U.S. Moves to Protect West Coast Salmon

The Clinton administration has found 13 species of salmon and steelhead trout veering toward extinction on the West Coast, setting the stage for a massive recovery effort that will include habitat restoration, water-quality improvements and buy-backs of commercial fishing licenses, officials said Thursday.

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced 13 runs of chinook, chum and sockeye salmon and steelhead trout proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

“There has been no Endangered Species Act listing that encompasses this scope in the 20-year history of the act,” William Stelle, regional manager for the fisheries service, said in announcing the proposed listings in California, Oregon, Idaho and Washington.

Washington state, heaviest hit by the proposed protections, responded with a plan to begin recovering salmon habitat in its watersheds. Gov. Gary Locke said he will propose an initial $21-million recovery program, to be accompanied by a statewide review of how the fish can be restored to Washington’s rivers.

“This is like being told Mt. Rainier might disappear from our skyline. Life without king salmon is unthinkable, but today the unthinkable is dangerously close to coming true,” the governor said.

He said the proposed listings, which would become final after review over the next year, would require fundamental changes in agricultural practices, land development patterns, water uses and logging. “There’s no facet of life that will not be touched if we are to have an effective recovery plan,” he said.

Fishermen’s organizations predicted that harvesters along the West Coast may be asked to bear the brunt of salmon recovery efforts. The groups pointed out that a large proportion of salmon stocks proposed for protection--in some cases, up to 65%--is caught in Canadian waters.

They called for signing a new U.S.-Canada treaty as a first step toward protecting West Coast salmon. “The simple fact is that, while we need to do a great deal to improve the habitat in the Puget Sound watershed, we will not be able to restore chinook until we address the problems in the treaty,” said Jeff Curtis, West Coast conservation director for Trout Unlimited.

In his budget proposal, Locke is calling for money to establish regional watershed management teams. He also wants to provide grants to local landowners to restore critical salmon habitat. His proposal also seeks to improve road crossings over streams that impede salmon migration and to pay commercial fishermen not to fish depleted salmon stocks.

The majority of the proposed listings cover the chinook, or king, salmon--a species that often grows as large as 50 pounds and spawns in major streams all along the coast. Of 15 populations studied, eight were found possibly endangered or threatened. The coastal chinook would be listed as threatened in Northern California and southern Oregon. Chinook on the Sacramento River were first listed under the act in 1989.