Oral history interview with Ed Chaney

Collection

Identifier: SR 2700

Staff Only

Oral history interview with Ed Chaney

Go to file

Scope and Contents

Audio recording of an oral history interview with Ed Chaney that was conducted by Clark Hansen in two sessions, on May 4 and May 5, 1998, at Chaney’s home in Eagle, Idaho, as part of the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series. Accompanying the audio recording is a transcript of the interview and a color photograph of Chaney and his dog, taken at the time the interview was conducted. Due to a recorder malfunction at the time of the interview, the audio on Tape 4, Side 2, is inaudible, and that portion of the interview was not transcribed.

In the first interview session, Chaney discusses his family background and early life in southwestern Missouri, including his college education at the Missouri School of Mining and Metallurgy and at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. He describes how he came to work for the B&O railroad in St. Louis. He discusses his early jobs as information officer for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Oregon Fish Commission, as well as his efforts to publicize the failures of fish ladders on the Columbia River dams and their impact on salmon populations. He then talks about his work for the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C., from 1969 to 1972. He speaks extensively about the life cycle of hatchery and wild fish in the Columbia River, discusses the cultural and economic importance of salmon, and talks about the history of dam-building on the river. He discusses legislation regarding salmon protection, the politics surrounding the issue, and organizations that control the dams in the Columbia Basin.

In the second interview session, Chaney continues to discuss organizations that control the dams in the Columbia Basin, particularly the Bonneville Power Administration, and shares his thoughts about their tendency to focus only on fish harvest allocation. He shares his reasons for returning to the Pacific Northwest in 1973. He discusses lobbying state and federal fishery agencies through his consulting business, the Northwest Resource Information Center (NRIC), prior to the passage of the Northwest Power Act in 1980. He gives his opinion on the effectiveness of the Northwest Power Planning Council (NWPPC) regarding the restoration of fish runs. He speaks extensively about legislation and court decisions that reaffirmed the NWPPC's responsibility to restore fish runs. Chaney also talks about actions by other organizations involved in management of the Columbia River Basin during the 1980s and 1990s, including the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee and the Bonneville Power Administration. He reflects on his accomplishments as director of the NRIC, shares his thoughts about future actions by organizations that manage dams in the Columbia River Basin, and discusses proposals to remove the dams. He closes by discussing a lawsuit concerning management of Columbia River fisheries, for which he was preparing at the time of the interview.

Dates

Creation: 1998 May 4-5

Creator

Chaney, Ed (Interviewee, Person)
Hansen, Clark (Interviewer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Biographical note

James Edward “Ed” Chaney was born in Rolla, Missouri, in 1941, and grew up in the Ozarks. He attended the Missouri School of Mining and Metallurgy for one semester, then worked for the B&O railroad in St. Louis. He later earned bachelor’s degrees in English and Conservation at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. He then worked as an information officer for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources until 1965. A year later, he began working for the Oregon Fish Commission. From 1969 to 1972, he worked for the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C. He then moved to Eagle, Idaho, and in 1976, he founded the Northwest Resource Information Center, a non-profit organization that conducts and publicizes research regarding natural resource management in the Pacific Northwest. He also served as president of Chinook Northwest, a natural resource consulting firm. In the 2010s, he moved to Laguna Vista, Texas. Chaney died in 2025.

Sources: Information provided by Chaney in his interview; Chaney's resume on the Northwest Resource Information Center website (accessed November 2025), https://www.nwric.org/Ed_Chaney_Resume_full_2.3.21.htm; "James Chaney Obituary," Idaho Statesman, May 15, 2025 (accessed November 2025), https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/idahostatesman/name/james-chaney-obituary?id=58450528

Historical note

In 1990, the Washington State Historical Society, Portland State University, and Washington State University Vancouver formed the Center for Columbia River History (CCRH) to promote research, education, and public programs about the Columbia River Basin. The center operated for more than 20 years. Among its work was the Columbia River Basin Project (CRBP), an umbrella project supported by a 1997 grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The CRBP included online exhibits, oral histories, and high school curricula about the history of the region's land, wildlife, and people.

As part of the project, CCRH partnered with the Oregon Historical Society Research Library’s oral history program, headed by Jim Strassmaier, to gather interviews. Oral Historian Michael O’Rourke spearheaded the Northwest Power Planning Council Oral History Series, while Oral Historian Clark Hansen oversaw the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series, with aid from two Portland State University research assistants, Dannette Rowe and Tania Hyatt. In addition, CCRH conducted oral history interviews for a third project, Columbia Communities, and later donated the interview recordings and transcripts to the OHS Research Library, where they are designated SRC 1.

The Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series culminated in 59 interviews (approximately 184 recorded hours) conducted between 1998 and 2001. Interviewees included Native people, activists, farmers, conservationists, fishers, and others who contributed to the shaping of policies that have had, and continue to have, significant impacts on the Columbia River Basin in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia. The interviewees opposed policies by agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and advocated for alternative visions of management and use of the Columbia River.

Sources: “Voices of the Columbia,” by Bryan White, PSU Magazine, Fall 1998, Page 17; Center for Columbia River History brochure, undated (circa 2000); Center for Columbia River History website (accessed July 10, 2025), https://columbiariverhistory.org/; email correspondence with Donna Sinclair, 2025; email correspondence with Tania Hyatt, 2025; Oregon Historical Society Research Library internal documentation.

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (10 audiocassettes (8 hr., 40 min.,16 sec.) + transcript (197 pages) + 1 photograph (color))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oral history interview with Ed Chaney, conducted by Clark Hansen in two sessions, on May 4 and May 5, 1998, as part of the Columbia River Dissenters Oral Histories Series. Chaney, founder of the Northwest Resource Information Center, discusses his opposition to the fish conservation policies of the organizations that manage the Columbia River Basin and the dams in the basin.

Existence and Location of Copies

Audio, transcript, and photograph are viewable online in OHS Digital Collections.

General

Forms part of the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series.

Processing Information

This interview was previously cataloged as part of SR 2700.1, the Center for Columbia River History Oral Histories. SR 2700.1 included oral histories gathered for two separate projects: those conducted by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library for the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series, and those collected by the Center for Columbia River History for its Columbia Communities Project. In 2024-2025, as part of digitization of the Dissenters interviews, the collection was reprocessed to separate the two sets of interviews for improved access. Each of the 59 Columbia River Dissenters interviews was cataloged individually under the name of the interviewee. The interviews for the Communities project were kept together as a single collection that was redesignated as SRC 1, Columbia Communities Project oral histories.