Senator Crapo, let me begin my comments by thanking you for your support for allowing all involved to focus on actions that will help the fish while leaving dams in place, protecting Idaho's water and meeting the needs of Idaho's communities. It is gratifying as an Idaho business with significant dependence on the existing river infrastructure to know we have unanimous support from our entire Federal delegation as well as our Governor. I also wish to thank you for providing this hearing opportunity for Idahoans to voice their opinions and thoughts about the Bi-Op and Basin-wide Strategy.
As you well know, there are strongly different views of the role of the dams with respect to the current condition of Columbia and Snake River anadromous fish -- both in terms of the contribution the dams make to the problem and in terms of their potential contribution to the solution.
We believe there needs to be recognition of the strengths of the Bi-Op as well as its short-comings.
Early on attention was too often focused exclusively on the dams. We think that was wrong, and we are encouraged that both the scientific and the policy focus has expanded to include the entire life cycle of the fish and all of the H's that impact their life cycle. The fundamental premise underlying the draft Bi-Op and Recovery Strategy paper is that we set aside dam breaching and aggressively pursue a range of other measures to protect and recover listed fish species.
We see no better course available for us to take. We understand that the details of the draft proposals leave many areas of uncertainty and debate, and that the process going forward will necessarily be adaptive and subject to ongoing improvement. As is often the case, the devil is in the details. We have concerns about the specifics and timeframes of the performance measures.
As the documents relate to off-site habitat management we share a strong concern with others in our industry about the growing Federal intrusion into resource management roles that historically have been, and should be, the province of State sovereignty. We share similar concerns for farming communities of our State who see their dependence on irrigation increasingly at risk of Federal intervention. We believe, therefore, that the action by our Governor in Idaho, together with the Governors of Washington, Oregon and Montana, in stepping forward to assert a strong State role in the recovery measures that must be undertaken is critical to an acceptable and successful outcome.
Potlatch Corporation and the forest products industry are dedicated to fish recovery without interruption of the river system and its amenities. And we believe based on our interpretation of work done both by government and private sector scientists that this is realistic. We are committed to working together with Idahoans and others in the Pacific Northwest who are committed to finding solutions to accomplish this task.
It's important to move forward and we must move forward. In our opinion moving forward requires three things. Clear direction for maintaining the existing infrastructure, meaningful and effective measures for recovering fish and legal certainty.
Mr. Chairman, in conclusion I would like to thank you for the strong interest you have taken in addressing this hugely difficult and critical issue. We deeply need the help and guidance we have come to expect from you in our collective goal of achieving a successful outcome for all of the economic, environmental and community interests that have so much at stake in this effort.