A lawsuit filed Thursday asks the U.S. District Court to order the
federal government to rethink a Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan that
the plaintiffs say is rife with faulty scientific assumptions and doomed
to failure because of a lack of Bush Administration support for
implementation funding.
An independent scientific panel has advised regional fisheries managers
to proceed cautiously as they decide what to do with an expected tidal
wave of upriver spring chinook salmon arriving at Columbia and Snake
river hatcheries during the next few months.
Using what they say is a "conservative estimate," state, tribal and
federal officials have pushed upwards the forecast for what was already
predicted to be a record return of upriver spring chinook salmon to the
Columbia River.
A calculation made Thursday, taking into account fish tallies to-date,
estimates that 433,000 upriver chinook adults will turn into the
Columbia this spring.
President George Bush's first budget maintains current funding levels
for Pacific salmon recovery programs, but they are more than $400
million below the amount estimated to be needed to implement the
Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
In February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber asked Bush administration
officials for an increase of $566 million - $438 million in FY02 and
$128 million as a supplemental add-on in FY01.
President George Bush's first budget maintains current funding levels
for Pacific salmon recovery programs, but they are more than $400
million below the amount estimated to be needed to implement the
Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
In February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber asked Bush administration
officials for an increase of $566 million - $438 million in FY02 and
$128 million as a supplemental add-on in FY01.
President George Bush's first budget maintains current funding levels
for Pacific salmon recovery programs, but they are more than $400
million below the amount estimated to be needed to implement the
Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
In February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber asked Bush administration
officials for an increase of $566 million - $438 million in FY02 and
$128 million as a supplemental add-on in FY01.
A 2001 Columbia Basin upriver spring chinook salmon run expected to set
a modern day record is, indeed, passing Bonneville Dam counters at an
unprecedented pace.
"All of the counts so far are much higher than anything in our data
sets," said Mike Matylewich of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission ...
More than 200 people turned out in Wenatchee, Wash., Tuesday night to
hear a scientific debate over a key question: Can hatchery stocks be
used successfully to revive naturally spawning Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead populations?
The forum, and one held Wednesday in Winthrop, were intended to air two disparate positions on the issue.
The Oregon Legislature is attempting to define what constitutes a wild
fish in a variety of bills now before the House Committee on Stream
Restoration and Species Recovery.
The most far reaching of the proposed laws blurs the distinction between
wild and hatchery fish, while others simply define the relationship
between fish produced by hatcheries and those that spawn and rear in
streams.
Columbia River treaty-fishing tribes this week have asked U.S. Sen.
Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to hold field hearings to change the federal
government's endangered species and artificial propagation policies.
In a March 20 letter, tribal leaders asked Smith to help protect
thousands of hatchery-reared adult salmon that would be destroyed under
policies implemented by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
An attempt by federal fish management agencies to document good habitat
works in the interior Columbia River Basin has been withdrawn, drawing
fire from some who say the action is another example of the Bush
Administration's studied erosion of environmental protections.
Some say push ahead, while others, including the National Marine
Fisheries Service, are urging the Northwest Power Planning Council to
take its time in revising the Columbia-Snake mainstem portion of its
fish and wildlife program.
With the largest upriver spring chinook run in recorded history poised
to enter the Columbia River, fishery officials say they have reached an
agreement that is both geared toward rebuilding depleted, wild stocks
and affording increased fishing opportunities on hatchery fish during
such times of abundance.
With the largest upriver spring chinook run in recorded history poised
to enter the Columbia River, fishery officials say they have reached an
agreement that is both geared toward rebuilding depleted, wild stocks
and affording increased fishing opportunities on hatchery fish during
such times of abundance.
The differences between hatchery bred salmon and wild salmon were
debated this week before a committee of Oregon's House of
Representatives.
The House Committee on Stream Restoration and Recovery -- which Chairman
Rep. Bob Jenson, R-Pendleton, said is charged with recommending changes
to the Oregon Plan for Salmon that could influence how Oregon hatcheries
operate in the future -- heard scientists touting both sides of the
equation in Salem Monday.
A planned test of selective commercial harvest gear this spring won
Northwest Power Planning Council approval Wednesday, jumping ahead of a
pack of some 96 fish and wildlife proposals hoping to gain fiscal year
2001 "high priority" project funding.
Washington state Sen. Bob Morton, vexed by a situation last year that
saw tens of thousands of hatchery "surplus" fish killed while streams
within his own district hold only remnant populations, says he is
pursuing accountability.
He has authored legislation in the Washington Senate that calls for a
two-year moratorium on federal fishery agency orders to destroy
"surplus" hatchery fish or their progeny returning the state's
hatcheries.
The substantial differences between hatchery and wild fish that often
inhabit the same watershed is reason enough to support sacrificing
excess hatchery fish. That's the conclusion of a white paper recently
released by the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.
A bountiful, by recent standards, return of spring chinook salmon last
year has translated into the top spawning count on record for one
unlisted Oregon run and generally improved returns for ESA listed fish
on which much of the Columbia Basin's recovery efforts are focused.
Columbia River Compact members balked Thursday at putting the financial
onus on commercial fishers for an experimental fishery intended to test
live capture methods that might increase harvest opportunities without
further imperiling ESA listed stocks.
The Compact, delegates representing the Oregon and Washington fish and
wildlife commissions and departments, is charged with setting mainstem
commercial fishing seasons.
Columbia Basin electric ratepayers have footed a $3.48 billion bill
since 1978 to help restore fish and wildlife populations in the region,
according to a draft report released this week by the Northwest Power
Planning Council.
The "Annual Report of the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program,
1978-1999" is a first-time attempt to detail exactly fish and wildlife
expenditures of the Bonneville Power Administration ...
A bridge construction work stoppage in Oregon's Clackamas County is a
signal that Pacific Northwest salmon restoration has entered a new era,
with new rules now in effect intended to protect Endangered Species Act
listed stocks.
Over the past four months new National Marine Fisheries Service habitat
rules have taken effect that aim to protect 14 populations of threatened
salmon and steelhead ranging from Southern California to the Canadian
border.
The third worst water year of the past 11 years has Technical Management
Team members worried there won't be enough water available to augment
flows for endangered salmon this coming summer, let alone enough to keep
all chum salmon redds watered below Bonneville Dam or to keep the power
system from falling into another power emergency.
A near pristine 1,020 acre parcel of central Washington real estate
frequented by some nine federally listed fish and terrestrial wildlife
species gained long-sought protections Tuesday with its purchase by the
San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land.
Freezing endangered salmon sperm could be the most unique effort in the
Northwest to help save wild runs of salmon. However, researchers hope
the sperm will never have to be used to resuscitate any of the
endangered salmon stocks of the lower Snake River basin since its use
would occur only after all else fails and one of the stocks nears
extinction.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
