Re: NANFA-- River Use Issues in GA/AL/FL

jake levi (jlevi_us_at_yahoo.com)
Sat, 16 Dec 2000 10:16:31 -0800 (PST)

well Jay, the posted question I was replying to was
asking if it was practical, and that was my reply,
yes, very practical.I can think of a number of places
where it would be very workable, and economically at
that.

You refer to the northwest with an alternative of
removing dams, which is my own preference, however, we
both know that isnt going to happen except for a few
instances. politics rears its ugly head.Thats reality.

What we have left is what is doable to get the job
done. If, it is going to get done. Its not very high
on many lists of priorities right now.

For the record, having been there on the ground, there
are more of these sites on federal and state lands
then private. Been there, worked on them. It is
entirely feasible to make access streams as postulated
without encoraching on private lands. Ref to that I
think that you could readily get the requisite
permissions even on many privately owned parcels.

As far as the infamous fish ladders/sluices are
concerned, they are in general an abomination, only
larger fish can navigate them, fry and small fish
extremely remote.Fingerlings do navigate them, sort
of.
Spawning size salmon yes, although most never do, but
small fish such as most of our natives not even
remotely so.

Frankly if you truly believe it is more practical to
remove the dams I question your definition of
practical. Do you mean more feasible for movement of
fish or feasible in overcoming the politics inherrent
in the removal of the dams? I think, some years after
restoration of the original river beds that the fish
will move better, that is almost a given, but from the
political standpoint of what is doable and able to be
accomplished, then I think it is far more practical to
incorporate bypass streams around a number of the
dams.
Just my thougts, which in the long or even short term
are most likely worth the 'paper' written on.

Your reply sounded upset, sorry bout that, was just
voicing my thoughts having walked the areas in
question and spent some time doing surveys there. I
think that it is going to require a combination of
answers to deal with the problem and that no one
answer is going to be 'THE' one.

I am hereby bowing out of this one.
jake
--- Jay DeLong <thirdwind_at_att.net> wrote:
>
> > > I asked one time if anyone had ever invented a
> > > practical fish ladder for a
> > > dam? I have often thought of maybe a small
> stream
> > > that exits from the dam
> > > impoundment somewhere up stream of the dam and
> is
> > > allowed to roam around over
> > > a couple of miles before finding it's way back
> to
> > > the tail waters of the dam.
> > > Does this sound practical?
>
> >Very, although I think the 'couple miles' may well
> >become a hundred. Particularly in the west. As long
> as
> >it works is what counts.
> >jake
>
> Very what-- practical? It's about the most
> impractical thing I can
> imagine. How many dozens of private landowners'
> properties are you going
> to comandeer to lay these hundreds of miles of
> artificial streams? It's
> much more practical to remove the dams.
>
> Dams in the Columbia River and elsewhere already use
> a similar but shorter
> structure to get salmon fry around them. They're
> like metal sluices like
> you may have seen on tv in a mining operation. The
> young fish somehow find
> the side channel, are whisked around the dam high
> over the ground, and are
> dumped downstream. These aren't all that good for
> the small fish but it's
> better than being turned into fish puree by the
> dam's turbines.
>
> --
> Jay DeLong
> Olympia, WA
>
>
>
>
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/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
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/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org