U.S. Protects California Coho, Omits Oregon’s

The Clinton administration, as expected, declared a California run of coho salmon threatened Friday but declined to offer the same status to part of Oregon’s dwindling coho population, letting the state adopt its own protection plan.

The decision in Oregon, delayed more than two years, is headed for a court battle with environmentalists and fishing groups, who say the coastal coho runs of central and northern Oregon are on the brink of extinction. The Oregon plan relies on voluntary efforts.

“Today the federal government failed to protect the valuable but imperiled salmon runs,” said Tryg Sletteland, head of the Pacific Rivers Council environmental group in Eugene, Ore. “That’s a particularly bad deal, not just for the coho, but for the economy of the Northwest.”

Coho once numbered as many as 1.4 million along the central and northern Oregon coast, but now only about 80,000 native coho salmon migrate there.

Along the southern Oregon and Northern California coasts, where there used to be 150,000 to 400,000 coho salmon, fewer than 10,000 are estimated to survive.