~ SKEENA ‘ANGLER. ROB BROWN Be thankful ITH THE combined forces of the Ca- nadian, American and aboriginal market fisheries, the aboriginal sustenance fishery, and habitat destruction inveighing against them, Skeena sport fish have a tough life. Yet the lot of our salmonids is not nearly as grim as that of their brethren on what once was the greatest salmon river in the world. In the 1800's when the aboriginal peoples living along the Columbia River were its only fishers, anywhere form ten to twenty-five million fish Ittumed to the river half of those Columbia chinook salmon and steelhead pushed hundreds of miles inland to the Snake River, a Skeena sized tributary that flows east of the Cascade Mountains. For the great waves of Columbia salmon the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are Harvest, Hatcheries, Hydro aad lost Habitat. From the latter half of the last century to the first half of this one commercial fishing interests treated Columbia fish as an inexhaustible resource, By 1930 the returns of wild fish to the river had - plummeted to somewhere between five and six mil- lion fish. The need to do something was obvious. Artificial enhancement had been around for decades, Politicians prompted by wildlife managers scrambled to erect hatcheries on the Columbia tributaries. Sadly, the misquided notion that men could mitigate for losses of wild fish with hatchery salmon helped perpetuate the industrial status quo. By 1960 the wild salmon retums were down to three million as concerned hatchery . personnel noted’: that ‘the number * of/ inéturning - artificially. reared adilts was dropping while the number j juve- nile fish released was growing, Fish mining was decimating Columbia salmon. Critical spawning and rearing habitat was being gobbled up by miners, loggers and, cattlemen, while the Army Corps of Engineers moved in to hamess the hydro electric potential of the river. With pharaonic gusto the Corps built dam after dam, among them Grand Coulee, Dworshak and Hell’s Canyon none of which had any provision for the passage of fish. Snake River salmonids now make the round trip through eight dams and a huge inland lake consist- ing of 300 continuous miles of reservoirs lying be- tween the Washington Coast and Idaho. The Columbia runs were diminished, but thanks to their resilience, greatly reduced ocean harvest, reduced limits for salmonids, and the availability good habitat in places like the wilderness areas in. Idaho, the fish were nowhere near extinction. John Day, Little Goose, Lower Granite. and Lower Monumental changed all that. Doubling the number of dams between Lewiston and Bonneville . was a cruel blow that obliterated some races of sal- mon and pushed others to the brink of extinction. The new dams had provisions for salmon headed _ Up river but none for young salmon headed for the | sea, The effects of being hurled through turbines did serious harm to smolts, Salon use the river current to hasten their passage to the ocean. Thanks to the dams the Columbia had been slowed increasing the down stream migration time of smolts five fold thereby exposing them to higher water temperatures for long periods of time while extending the period of predation by other fish species that thrived in the slower water. Ninety percent of the man made attrition of sal- mon occurred during this down stream migration. | To decrease this mortality the Corps of Engineers instituted a program whereby smolts are trapped above the highest dam then barged to Bonneville where they are released below the lowest obstruc- tion. The Engineers, who have presided over this program for 20 years, proudly proclaim that 95 per - cent of the smolts survive, but are hard pressed to explain why there’s an inverse relationship between Darged smolts and returning adults, In their audacious plan the Corps failed to consid- ér that the complex and delicate homing instincts and the overall health of smolts would be ireparab- ly damaged by the barging. . In 1994 only 200,000 fish retumed to the Colum- bia, less than 2% of historic abundance. oo The problem is acute. Snake River coho are ex-. tinct. Snake river sockeye, chinook and steelhead are all on the verge of oblivion. The only thing that will reverse the process is to get the river fowing again by spilling water over the dams at critical migration thmes. Ranchers and the Bonneville Power Authority have different ideas, For a while things looked hopeful as fishers and friends of the environment used The Endangered Species Act as a lever. After the mid term election ofa Republican Majority and their zany right wing consumptive agenda even that piece of legislation may be hobbled, -When:we look at the Skeena, a great free flowing river with conservation problems that can and will be overcome, we should think of what has befallen ‘the Columbia and the Snake, and be ihankful. ——- Wee Reps are still on top of the heap in tri-city league . play. Ina Nov. 3 game they - defeated Kitimat 3-0, and the next day tied Kitimat 6-6, Friday night’s shutout was courtesy of J.J. Boudreault. - Kujo Gods led the offence with two goals and Brad L’Heureux added a single. On Saturday Kitimat came out strong and opened a quick 3-0 lead before Terrace fought back to tie the score. The teams then traded goals until Kitimat finally eamed their 6th goal with three minutes left. Terrace scorers were Gerrit Dempster and Gary Kerbat with two each, with Lance Amnstrong — and Shaun The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 15, 1995 - B9 Terrace is still undefeated Furmanek each picking up single goals. The Terrace Inland Ken- worth Bantam Reps didn’t fare as well that weekend. They were gunned down by Kitimat 10-1 on Friday, and 6-3 on Saturday. Last week they left town Thursday for a tournament in Whitehorse. This is the first trip a Terrace team has made to Whitehorse, .as far as Ter- race minor hockey records show. . The Terrace Bantam Reps shared a charter bus with the Smithers’ Bantam Reps team, meeting in Kitwanga and heading north from there. Many parents came along to share the 16-20 hour bus ride. Look for results from the tournament in next - week's Terrace Standard. In other Terrace . Minor Hockey house team action: In the juvenile division, it was Terrace Chrysler over Dediluke Surveying 6-3. In midget reps, Terrace Totem Ford lost to the Kitimat midget reps 2-4 on Nov. 3 but fallied for a 6-4 upset on Nov. In the bantam house division Lakelse Logging tied Remax 2-2, Then Heaman Trucking roared over Remax 5-3, Bradford Logging squeaked out a 2-1 win over Farwest in- the pee wee house division. SECTION c Pee wee reps rule thei ice ’ SKEENA CELLULOSE Pee Rotary whipped Ken’s Truck- ing 5-1, but Ken’s Trucking got back into shape for a 7-4 win over Farwest,. Tn the atom ‘house division Lazelle Mini Storage was on the wrong end. of a 4-5 score with All’ Seasons, All West Trading squeezed a 5-4 win over Kinsmen and Drifters. Clothing beat out Centennial Lions 4-2, The Elks whipped R-40 Con- struction 8- 4 in the novice division. “Long’s Logging logged a 7-2. -win. over Wilkinson’s and Tri-City ‘Memo tied Doyle’s Blazers 4- 4, In the pre-novice division Royal Canadian Legion tied ~ Copperside Foods 1-1. River Industries tied up SpeeDer Printers 2-2. a Comics ae a THE HARLEM CROWNS a drew more than 350 spectators .. at Caledonia Thursday night: for thelr, all-star celebrity: game against teachers, nt autograph signings,’ acc’: ° - Shoot-off competition: for ' prizes including a Van... couver Grizzlies . game . ball were all a part of the’ ~ ‘ night. And referee Scott Bromley «(top tight) got special lessons on keep. | ing his laces tied froma | .- couple of the Crowns. — the - -gym- last.” the .- local. Siam’ dunks, ™ ‘SHAMES MTN. GEARS UP NEARLY 900 season passes have been sold by the Shames Mountain Ski Corporation so . far, making it the highest num- ber ever, says corporation gen- - eral manager Scott Siemens. **We’re up 30 per cent over. all other years,’’ said Siemens of the total. “With any luck we'll break the 1,000° mark this year.”” Combine that with recent snowfalls : on the mountain and Siemens is predicting a good _ Start for the corporation’s sixth. ~ year of operations, , A lot of the season passes were sold in the form of fam- -: ily packages and there’s an en- - couraging . number . of new . skiers making purchases, he said. Going into the weekend, there’s four feet of snow. on the top'of the T-bar and eight inches at the mountain’s base, That’s not yet enough for corporation employees to be- gin packing but all it will take now is a couple of heavy snowfalls to provide what's. needed, said Siemens. **We need five to six fect to: begin packing and grooming the runs — ideally three feet. . of snow will produce one foot: “of packed snow,” he added. “We need a lot more snow -- “than other ski areas to cover | rocks and fill i in creeks.” Season pass sales brisk Siemens Skiing could begin before the end of the month given a couple of heavy snowfalls, “We're pretly well ready to £0. We’ll nced five days or so to ‘properly groom and. pack once we have enougit snow,” he said. But that hasn't stopped some ‘of the. more adventuresome skiers and snowboarders. - Siemens reports that a good -number of people are already making the hike up. the mountain to find-deep snow. He. said that the. food sales - department. and rental conces- . sions’ are geared up and ready” _ . for the first customers, To suggesiing that" ‘ScottSlemens .