Federal Salmon Recovery Plan Is Failing

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, February 26, 2003 (ENS) - The federal government is failing to implement its own plan to protect and restore endangered Columbia and Snake river wild salmon and steelhead, say a coalition of conservationists, Native American tribes and members of the commercial and recreational fishing industries.

The nationwide coalition, Save Our Wild Salmon, issued a report today that finds the government has implemented less than 30 percent of the measures required in 2002 under the federal Salmon Recovery Plan.

Salmon leaps a wall of water on its way upstream to spawn. (Photo courtesy Columbia & Snake Rivers Campaign)

"Their lack of commitment is extremely disappointing," said Babbitt, who served as interior secretary from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.

Insufficient funding, failure to reduce water temperatures in the lower Snake River to levels safe for salmon and failure to secure recommended water flows add up to a failing grade for the administration on the coalition's "Salmon Plan Report Card."

This matches the failing grade given by the coalition to the Bush administration for its 2001 actions to implement the plan.

"This plan continues to flounder," said Justin Gould, chairman of the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission.

Created under the Clinton administration, the federal government's 10 year plan to protect and restore salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake River Basin has been controversial from day one. Many conservationists and Native American tribes, including some who are part of the Save Our Wild Salmon coalition, criticized the plan when it was first created.

The plan, released in 2000 as the Biological Opinion on the federal dams in the Columbia-Snake River Basin, lays out 199 specific measures to be implemented over 10 years to protect salmon and steelhead from the adverse impacts of the federal dam system. It involves many governmental agencies and departments, including the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Interior Department.

The Ice Harbor Dam on the Lower Snake River is one of the four dams salmon must face on their way up from the ocean to spawn in the streams where they were hatched. (Photo courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)

But, in view of the Bush administration's inaction on the plan's requirements, many critics, including the coalition's executive director Pat Ford, have tried to rally behind it.

"We doubt the federal plan will restore salmon," Ford said, "but it clearly will not if it is not implemented."

The coalition's report card assigns letter grades to the Bush administration and relevant federal agencies on their progress in 2002 based on the standards and timelines set forth in the plan.

The federal agencies will formally review the plan's progress in September 2003.

In 2002, the federal Salmon Recovery Plan required that 150 of the 199 measures be carried out. According to the coalition's report card, the administration failed on 66 measures and partially implemented 44.

It received a passing grade on 41 measures, the majority of which are related to studies and reporting of the plan.

Key failures center on water quality and temperature. The report card finds the government completed less than 15 percent of the measures required to provide the fish with the clean, cool water they need to survive.

Helping the fish navigate and survive the dams is essential for the plan's success, but only some 30 percent of these measures were finished in 2002. The government did not meet the plan's river flow objectives on the lower Snake and lower Columbia rivers in either spring or summer of 2002.

Salmon are pumped into a barge on the Snake River, 1999.(Photo courtesy NW Energy Coalition)

Only 25 percent of the habitat improvements were completed, but the worst failure detailed in the report is the administration's reform of current fish hatchery practices. Only one of these 15 required measures were completed.

The overall success of the plan depends on federal funding levels, which have been less than half what is needed for implementation. The estimated cost of full implementation is some $900 million annually for 10 years. In 2002, the Plan received $439.8 million.

Although Congress decided on the funding level, many of the coalition members blame President George W. Bush for breaking a campaign promise to ensure the protect and survival of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake River Basin.

"We took President Bush at his word, but the promised aggressiveness has not been delivered," said Gould of the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission.

Gould said his group and others do not rule out using the courts to ensure the protection and survival of the endangered salmon and steelhead if action to fully implement the Salmon Plan is not taken.

There could come a point, and perhaps soon, Babbitt said, when the determination could be made that failure to implement the plan "constitutes a violation of the Endangered Species Act."

Failure so far, he said, borders on a "tacit decision to ignore the mandates of the plan."

There is a growing chance Congress could start examining the state of the Salmon Plan.

Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho (Photo courtesy Office of the Senator)

Salmon recovery efforts over the years have suffered from the same woes of "too little cooperation and too little money," Crapo said in a statement.

"This latest report underscores that already well understood problem," he said. "Congress, the administration, and its many agencies need to accelerate the pace of implementing measures we all know will help fish recovery."

"We are losing time and wasting too many efforts on this matter."

The federal Salmon Recovery Plan is online at: http://www.salmonrecovery.gov/overview.shtml

To see the full Salmon Plan Report Card visit: http://www.wildsalmon.org