BUSH V. SALMON

In a surprise to nobody who has been awake the past four years, the Bush administration has officially moved away from the ledge the Clinton administration ever so timidly crept near when it considered removal of dams from the Columbia and Snake rivers in attempts to bolster the salmon populations of those systems. That ain't gonna happen now, not that it was ever likely.

Readers interested in reading more about the changes to the Columbia ought to check out Richard White's book The Organic Machine. For more about how dams in the west have reshaped American ecology and society (not just in the west but throughout the nation), Donald Worster's Rivers of Empire and the late Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert are must-reads (Reisner's book being particularly appropriate for those seeking lively page-turners for holiday reading).