PENDLETON, Ore. — Jay Minthorn doesn't hesitate when asked if two countries, seven states, Indian tribes and countless other stakeholders can ever agree on how to manage the Columbia River. He answers with a resolute "Of course."
History isn't on his side.
From the air on a recent overcast day, the Columbia seems a model of harmony. Paddleboats and barges moved slowly down the river. Windsurfers by the dozens sliced across the water.
But the Columbia River has been a source of strife in the Pacific Northwest for decades, and the arguments don't figure to get quieter anytime soon.
Grown men bicker over "junior" and "senior" water rights. Environmentalists infuriate irrigators and utilities with criticism of how the river is managed. Fish have supplanted the spotted owl as the subject of environmental lawsuits in the region.
But Minthorn, a councilman for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and chairman of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, figures there's no alternative. "Salmon are a way of life for too many people in the Northwest," said Minthorn, 69, who has been working toward salmon recovery for 20 years. "We will not always agree, but we really have to do it for the good of the resources."
The barriers between competing interests are as broad as the river itself. Basic disagreement exists about whether there is enough water to go around. Federal fish managers don't even have a definition for what constitutes salmon recovery.
What river managers face today is really just the culmination of many management decisions over a century, said Rob Masonis of American Rivers, a national nonprofit conservation group.
"It's a very challenging situation, but I also think what we're seeing is changes in our economy, changes in our society leading us to look at the Columbia in a different light," he said.
More than 10 federal agencies with sometimes conflicting missions -- from the Forest Service to the Bureau of Reclamation -- have a role in managing the river. The same goes for various state agencies, tribes and other interest groups. The river's 258,000-square-mile basin includes seven states, 13 Indian reservations and one Canadian province.
Finding agreement can be nearly impossible. In the late 1990s, a regional forum aimed at striking a balance disintegrated when the group was unable to address key issues.
