Tweeters and OBOLinks,

In addition to possible negative effects on terns, salmon, and
Dungeness crabs noted by others, this plan to dredge 115 km of the
lower Columbia has the potential to seriously harm white sturgeon
populations. I don't know the current status of sturgeon in the lower
Columbia. However, in the lower Fraser River in B.C., White Sturgeon
is considered to be endangered (on the provincial "red list"). This
magnificent fish, whose populations in the lower Fraser were decimated
by irresponsible overfishing in the early 1900s, is a bottom-dweller,
and repeated dredging of the Fraser is one of the main obstacles to
its recovery.
Keep in mind that dredging 115 km of the Columbia River will not
be a one-time project. It will need to be re-dredged every few years
(or at least, parts of it will be) to maintain the artificially
deepened channel, with ongoing cost and ongoing environmental damage.
It sounds like a bad idea all around. Is this part of another World
Trade Organization plot??

Wayne C. Weber
114-525 Dalgleish Drive
Kamloops, B.C. V2C 6E4
Phone: (250) 377-8865
wayne_weber at bc.sympatico.ca


-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Patterson <mpatters at oregonvos.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list OBOL <OBOL at BOBO.NWS.ORST.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, December 14, 1999 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Dredging the Columbia River - Terns Affected?


>Nope, the plan calls for extensive dredge spoil dumping on land sites
>up and down the Columbia River including increased dumping at Rice
>Island. Along with year-round dredging in violation of their own
>rules regarding salmon cycles, blasting and the continued filling of
>estuarine/riverine wetland buffers and dumping on (or perilously
near)
>dungeoness crab beds.
>
>All, I might add, with "no significant environmental impact."
>
>
>DJLauten and KACastelein wrote:
>>
>> I believe, although I could be wrong, that dredge spoils can no
longer be
>> dumped on land but must be shipped out to sea. If so there will be
no
>> increase in habitat for the terns. And just to clarify something,
while
>> the tern colony is the largest in the world, it also has poor
overall
>> reproductive parameters due to its size. It would actually benefit
the
>> birds to break up into smaller colonies. With that said, I will
not argue
>> as to the merits of the reasons why the tern colony is being broken
up.
>>
>> Dave Lauten
>> birdsong at harborside.com
>>
>
>
>--
>Mike Patterson Every time you stop a school, you will have to
build
>a jail.
>Astoria, OR What you gain at one end you lose at the
other.
>mpatters at oregonvos.net It's like feeding a dog on his own tail;
> It won't fatten the dog.
>
> Mark Twain - Speech,
11/23/1900
>http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html
>