Posted by vit at 6/20/08 10:12 a.m.

For all those who post to the PI boards, please note above "The Washington Post on Friday is reporting on a study out from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program concluding that global warming is making extreme weather more common." (emphasis mine)

The quote listed explains why that poor fellow on TV was complaining about all the 500 year floods he has been experiencing in the Mid West , "...North America is likely to experience more droughts and excessive heat in some regions even as intense downpours and hurricanes pound others more often..." It also explains why we have been having so many different weather patterns.

Global warming means that the whole earth is warmer, but extream weather means that any one area may be warmer or colder than what had been normal.

Even if you have been told that all this is wrong, what if the sources you have been quoting are wrong and this is really happening? Are you going to enjoy watching the things that can happen to your kids and grandkids? Error on the side of caution and do what you can to help the world.

Posted by Charles III at 6/20/08 10:30 a.m.

Sen. Murray seeks $90 million for salmon

that'll get you about 20lbs of copper river..

Posted by Joel Kawahara at 6/20/08 11:07 a.m.

The $90 million Senator Murray (and we hope Senator Cantwell and the rest of our delegation) for the Pacific Salmon Recovery Fund is very important funding. It is divided between Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and the Indian tribes (co-managers).

The fund was originally established in 1999 by Senator Stevens (R) Alaska to accompany the (first) ten year Pacific Salmon Treaty agreement on chinook. The Recovery Fund pointed to his recognition that salmon habitat was the most important part of the equation for salmon populations throughout their territory, that harvest treaty agreements alone would not, can not accomplish recovery to sustainable levels.

The treaty agreement is the fishermmen's end of the bargain, and it is being held up in good faith. The restoration of salmon habitat is the federal administration's end of the bargain, and it is being neglected. The best example of the administration's failed attempts to recover salmon is the recently released Columbia River Power System salmon Biological Opinion. It is in many ways weaker on salmon protection than the version tossed out for remand by Judge Redden in 2005.

A major flaw of the Biological Opinion is that it only analyses the existing Columbia and Snake Rivers, complete with dams, as the environmental baseline. The salmon that are on the Endangered Species List evolved in a river system without dams, thus an analysis of a completely different river for their survivability is logically flawed. You can not determine from the existing system what made salmon so abundant in the preceding system that had no dams. You can only analyse the ability of salmon to perform in the existing system, and that is not leading to either recovery nor sustainable fisheries.

The $90M is important for projects in the region, but the single most important chinook run to the Pacific Salmon Treaty, that from the Columbia and Snake Rivers will require an overhaul of the existing environment in those rivers, including, as has been proposed by fisheries scientists for decades, the removal of the four lower Snake River Dams in Eastern Washington.

Posted by BlueLight at 6/20/08 1:08 p.m.

"Northwest salmon are truly cash cows".

You said it.

Our salmon "recovery" effort has produced way more bureaucrats than fish.

Posted by unregistered user at 6/20/08 2:00 p.m.

Salmon stream habitat is currently being destroyed by municipalities such as Poulsbo at a much greater rate than any amount of habitat improvement can possibly fix. The Growth Management Act needs some teeth in it.