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adult return is a small fraction of its former self. It is calculated that a greater total weight of young hatchery salmon is now sent down the Columbia each year than the weight ofadults harvested. Thus, the NPPGAprogt-am, heralded as "possibly the most ambitious effort in the world to save a biological re- source" has become one of the world's most colossal biological blunders. It set out to double the salmon run in a de- cade. After that decade and a billion dollars spent on hatcheries, the salmon run was less than half what it had been. Things went wrong biologically, so- dally, institutionally and economicall}'• Fishing and related economies are suf- fering. The latest results: one salmon stock (the5nake Riversockeye) declared endangered, nvo Chinook salmon stocks listed as threatened, and many more waiting in the wings. Commercial and recreational salmon harvests are severely reduced. In 1992, salmon fishing was nearly canceled. Only a token season was allowed. Anglers who used to flock to the Columbia and Snake rivers now go elsewhere. Ina 1991 issue of Fn.vironmenlal I.a.ec; Michael Blumm and ,Andy 5imrin ana- lva_ed reasons for the failure. As they see it, conservationists convinced Congress to pass the NPPC:.A, then naively as- sumed the job of restoring salmon runs would be done and failed to watchdog the NPPCA's efforts. Contrary to the act, the Northwest Power Planning Cowlcil, which runs the program, often failed to heed the ln'ological ad~~ce of the region's fishery agencies, say Blumm and Simrin. The Council was dominated by electric power interests, barge com- panies and other industries, which saw to it that fish were not treated on a par and as co-equal paru~ers. :Vote that. they said it was Biological advice that was not heeded. Part of the trouble, though. may have been that fishery agencies also sent mixed signals. Says one former State of ~h'ashington a biologist: "It's common prac- a tice for the political appoin- ~° teeswhoruntheDepartment ~, of Fisheries to say to dam o builders,'Hev,we'llmakevou a deal. tie won't force you to ~ adhere to the law and build a a Fish ladder. Just kick in some 0 money to our hatchery pro- ~ gram, and we'll call it okay.'" E The failure ofanadromous O run restoration on the Co- lumbia was a classic of the o hatchery syndrome-the old storvofgreecf,ineptintdeand ruin. The Northwest Power Plam~ing Council and associ- ated agencies avoided tack- = ling the habitat-loss and overfishing causes and took o the supposedly easier hatch- g ery route. Some of the agen- o Gies that were responsible for E managing fisheries but ~^° mainh' ran hatcheries were $ all too glad to play into the hands of the power interests. Token habitatworkwasdone in small streams. Avoided was s the most needed habitat change-speeding main river flow for a few smolt- 0 migration weeks each }-ear. AUTIfMN 1992 Figure 1. As hatcheries released more and more juvenile Chinook salmon into the Snake River, the runs of adult Chinooks declined. The extent to which ha-chery fish were a cause of the decline-among several causes-is unclear, but these data definitely indicate that the hatcheries failed to compensate for damage to Chinook salmon stocks by the Snake and Columbia river dams.