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72 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, August 30, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 30, 2004 Bush salmon plan criticized By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune The Bush administration plans to count hatchery fish in tandem with wild fish when assessing Northwest salmon stocks, a move critics called a side-stepping of science to speed dropping fish like Rogue River coho off the threatened species list. In a reversal from the past, NOAA-Fisheries has drafted a policy that treats salmon spawned at hatcheries just like those spawning naturally when determining whether the species warrants protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Simon Levin, a Princeton University ecologist who served on a NOAA-Fisheries scientific review panel that panned the proposal, called the new policy "a huge mistake" that would undermine efforts to restore salmon and their habitat. Dropping species like Rogue coho from the threatened list would end mandatory reviews for fish protection during federal actions ranging from water withdrawals and fishing seasons to dam operations and the hauling of fish around half-built Elk Creek Dam. "This is what we feared," Levin said Thursday. "It seems obvious to me that they would de-list a lot of stocks that shouldn’t be de-listed. Advertisement "I think it’s an abuse of science for policy objectives." NOAA-Fisheries spokesman Brian Gorman defended the draft Thursday, saying the change is in response to a 2001 federal court case in Oregon that led to demands that hatchery fish be accounted for while assessing wild salmon. "I can’t make any prediction what changes, if any, will be made in ESA-protected salmon and steelhead," Gorman said Thursday. Gorman said the policy "is not a done deal yet," but the agency hopes to get it finalized in the Federal Register by the end of June. Under the draft, the counting of hatchery fish is "just one factor" NOAA-Fisheries biologists use in assessing the overall health of a stock, said Jim Lecky, NOAA-Fisheries’ intergovernmental program adviser in Washington, D.C. Other factors include productivity, genetic diversity and distribution of a salmon species in regional groupings called "evolutionarily significant units." One such ESU is wild coho in Southern Oregon and Northern California, including runs in the Rogue and Klamath rivers, which both sport coho hatchery programs. The draft policy also is "to restore and maintain the ecosystems upon which these fish depend," so "it’s not just a numbers game" when assessing a salmon stock for listing, Lecky said. However, after a review of hatchery studies, Levin’s panel concluded that the draft policy "opens the legal door to maintaining a stock solely through hatcheries" which, in general, hinder salmon’s future abilities to adapt, the panel wrote in a March issue of "Science" magazine. "We’ve had intensive hatchery management for 100 years," WaterWatch attorney Bob Hunter said. "If they were so good, we wouldn’t have a problem." If finalized, the policy change would represent a victory for property-rights groups like the Pacific Legal Foundation, whose 2001 lawsuit prompted Judge Thomas Hogan’s landmark hatchery-fish decision leading to the new policy. Foundation attorney Russell Brooks said using hatchery fish to get salmon off the threatened species rolls would "remove an unnecessary layer of government bureaucracy and regulation." In turn, that would leave habitat protection and land-use issues involving salmon "properly" in the hands of state governments. "I don’t think counting hatchery salmon will cause us to ignore habitat," Brooks said. But critics called the policy a convenient way to ignore actions like constructing fish-passage ladders on Klamath Basin dams, keeping bans on sport and commercial fishing for wild coho and even funding small, local projects that make creek culverts more fish-friendly. "This has huge implications for all these politically unpalatable environmental conflicts in the region," said Kaitlin Lovell, salmon policy coordinator for Trout Unlimited. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said adding hatchery fish to the listing mix won’t jeopardize current and future habitat-improvement efforts tied to salmon recovery. "I don’t see this decision diminishing the involvement or level of activity throughout the Northwest to improve habitat and fish passage," Walden said. "At the end of the day, we want river systems to function." Brooks said the policy likely would not lead to rapid de-listing because federal guidelines and a likely court challenge could drag it out as long as five years. The policy shift also would have no impact on the government’s plans to remove Savage Rapids Dam from the Rogue and replace it with pumps to deliver Grants Pass Irrigation District water, Hunter said. A binding final agreement for dam removal remains regardless of whether the Rogue’s wild coho are de-listed, he said. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities