Letters for Aug. 15, 2024
Seeing both sides of Idaho
We need more people in the Legislature who can look at both sides of the issues that are facing Idaho. Karen Matthee is that person. She is respectful of other views but knows what matters.
She supports schools and libraries. She is in favor of raising the minimum wage to a level that would make Idaho’s workers able to cover basic needs such as food, housing and transportation.
Let’s give her a chance to turn Idaho around with common sense and respect. Vote Karen Matthee for Idaho state Legislature.
Susan Bates-Harbuck
Sandpoint
Salmon are not thriving with dams
In response to Steve Hintyesz’s letter “Salmon seem to thrive with dams in place.”
This year’s spring run was 91,000, way under the 10-year average. Last year was 110,000. The 11-year average is 115,095 and that is terrible. What average is he talking about? The average before the dams was 16 million fish entering the Columbia every year. Now the average is 660,000! Thirteen salmon populations are threatened with extinction. Dams, overfishing, habitat destruction (dam related) and poor H2O quality (dam related) all contributed to this stunning collapse.
The Spokane River had a run commonly called the “June Hogs.” The average fish was 60-80 lb. each with some over 100 pounds! Little Falls Dam on the Spokane River and Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph on the Columbia River were built without ladders thus annihilating this monster run of salmon! These fish fed many tribes and were used as barter for many trade goods. Fisherman from Europe came to fish the Spokane River for these giants!
People with little knowledge of anadromous fish runs should do more research or remain quiet.
Don Larkin
Spokane Valley
Strangling Spokane’s artistic vitality
Plein-air painting predated Spokane by 50 years. The contemporary revival of plein-air included significant contributions by a group of artists at Fort Wright College in the 1960s. Stan Taft, Charlie Palmer, Curt Hanson and myself, anticipated the current revival by several decades.
My first Manito commission was for Mayor Neal Fosseen. I painted Manito for arts patrons the Sahlins, now in the collection of the Jundt Museum. A painting of Riverfront Park was gifted by Spokane Symphony Society to retiring conductor Donald Thulean.
The recent plein-air controversy in Manito Park disturbs me. While no specific regulation prohibits it, the tendency for park officials to conjure up such rules out of thin air or say that it should be incorporated under departmental control through classes or permits, is deeply obscene. The pretense that painting is impactful of sensitive park environments is specious; it is less impactful than picnics. Its practitioners are mindful of minimizing their environmental footprint.
The origins of mediating our cultural life through images is lost in prehistory. Places where such arts are encouraged are graced with ongoing icons of their collective memory. I’ve painted in many parks, e.g. Central Park, New York; Luxembourg Gardens; Plaza Güemes in Buenos Aires; in the Seattle area, my current home. None of these parks are encumbered by similar prohibitions.
Encourage local institutions, Jundt Museum, MONAC, Spokane Art School, to weigh-in on behalf of artists and the city; keep these bureaucrats from strangling Spokane’s artistic vitality.
William Elston
Snohomish, Washington