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6A Daily News – Thursday, February 9, 2012 Opinion Fix the river D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 system Editor: If we really want to get serious Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 and fix the Sacramento River Sys- tem to fully support our salmon and steel head fisheries to their historic levels we must account for and restore all of the tributaries that at one time supported various runs of these anadromous fish. The river after all is just the main artery of the system from which many streams known to support salmon and steel head runs con- nect. Some work and many stud- ies have been done over the years on some but action gets results and studies are just a total waste if nothing comes from them. As a lifelong resident of Tehama County I have been wit- ness to problems both man made and climate related that has result- ed in the loss of habitat and spawning areas. As a seasonal aid working for Fish & Game in the early '70s co-workers and I con- ducted numerous carcass surveys and counted salmon red's in all of the following year round and sea- sonal tributaries. We put many miles on a pair of chest waders walking these streams and learned a lot about issues the adult fish had to encounter trying to get upstream to spawn. Those that for the most part had year round flows into the Sacramento River in normal or above rainfall years in our area are Antelope, Mill and Deer creeks. All three of these supported a fall, winter and, if I'm not mistaken, spring run of salmon. They also supported steel head spawning. There are a few seasonal streams that supported salmon spawning. Singer Creek near the Butte County line is one, Dry Creek was another and then there is Salt Creek. And if you look back in the Daily News archives, I'm sure you would find more than one reporter's article of adult and juvenile salmon rescue opera- tions conducted by Fish & Game and others due to a dry weather pattern leaving fish stranded with no hope of spawning or getting back to the river unaided. Antelope, Mill and Deer creeks all had water diversion issues that have impacted and maybe still do the migration of juveniles getting back to the river on their way to the Pacific. These dams also impeded the adults try- ing to get to the spawning areas and at times caused the creeks to totally dry up in lower sections leading to the river entrances. Antelope had two dams with the second one (now gone) located on a hunting and fishing club. I remember walking up there doing a carcass survey and finding the fish ladder shut down so all fish were stopped in the fair sized pool below it. We reported the issue and I believe it was corrected pret- ty quickly. I wonder who would shut down that ladder creating a honey hole of fish. Mill had three dams fish had to get by to spawn in the upper reaches. As I remember all of them had working ladders although the 2nd (Clough Dam) was pretty tough for fish to get over. The screening at some diver- sion canals must have been an issue as well. I lived in Los Moli- nos from 1968 – 1973 and at times had irrigation duties on our twenty or so acres of walnuts. We flood irrigated the orchards from the LM Water District and there were many times we would catch what had to be juvenile salmon swimming out there between the ridges. We would some- times fish with hand line from the big stand pipe on the property and catch them and if memory serves, sometimes a small mouth bass as well. I would hope that between then and now things have changed and fish are no longer lost that way. Very good screening is a must to insure fish can't get into irrigation or other water diversion systems. Be it dam diversions on the creeks or the many pumping stations in the rivers system past history shows that can be hard to achieve. Deer Creek also had or still has diversion dams for irrigation but I'm not personally aware of issues in that tributary in respect to their operation. It has been known however to dry up in the lower reaches cutting off access from the river like Mill and Antelope though. Water diversion and shared use is a fact of the life we live that Your Turn must be well managed to ensure the fishery is minimally impacted while having food to eat and water to drink. Impassable dams, poorly designed screens and stream flows have to be addressed so these fish can get in and to their spawning grounds and their young get back out and to the Pacific to complete their life cycle. The work currently in progress on Battle Creek to open it back up to spawning could and should be a guide for action taken to restore the other traditional salmon and steel head streams in the Sacramento River System.We must act soon or one day this fishery will be just a memory. Bob Bradley, Red Bluff Fundamentals Editor: What our forefathers won for us at Yorktown in 1781, our politicians voted away in 1913 when they passed the Federal Reserve act. Only one candidate has the guts to even speak about how the Federal Reserve has and is robbing the American people blind. And that person is Ron Paul. If you really want to see this country getting back to the fun- damentals of the Constitution, I suggest you consider support- ing Ron Paul's candidacy. Orval Strong, Gerber Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. 'The market' has chosen the winner in the culture wars Commentary "Gen X" was popularized as an advertising term. Marketers used the label to describe young people of the late '80s, and the focus was on how to sell goods to the MTV generation. Advertisements at that time, just as one example, started to feature unmarried couples to appeal to this group of con- sumers. This was a first and in the early '90s it was pushing the envelope. It apparently resonat- ed. The advertisers gauged cor- rectly: They successfully sold their products to Americans with the now documented low- est marriage rate in history. The argument could be made — mainly by those who want to take us back to a mythical inno- cent time of the supposedly recent past — that it's advertis- ers who've corrupted our culture and changed what's socially acceptable through their manip- ulations. Or, if you have sold your proverbial soul to the gods of unfettered commerce — like the rightwing self-described Culture Warriors, or the (for- merly) Moral (former) Majority — advertisements are the mar- ket speaking for the greater cul- ture at large. And the greater culture, funny enough, largely disagrees with the rightwing. Here's how it works: Adver- tisers put out an image or an idea — the greater public concurs by buying those products. Success- ful ads equal agreed upon ideas. Marketing is, after all, the defin- itive pandering. And here is what the culture is saying through advertise- ments: We like racial diversity. Why can I say that? Because commercials not only have racially diverse groups of friends and co-workers – they now regularly feature bi-racial couples in ads. In a Budweiser Super Bowl spot this year, there were black men flirting with white women sans scandal. If those spots are moving widgets it means consumers agree with the message. It's a type of vot- ing. Even if some viewers don't notice or don't have a visceral reaction one way or another – it's an indicator of a new cultur- al norm. Also Americans are okay with homosexuals. The Ameri- can Family Association, an association for only pre- approved families, threatened JC Penney with a boycott after they hired Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson. Now, DeGeneres, besides being a comedic genius, is also a successful talk show host and a popular pitchperson for brands like Covergirl and American Express. The market has spoken time after time, and Ellen is adored and sought after. She also happens to be a lesbian, which has made her the target of the AFA, whose influence is clearly eroding. What else does the market proclaim? Well, Americans widely approve of birth control. And yes, even legal abortion. In the dust-up last week between Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood the market picked the winner. It was Planned Parent- hood. The nonprofit health care provider saw a spike in private contributions after Komen announced they would no longer give Planned Parenthood a grant to screen for breast cancer. And Komen's brand has been forever tarnished by putting politics before their cure-finding goal. It's already resulted in one resignation of Vice President of Public Policy Karen Handel. You can think of the market as a leading indicator of our social mores and the Republican primary as a lagging one. Disgraced former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has been trying to play the well- worn Goldwater Southern Strat- egy to rile up the base. He calls Obama the food stamp president and said he wants to go talk to the NAACP about "why the African-American community Tina should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps." He also said immi- grants should learn English and not use the "language of the ghetto." That phrase hurt him in the Spanish-named — former Spanish colony — state of Florida. Why? Because the market has spoken, we have our first biracial presi- dent and we no longer care for these anti- quated wedges Gin- grich peddles. Dupuy The GOP-wor- shipped market has chosen the winner of the culture wars, and it hasn't looked favorably on its most devout. Of course, the market for Republicans is just like the Bible or the Constitution. They wor- ship it piously as long as they believe it agrees with them. If their deified market is all- knowing and all-powerful — it clearly favors a progressive social agenda…and not the GOP's. Yeah…tough sell. Tina Dupuy is an award- winning writer and fill-in host at The Young Turks. Tina can be reached at tinadupuy@yahoo.com.