Printer Friendly
The Free Library
14,716,932 articles and books
Member login
User name  
Password 
 
Join us Forgot password?

Fishermen need help.


Byline: The Register-Guard

When the Legislature's Emergency Board meets today, it should approve Gov. Ted Kulongoski's request for $2 million to shore up the salmon trolling (1) Surfing, or browsing, the Web.

(2) Posting derogatory messages about sensitive subjects on newsgroups and chat rooms to bait users into responding.

(3) Hanging around in a chat room without saying anything, like a "peeping tom."
 industry on the Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a geographical term that is used to describe the coast of Oregon along the Pacific Ocean. Stretching 362 miles from Astoria to the California border, the Oregon Coast is unique in that the whole coastline is public land. .

Meanwhile, the Bush administration should get its wobbly act together and dispatch the millions of additional dollars needed to help West Coast fishermen whose livelihoods are jeopardized by this year's sharply curtailed salmon season.

The emergency state funding is needed as a stopgap, because the Bush administration has been maddeningly slow in considering the governor's request for a disaster declaration. Earlier this week, Congress finally approved an amendment to federal fisheries legislation making fishermen eligible for federal disaster assistance. But lawmakers have yet to earmark earmark

taking a piece out of the edge or center of the ear with a punch as an identification mark. The shape of the mark may be registerable under local legislation.
 any actual dollars.

Fishermen - and the coastal businesses and communities that depend on them - need help in the wake of the federal government's decision in April to limit the commercial salmon season in order to protect imperiled runs of chinook salmon chinook salmon
 or king salmon

Prized North Pacific food and sport fish (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) of the salmon family. The average weight is about 22 lbs (10 kg), but individuals of 50–80 lbs (22–36 kg) are not unusual.
 in the Klamath River Klamath River

River, southern Oregon and northwestern California, U.S. Rising in Upper Klamath Lake just above Klamath Falls, Ore., it flows south and southwest for 250 mi (400 km) through the Klamath Mountains in California and empties into the Pacific Ocean.
. That decision left hundreds of salmon trollers in Oregon with drastically reduced catches and incomes. Some are in imminent danger of losing their boats.

There are many demands for the finite resources controlled by the state Emergency Board. Education, law enforcement and social services all have legitimate needs that could swallow up the $2 million requested by Kulongoski and put it to excellent use.

But lawmakers must put top priority on helping fishermen because they simply have nowhere else to turn.

No, the job of bailing out fishermen shouldn't fall to the Emergency Board. That's the responsibility of the federal officials, whose policies of diverting excessive amounts of water for irrigation irrigation, in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. , destroying wetlands and building dams have turned the Klamath River into a lethal environment for salmon. Yet so far, there's no sense of the same urgency to provide federal assistance that marked the crisis experienced by Klamath Basin farmers four years ago.

State lawmakers should toss this $2 million life preserver to Oregon's beleaguered be·lea·guer  
tr.v. be·lea·guered, be·lea·guer·ing, be·lea·guers
1. To harass; beset: We are beleaguered by problems.

2. To surround with troops; besiege.
 salmon fishermen and hope it enables the hardest hit to survive until federal help arrives - if it ever does.
COPYRIGHT 2006 The Register Guard
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2006, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

 Reader Opinion

Title:

Comment:



 

Article Details
Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Title Annotation:Editorials; The E-Board should approve stopgap assistance
Publication:The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)
Article Type:Editorial
Date:Jun 23, 2006
Words:345
Previous Article:Correction.(Editorials)(Editorial)(Correction notice)
Next Article:Farm animals deserve better lives.(Commentary)
Topics:



Related Articles
Integrating Multiple Media to Speak With One Voice.(how ASAE is responding to variety of media available for communication with members)(Brief...
NCEW members elect officers, celebrate accomplishments.(2005 CONVENTION)(National Conference of Editorial Writers )
Salmon fleet pleads for help.(Business)(Struggling coastal fishermen tell Oregon Gov. Kulongoski that they need direct financial assistance - and...
Fishermen need help.(Editorials)(A disaster declaration is merely the first step)(Editorial)
Fishing fleet gets state relief funds.(Legislature)(The average amount for fishing vessel owners would be about $3,300)
Where are the feds?(Editorials)(Salmon fishermen need assistance - now)(Editorial)
Fishermen on the bubble.(Editorials)(Federal government must now do its part)(Editorial)
Aid checks in the mail for coastal fishermen.(Business)(Funds totaling $500,000 are doled out to compensate for a scant commercial season)
Stretched to the limit - A failure to protect.(Editorials)(County's justice system is near breaking point)(Editorial)
Help fishing industry.(Editorials)(Congress should approve $60 million in aid)(Editorial)

Terms of use | Copyright © 2009 Farlex, Inc. | Feedback | For webmasters | Submit articles