U.S. Releases Plan to Restore Salmon Runs in Northwest

Citing the cultural and economic importance of salmon to the Pacific Northwest, the federal government Monday released its comprehensive plan to recover three endangered stocks--or runs--in the Columbia and Snake rivers.

William Stelle, regional director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, called salmon “part of the culture and history of the Northwest.” He said the new recovery plan is “the most comprehensive . . . and probably the most important” ever issued in the history of the Endangered Species Act.

The plan recommends a range of modifications in salmon harvesting over a wide geographic area--including a continued ban on coho fishing off the Northwest coast, a vessel buyback program for some fishermen in Oregon and Washington, and asking Native American tribes to voluntarily forgo some salmon guaranteed to them under treaty rights. It also suggests that Alaskan fishermen may have to pay a price for the recovery.

The government earlier this year submitted another portion of its plan that deals with managing the vast hydroelectric system on the rivers. That plan called for spilling more water over dams and drawing down reservoir levels to help speed young salmon out to sea, while retaining a program that barges fish around the dams. The series of federally operated dams along the rivers is thought to be the major cause of salmon mortality in the region, as migrating fish get caught in the huge turbines.

Environmentalists Monday criticized that portion of the plan as inadequate, saying that not enough water is being used to flush fish out to sea and that barging has not worked to save salmon.

A marine fisheries service spokesman said that under the plan, “there possibly could be some curtailment of Alaskan harvests”--where there has been some accidental take of endangered Snake River chinook. But salmon fishermen in southeast Alaska pounced on that idea.

“Alaska is rightfully resentful of that, when the problem lies with dams on the Columbia River,” said Dale Kelley of the Alaska Trollers Assn. in Juneau.

The Bonneville Power Administration, which markets electric power from those dams, estimates that it will lose an additional $160 million in hydropower revenue, on top of the $350 million a year that it spends on salmon and other wildlife programs. Last week, the Clinton Administration pledged to offset $160 million of those costs over two years.

The plan released Monday also calls for a moratorium on increasing the number of hatchery salmon, which scientists believe degrades the gene pool when mixed with natural stocks.

Stelle said the plan predicts that the three salmon runs would be “recovered,” or removed from the endangered species list, in 48 years.

Not all salmon stocks in the Northwest are depleted. Canada and Alaska have relatively healthy runs compared to those in Washington, Oregon and California. But many individual runs in the region, perhaps 200 or more, have become extinct in the last century.

In announcing the plan, Stelle deplored the dismal number of salmon returning to spawn--only one adult last year in the case of the endangered sockeye.

The 500-page plan is now subjected to a 90-day public comment period before a final version is submitted to a federal judge.