is just that: a declaration. It doesn't mean federal dollars automatically will start flowing to fishermen and coastal communities. Wyden and his West Coast colleagues must now scramble for appropriations and push to redirect existing Commerce Department funding into disaster assistance.
It outrageous that it's taken this long and required such high-stakes political gamesmanship to secure a clearly warranted disaster declaration.
Two months have passed since the National Marine Fisheries Service, citing poor returns of wild chinook on the Klamath River, forced a massive reduction in the number of days trollers can fish and the amount of salmon they can haul in. Fishermen are expected to earn a paltry $2.5 million this year, a decline of nearly 80 percent from the past four years, when they averaged $11.7 million per year. Based on early returns, industry officials predict the hit could be even worse.
Congress and the Commerce Department must now move quickly to find funding for disaster relief. Lawmakers and administration officials who balk at such an expenditure should recall the hefty relief packages that were swiftly approved for farmers in the drought-stricken Klamath Basin several years ago.
They should also remember that the fishing industry didn't create this problem - it's the result of decades of damming, diversion and degradation of a river that has become the sickest on the West Coast. As a result, salmon from the Klamath, which once produced millions of healthy fish, are now at historic lows.
That's why Congress must also find money to make the investments needed to restore the Klamath to health.
Three years ago, the National Academy of Sciences made recommendations that included restoration of wetlands, reformation of agricultural and timber practices, and the eventual removal of dams. If those recommendations had been acted on, the restrictions on this year's salmon season might not have been necessary.
And if conditions on the Klamath are not improved soon, future salmon seasons will be sacrificed as well.
The most immediate priority, however, is the fishermen, whose livelihoods are teetering on the brink - and the coastal communities and businesses that depend on them for their own survival.
With prompt federal assistance - and long-term help for the ailing Klamath - the fishing industry and the salmon they rely on can make a dramatic turnaround.
All that's required is some attention from a Congress that until now has been disgracefully inattentive.
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Source: http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/06/18/ed.edit.