Special feature story: “Salmon Cancer” by Gary Lane
“I have cancer,” are not the three words a husband ever wants to hear his wife say to him. It’s like saying the sky is falling and our salmon aren’t coming home anymore – when both wife and salmon are so vitally important and cherished. While cancer can kill humans and fish alike, each is a different kind, but both can end up with the same results.
Treatments vary, as do the results, with some more effective than others. Some work, some don’t. To see the cancer that also impacts salmon, just follow the money trail. Negative impacts on salmon are shed by many of the ancillary actions from capitalism that continue to favor industry over environment.
In my wife’s case, in July of 2020 (pre-covid pandemic) she had a bad pain in her side that led her to the emergency room to find the source of the problem. It takes a lot for either one of us to head to a doctors office, and revealed ovarian cancer, which has a dreaded high rate of return. That then led to major surgery, followed up by chemotherapy, all happening amidst the pre-vaccine of the new covid era.
Suddenly our world was turned upside down. It reminded me of all the different ways our culture has been treating salmon, with only temporary solutions, as runs continue to be in a spiraling, perilous plight. Things work for a while, until they don’t, so a second round of chemo or more stream side solutions are attempted to try again.
As owners of a mom and pop river company on the Lower Salmon, we have been running small customized river trips for over 40 years. We always shied away from the high volume, over-crowded cookie cutter river experiences, indicative of the more common business model. However, though it has been an immensely enjoyable commercial venture, there comes an unfortunate negative side to a minimal size and impact guide service.
The old joke about how to make a small fortune in the outfitting business is to start out with a big one seems to apply here. Luckily, neither of us ever had extravagant needs, and have made a comfortable living over the years. Unfortunately, as the cost of living continues to go up, and health benefits in this country are a huge challenge for more people all the time, the line between comfort and survival becomes more blurry.
Often for the less fortunate in this country, we use platforms such as GoFundMe, fueled by the generosity of public good as a means to help rescue many folks who are basically living with their heads just above water level, hoping no big waves will come crashing down. It often takes the place of federal support, with politicians too concerned about giving large tax breaks to elites and perpetuating our country's evolution into a corporatocracy, instead of being more socially responsible for its own populace. We are both 73 years old and can use the help of medicare, but that is not enough.
So we crippled along, just as fishing trips also became harder to sell as runs declined and interest waned, compared to earlier years when fish made Riggins, Idaho a chinook boom town. With Covid in full swing we opted to close down our business for the entire year due to being in the high risk group for potential death from the illness should we get it. Of course, living two hours away from cancer facilities and tons of back and forth trips at near $5 a gallon gas doesn’t take long to add up in the pocket book along with driving stress.
Apply here the old adage – “when it rains it pours.”
Before Covid, IRU director, Nic Nelson, contacted me to see if I was available to travel with his group to Washington D.C. to speak with Senator Mike Simpson (R-ID) and encourage his new salmon plan. This gave us a chance to get better acquainted and several days after our trip he contacted me to see if I would accept a GoFundme account to be set up for our topsy turvy dilemma.
It was a struggle for us to decide on what to do, feeling quite demoralized and humbled by a predicament of not knowing what kind of expenses (other than high) would follow, what medicare and supplemental would or would not cover, and the host of other costs, from motels to gas, and unseen others. Frustrated, I sought advice from my close relatives and they encouraged us to accept, assuring us we had been fighting for a long time for various environmental concerns, often at the expense of our own business, and thus justifying our worthiness of the generous offer. So we reluctantly agreed, and this generous act has been a big help, not only financially, but also in shedding light on the good side of the human race.
In light of all the negative impacts humans have to one another, other creatures, and the planet, it takes a lot of positive actions to bring about a better balance in the good and bad aspects that help define humanity, especially in respect to how divided the nation seems to be these days.
At an early age, I always held more regard for fish, wildlife and what was happening to the natural world. It eventually led to a wildlife science degree at OSU, 1971 and early work in that field before I left to begin guiding full time. Most of my work was at the district level and one of the first things I did was to map out every road in our district, along with all cover used for hiding by deer and elk. All this came in handy the two times I went to Washington D.C. during the Idaho Roadless Rule, as I traveled with Trout Unlimited in 2009, then ICL in 2010 to testify for more roadless areas and viable spawning habitat for chinook salmon.
Not only did I have experience in the wildlife tranches specifically to impacts of roads on big game and riparian zones for fish, but my very livelihood with our salmon and steelhead fishing business also depends on healthy runs of fish. Having attended the original ground zero public hearings on dam breaching in 2000, led to the 4H’s (Hydro, Habitat, Hatchery, and Harvest), and it was decided that all the other things would be tried to save fish, other than hydro. I reminded politicians when in D.C. that was why we needed more pristine spawning areas, because they already decided against breaching dams in lieu of trying all the other things first.
Then what? Like fighting cancer, when drastic measures are needed to prolong life, who wouldn’t be willing to risk whatever it takes to try everything possible.
Of course, also spawned during that first round of dam and fish hearings, was an idea I suggested to my compatriot fish warriors: welcoming the salmon back home on a spiritual level. Battle grounds have always been strewn with tools that were mostly of commercial or political value.
Why not communicate directly with the fish and let brain waves welcome them home with an appreciation for the gift that they really provide all people? The Nez Perce and other Indigenous tribes have been doing this for thousands of years. Since both cultures share the same natural resources, it made better sense to me that we could learn more about each other by face to face appreciation for these things we have in common.
Old wounds take a long time to heal and only by acknowledgement of past woes can forward progress lead onward in a more positive light. Besides, at the voracious appetite and insatiable wants of the dominant culture, more Earth warriors of every color are needed to quell progression of the degradation that still impacts our fish and other resources that provide livelihood for many people.
It is also worth mentioning that while most people have forgotten or never learned about how the west was really won, it was the broken treaty that was used as an instrument to “legally” steal land from the original inhabitants. What hasn’t changed is that the dominant culture still has treaty obligations to Indigenous people, and though the colonial ancestors have a poor track record, that does not mean people of today need to carry on with business as usual. Recognition of woes is the first step in a process of positive change.
As an aside, once I left college and got out into the other real world, I learned more about history and world view from a native perspective. Gradually, I felt like the western science I was trained to follow, missed the high value of native science and a perspective far more respectful of Mother Earth. Culture is the way a group of people relate to “place” and its natural cycles.
The dominant culture is about rugged individualism and the Indigenous culture is about community. One tries to control everything and the other tries to connect to the web. It impacted me to the degree that early on when I began my river business, I incorporated their wisdom, respect, and care for “place” through which we in the dominant culture continue to tread, into every aspect of our trips and the bio-politics of conservation.
I had almost given up on bio-politics when Nic called and invited me to do another trip to D.C. to address our two cents worth with the new Simpson plan. With Simpson doing some serious evaluations of all the potential solutions and finally seeing how breaching could work all the way around, he gave many of us that have been supporting dam removal, a ray of hope.
But like my wife’s cancer, which came back and is requiring another round of chemo treatments, the cancer for fish been allowed to spread ever more, without a second round of chemo or a potential solution (dam surgery) to get rid of the sickness that is threatening our anadromous fish.
It often seems like a hands-in-the-air, futile, never ending, and most frustrating battle. One of the big dilemma’s about writing about our plight is that we are now faced with selling our business. Cancer and covid has made us realize even more about the extreme value of life and that there comes a time to hang up the business end of the oar world for pursuit of more private time with family and friends.
Yet, it is hard to sell a fishing business with future runs facing a questionable future. I can only keep hope alive that something will work out for my wife and fish. My dad, always a role model and coach, would tell me after one of my two mile races that I didn’t win, or felt I failed, that the most important thing to do when you fall down, is to get back up and continue running. There will always be another race and runners trying to better your efforts.
So never say die, and never quit. Keep on running. Keep on fighting.
So for him, my wife, and fish, that is what I am doing. And like fans in the stadium cheering you on, that needed boost really helps. I feel that IRU has been there – for us and the fish. So again, a big thank you all for that.
And lastly, cancer has such wide tentacles there are surely other members of IRU and the river community who are running the same kind of salmon-cancer-race. So for all, just remember: the river is good medicine and Idaho rivers unite us.
Thank you so much, Gary, for sharing your story, your fight, and most of all your very wise words. We will keep fighting with you. -IRU
