An independent panel of scientists has found that a $1.4 billion plan put forth by environmentalists to save the salmon of the northwest by destroying four hydroelectric dams and restricting water use was based on junk science.

An independent panel of scientists has found that a $1.4 billion plan put forth by environmentalists to save the salmon of the northwest by destroying four hydroelectric dams and restricting water use was based on junk science.

According to the just-released 350-page assessment, funded by the Fish and Wildlife Service, experts expressed “strong reservations” that the expensive effort could significantly increase the Chinook salmon population in the Klamath River system. . . . The report also states, “There are many pieces of information we do not know about the Klamath system, and none we know with absolute certainty. The process of developing the model, trying to reproduce historical conditions … must be internally consistent.”

The Obama administration versus the lumber industry

Lumber and regulation: First, the Obama administration is about to release its spotted owl recovery plan for the northwest United States, and no one knows what’s in it. Second, a timber industry group has sued the Obama administration for not selling “at least 502 million board feet each year, the amount provided for under the resource management plans for the agency’s districts in Western Oregon.”

With the first story, I wonder what happened to the “most transparent administration in history.” With the second, the Obama administration continues its pattern of ignoring the law in favor of its own preferences.