GROUNDHOG DAY, IDAHO STYLE   Letter to the editor - Jerry Myers Feb 2021

We are nearing that time of year when a famous marmot supposedly predicts the upcoming spring season. It has no scientific basis yet we stand attentive to learn if the rodent sees it’s own shadow. This scenario is conducted every year and we are bemused by the silliness of it all. The tradition never changes, nor does it’s prediction change the weather.

Each year Idaho gets a scientifically based prediction on the size of our returning salmon and steelhead runs - runs that are so integral to the state’s economic, cultural and environmental well being. This year’s return for Idaho spring/summer chinook is forecasted to be 40,000 fish which is 10,000 fewer than last years dismal return, one of the lowest in history. Idaho salmon continue to decline, decline and decline. Every year we spend copious amounts of both money and time expecting a different result. We have pulled the same Federal Salmon Recovery Plan out of the same hole for 4 decades. The plan is dusted off, shined up with a few new tweaks and bows, and presented to northwest citizens as a legitimate way to rebuild our salmon runs. But those of us who care about salmon and steelhead in Idaho are only seeing the shadow of what once was. There is no cause for celebration.

Why are low returns so dangerous? Because we will soon reach a point where the most expensive species restoration effort in the world will not have the needed breeding stock to replace itself, let alone rebuild. Because since 1980 the Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Act promised citizens that salmon would have equal priority with hydropower generation in the Columbia Basin. Because Idaho’s rural river communities cannot withstand more loss, economically, culturally or spiritually. Because the United States made a solemn and legal commitment to Native Americans that the construct of their culture would never be taken from them. Because Idaho has miles and miles of high quality spawning and rearing habitat but our fish cannot survive the deadly migration to and from the ocean. Because we have squandered down to nearly nothing, our principal, which is the natural occurring, self generating largest salmon run in the world. Because 500 past generations of Idahoans, will be robbed of this amazing heritage in a single generation. We are better and more generous than this and building runs back for Idahoans is not a zero sum game.

Our family, now in it’s 5th generation in Idaho, a family of ranchers, farmers, river outfitters and guides, is still optimistic about the future of Idaho and the potential we have as citizens to chart our own destiny. Let’s leave this winter and begin a new strategy for the spring.

Jerry and Terry Myers - North Fork, ID (on the SALMON River)