Pressure DeFazio on Snake River Dam study

Last week, the Eugene Register Guard published a letter from my bud Karl Mueller. Karl is advocating for a study of the dams on the Snake River, which Representative Peter DeFazio has declined to endorse. From Karl's letter:

Snake River sockeye are already extinct, as are Snake River coho. Snake River chinook continue an inevitable slide toward extinction, yet there is still time to act. A bill in Congress would fund nothing more than an objective study of the costs and benefits associated with these dams. It seems prudent to examine the situation and act on the basis of the best available information.

This bill has broad support in the House including the support of Rep. Earl Blumenauer. Rep. Peter DeFazio, who in his last campaign received $27,000 (one of his largest supporters) from a political action committee titled Action Committee for Rural Electrification National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, does not support the act. His position reeks of Bush-like special interest pandering.

Do your part and contact DeFazio and let him know where you stand on this issue.

In other Oregon Outdoor news, I was mauled by rampaging ground squirrels on top of Spencer's Butte yesterday. For the first time in my experience, wildlife outnumbered smarmy undergrads on the summit. The sound of the zipper on my camera case brought them in -- must sound a lot like a backpack full of cheez doodles opening.









Also, Big Al took me out to a sweet spot on the Middle Fork, above Dexter and Lookout reservoirs. Easy access, but tricky to get to. I'm not blowing this spot on a blog post, but it rocked. You have to go with me if you want to check this one out -- drop me a line. We hooked about ten fish apiece, landed only a couple, but that's a different issue. Bad hands yesterday. They were taking my Madam X, green -- once again proving my saying -- OREGON TROUT LOVE LEGS. I can't say it enough. I'm getting it on a T-Shirt.

We saw elk, a bald eagle and an otter. Check out the big image of the otter on Flickr.

We also caught some salmon -- little landlocked guys coming up from the reservoir -- really silver with a forked tail. They don't fight as hard as rainbows, but it's cool to see them. They're coming from the fish spawning up on the North Fork and higher on the Middle Fork.

Trailer-man is still holed up with his rottweiler at the confluence of Salt Creek and the Middle Fork. Forest Service still hasn't done anything about it.