Clinton Seeks $100 Million to Revive Salmon Stock

In a major initiative to revive vanishing wild salmon stock, President Clinton called Wednesday for spending $100 million to help West Coast states and Indian tribes improve water quality and repair habitat in rivers and streams used by the endangered fish.

“We want to help you bring the salmon back,” Clinton said as he and Vice President Al Gore detailed the proposal during a conference call to the governors of Alaska, Washington and Oregon and California Resources Secretary Mary Nichols.

The administration would allow the money to be used for a broad range of salmon protection activities, from buying land along streams to mapping habitats. Exactly how much flexibility state and local governments should have in spending the money remains an issue, with environmentalists arguing for a stronger federal role than local officials prefer.

Since 1991, the National Marine Fishery Service has placed 15 salmon species on the endangered species list and is considering listing at least a dozen more. The habitats of the listed species cover two-thirds of the West Coast, but that has not led to a quick turnaround in fish populations.

The administration’s latest proposal is an ambitious attempt to show that the Endangered Species Act can lead to the revival of disappearing wildlife.

Up to now, many salmon recovery efforts have been stalled by local opposition to proposed federal regulations that restrict a variety of commercial activities--including logging, road building, farming and construction--that can pollute salmon streams or divert water from them.

In California, salmon recovery plans have been held hostage by political disagreements over how best to protect streams on the north coast. Heavy logging has destroyed miles of salmon habitat there and in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river systems, where fisheries have been crippled by water diversions to farms and cities.

In a statement that avoided any reference to the controversies swirling around salmon protection in California, Nichols commended the Clinton administration for the proposal and said she intended to work closely with all interested parties to decide how the federal money could best be used.

The reactions of other officials were more pointed. “To make the money work for California, we must step up our own regulatory system and make our rules somewhat stricter,” said state Sen. Byron Sher, a Palo Alto Democrat who heads the Committee on Environmental Quality.

The Clinton-Gore initiative requires dollar-for-dollar matching funds from the states and stresses that the role of the federal government is to support local efforts to restore salmon rather than to dictate policy.

Approval of Congress Needed

Emphasizing the collaborative nature of environmental protection has become a refrain of the Clinton administration recently as it seeks the cooperation of the Republican-controlled Congress. Congress will have to sign off on the $100-million expenditure as part of the budget.

At the same time, a federal official who helped shape the initiative said that states “will not have a totally free hand in the way the money is spent.”

A representative of one key Senate Republican, Slade Gorton of Washington, said the senator is very encouraged by the initiative, but will insist on budget language that puts states and local authorities in control of how the money is spent.

Gorton heads a Senate Appropriations subcommittee with broad jurisdiction over environmental spending measures.

Environmental groups also hailed the initiative but said that the federal government must set clear standards for salmon recovery that states must follow in spending the $100 million.

“It’s imperative to have a regulatory framework in place covering all listed species and specifying what it will take to protect them,” said Elyssa Rosen, a regional representative of the Sierra Club.

Rosen, Sher and other critics of the environmental policies of former Gov. Pete Wilson argue that California must bring its regulations more in line with federal guidelines for shielding streams from the damage caused by erosion and water diversions.

The language of the administration’s initiative, however, avoids any discussion of such differences between state and federal policy.

The proposal says the $100 million can be used for a variety of purposes, including buying “conservation easements,” buffer zones to shield salmon-bearing streams from destructive activities; planting trees; rebuilding culverts; stabilizing stream banks; mapping and assessing stream systems to determine the quality and size of salmon habitat; and monitoring the success of restoration work.

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Salmon Proposal

A $100-million environmental initiative being proposed by President Clinton would protect West Coast salmon areas. At left are areas where most endangered and are listed or proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Source: National Marine Fisheries Service