The Bush administration has drafted a 10-year wild salmon
recovery plan that puts restoration of fish stocks at the bottom
of its priorities. Released on September 9 by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries (NOAA), the
plan rejects consideration of removing any dams from the
Columbia and Snake rivers, even though this would dramatically
enhance recovery prospects.
The administration's new plan (the first was deemed illegal by a
federal judge last year) proposes adjustments in dam operations
and technology to lessen the death rate of salmon during their
migrations up and downriver.
Salmon advocates say these ideas are stale and discredited. The
plan also proposes increased barging of young fish--up to 90
percent of some salmon stocks--around the dams, installing
structures called spillway weirs that allow fish to travel
alongside dams rather than through their turbines, continued
habitat restoration, and expanded efforts to reduce predators.
[1]
"The scientists in the region have said over and over again, you
cannot restore self-sustaining populations of these fish by
relying on barging," said Todd True, an attorney with
EarthJustice. "You have to move towards a river that will
actually support these fish, and we're way off track from that."
[2]
The plan represents yet another reinterpretation of the
Endangered Species Act by the Bush administration--one favorable
to private interests rather than endangered species--by putting
the emphasis on sustaining "sufficient survival levels in fish"
rather than recovery of self-sustaining populations. Regional
conservation and fishing groups have criticized the
administration's plan as "inadequate and overly optimistic." [3]
If the new plan is approved, dam operators will be in compliance
with salmon recovery efforts as long as they are not speeding up
the rate of salmon kills. [4]
The administration earlier failed to challenge a controversial
court ruling that allows hatchery-bred salmon to be counted
along with wild when assessing the health of a fish population,
even though this also contradicts both the intent of the
Endangered Species Act and the best science on wild salmon
restoration. [5]
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TAKE ACTION
Go to Save Our Wild Salmon's website to submit your comments.
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SOURCES:
[1] "Fishery service opposes breaching Snake, Columbia dams,"
The Oregonian, Sept. 10, 2004.
[2] "New Plan Treats Dams as Part of Columbia River
Environment," OPB Radio, Sept. 9, 2004.
[3] Oregonian, op. cit.
[4] Save Our Wild Salmon press release, Sept. 9, 2004.
[5] BushGreenwatch, May 27, 2004.
