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Rogue, Klamath fish doing well, fisheries service decides Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming Joe Church of Central Point fly-fishes on the Rogue River near Casey State Park outside Shady Cove Friday afternoon. Fishing for steelhead on the Rogue River will remain unchanged, thanks to a decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service not to list wild steelhead under the Endangered Species Act. NMFS said recent surveys show steelhead populations in the Rogue and Klamath basins are much healthier than previously thought. From staff and wire reports PORTLAND � Steelhead in the Rogue and Klamath river basins are healthy and abundant enough not to require threatened species protection, federal fish managers announced Friday. The National Marine Fisheries Service decided not to list the wild steelhead under the federal Endangered Species Act based on new surveys of steelhead populations. The surveys found plentiful steelhead at 100 sites on the Oregon side of the region, called the Klamath Mountains Province. The province covers streams from Port Orford south to the Klamath River in California, including the Rogue River. Avid steelhead angler Jim Broman sounded as though he had a lunker on the line when he heard the news Friday afternoon. "That�s wonderful!� he said. The Rogue River flows near Broman�s business, Jim�s Bait and Tackle in Grants Pass. Although Broman has owned the shop for a half-dozen years, he has been fishing the watershed for two decades. "I�ve never seen a reason for listing them," Broman said. "The Rogue is one of the richest rivers in Oregon. But somewhere along the line they lumped us in with California rivers, even though they basically have a different fish down there. They made up this species of fish." A threatened listing would have had little impact on sportfishing, but an endangered listing would have been major, he said. "I really believe we have enough wild fish," he said. But fellow Grants Pass resident Barbara Ullian, conservation director for the Siskiyou Regional Education Project, was dismayed by the decision. "It�s very disappointing," she said. "I�m not sure how they justify this decision. We feel, and have always felt, that the steelhead need the protection to survive." Ullian, whose family has lived near the Rogue River for more than half a century, noted that her father moved to the area for its steelhead fishing. "But he quit fishing back in the 1970s when the runs started declining," she said, noting he preferred fishing in the Illinois River which flows into the Rogue River near Agness. "I feel a personal sadness that the steelhead aren�t going to be protected," she said. Steve Marsden, executive director of SREP, agreed. "This decision is allowing business as usual to go ahead," he said. "It�s indicative of the political atmosphere we�re in today. We�ve got an administration that is hostile to the environment." Ullian and Marsden said they did not know yet whether SREP would appeal the NMFS decision. SREP was one of several groups, including some sportfishing organizations, that sued NMFS after it reversed a 1995 proposal to list the wild steelhead as threatened. The NMFS oversees the protection of salmon and steelhead. In 1998, NMFS concluded that the protection was not warranted and said it would reassess the situation by 2002. Last fall, the U.S. District Court in San Francisco ruled the NMFS decision not to list steelhead in the Klamath Mountains was arbitrary and capricious. The ruling added that NMFS could not consider the future results of conservation efforts in making its decision. The October court ruling required the fisheries service to make its final determination by March 31. Donna Darm, acting head of the NMFS Northwest region in Seattle, said the decision was based on scientific studies and consultation with experts. "We�ve done an exhaustive job of re-evaluating this fish�s status, working with biologists from the states, tribes and other federal agencies, and with an array of local fishermen, landowners and conservation groups," Darm said. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife had filed comments opposing a threatened listing, based on the new surveys establishing plentiful steelhead populations in Oregon. In announcing the decision Friday, biologists with the NMFS said harmful effects from Oregon hatcheries are much lower than had been previously reported and natural steelhead populations are more widely distributed than had been thought. Although solid estimates for the fish�s population are not available, agency biologists said the latest information puts the current population of steelhead in the Klamath Mountains at at least 50,000 fish, and perhaps more than 100,000. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.