Dam decision poses test for Obama team

On Friday, we will learn a lot about the Obama administration's asserted commitment to science and law on environmental matters. The proving ground is in Washington and Idaho on the lower Snake River, the Columbia's largest tributary, where four dams and their reservoirs are salmon killers. U.S. District Judge James Redden, weary from years of evasion by the National Marine Fisheries Service, has called for an aggressive new approach and set the upcoming deadline. The lower Snake dams are strategically critical because scientists believe that breaching them offers the best hope for reviving the fabled Columbia River wild salmon, which have been decimated by development, especially dams. These four dams have crippled the finest, highest and most expansive salmon habitat in the lower 48 states -- Idaho's wild, pristine country along the Continental Divide and the Wallowa Range in Oregon...Oregonian