Commentary: California salmon deal fishy
By: Don Curlee

The fishermen and hunters I know don't always get their game, but they seem to know where to find it. Oregon and Alaska are popular destinations to find salmon.

Makes me wonder why some folks propose spending millions to bring salmon to the fishermen of the San Joaquin Valley.

What kind of convoluted reasoning supports spending hundreds of millions in federal tax money and stealing millions of acre feet of agricultural water to restore a river that has been dry for 60 years just so salmon can frolic in it?

This is the scenario on the table in a bill before Congress. The version omits the $500 million in federal funding proposed originally, putting even more of a burden on farmers and private enterprise.

At one point the proposal included an even exchange of new water for the amount released down the San Joaquin River. That suggestion also has been withdrawn.

People who discuss the issue point to the decision by Fresno Judge Oliver Wanger ordering implementation of the plan. The judgment was based on environmental law and precedents. Water purveyors who disburse water for farm use saw the congressional proposal as the least intrusive of several proposals.

The predicament underscores the awesome power that environmentalists and fish worshipers have achieved. They seem to dictate the costliest, most unreasonable actions based on the flimsiest evidence. They've been doing it for 50 years, and they seem to gain momentum with each decision made by helpless judges and intimidated legislators.

Much of what passes for environmental law began with noisy and possibly baseless demonstrations by environmentalists with nothing better to do. A study of the progression of environmental law is likely to reveal that many cases made by the environmentalists have been hollow and misdirected, even destructive.

The San Joaquin River fiasco might be another of those off-center actions. The 319-foot-tall Friant Dam near Fresno prevents the salmon from swimming farther upstream to spawn. To be attractive to the fish, major refurbishing of the area below the dam will be required.

Reports have indicated that the water behind the dam is too warm to encourage the envisioned salmon migration from the Delta. Environmentalist support for the plan ignores or discounts this scientific finding.

Isn't it time to recognize that radical environmentalism has run amok? Isn't it gaining control of every aspect of our lives? Perhaps the environmental movement didn't begin with that goal. Perhaps the movement has been hijacked by political manipulators seeking change at all cost.

From an agricultural perspective it is obvious that each new environmentally inspired regulation or proclamation tightens the vise on opportunity. Do we want water for fish to find their way to the base of Friant Dam, or do we want water for the production of food to feed ourselves and others?

What hunters, fishermen and society in general need to find is some reality. While the search might take them beyond the banks of the San Joaquin River, they can bring reality home for dinner without buying a hunting or fishing license. Such a deal.