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Agency wants time to evaluate salmon listings
By Jeff Barnard
Wednesday, March 31, 2004 | 2 comment(s)
AP Environmental Writer
GRANTS PASS - The federal agency responsible for protecting salmon has asked a judge to give them an extra 90 days to finish their evaluation of whether some populations of Pacific salmon should continue to be protected by the Endangered Species Act.
The demands of overhauling its policy on hatchery fish, prompted by a landmark court ruling dissolving threatened species status for Oregon coastal coho, has left NOAA Fisheries unable to meet the Wednesday court-approved deadline for reviewing threatened and endangered species listings for nine populations of salmon and steelhead, said spokesman Brian Gorman.
The agency wanted to come out with reviews of all 26 populations of Pacific salmon and steelhead protected by the Endangered Species Act, not just the nine covered by an agreement with the Building Industry Association of Washington, based in Olympia, Gorman said.
"I think there has been this naive assumption abroad that we were just going to count fish and the ESA listings would just go away," Gorman said from his office in Seattle. "We have been saying all along there will be no wholesale de-listings, though there might be some changes.
"Certainly the ESA is not going to go away. Habitat protection is not going to go away. Good hatchery management is not going to go away."
Timothy Harris, attorney for the building group, said he could not anticipate when or how a federal court in Spokane, Wash., would act on the missed deadline.
"I'm just trying to get the government to do their job," Harris said. "Delay in this case is the friend of the radical environmentalists who want to see fish remain on the endangered species list even though there is no legal justification for it."
Originally, NOAA fisheries decided to overhaul its policy on hatchery operations and review the salmon listings after U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene dissolved the threatened species listing for Oregon Coastal Coho in 2001 based on a lawsuit brought by property rights advocates.
Hogan ruled that NOAA Fisheries could not fail to protect fish spawned in hatcheries if they were part of the same group - known as an evolutionarily significant unit - as fish spawned in the wild.
Based on the ruling, petitions were filed to take nine groups of salmon off the threatened and endangered lists. They are Snake River steelhead, middle Columbia River steelhead, upper Columbia River steelhead, Snake River spring-summer chinook, Snake River fall chinook, Upper Columbia River spring chinook, Snake River sockeye, Puget Sound chinook, and Hood River Canal summer chum.
After NOAA Fisheries missed the one-year deadline for the review, the Building Industry Association of Washington filed a lawsuit demanding faster action. Faced with that lawsuit NOAA Fisheries agreed to the Wednesday deadline.
GRANTS PASS - The federal agency responsible for protecting salmon has asked a judge to give them an extra 90 days to finish their evaluation of whether some populations of Pacific salmon should continue to be protected by the Endangered Species Act.
The demands of overhauling its policy on hatchery fish, prompted by a landmark court ruling dissolving threatened species status for Oregon coastal coho, has left NOAA Fisheries unable to meet the Wednesday court-approved deadline for reviewing threatened and endangered species listings for nine populations of salmon and steelhead, said spokesman Brian Gorman.
The agency wanted to come out with reviews of all 26 populations of Pacific salmon and steelhead protected by the Endangered Species Act, not just the nine covered by an agreement with the Building Industry Association of Washington, based in Olympia, Gorman said.
"I think there has been this naive assumption abroad that we were just going to count fish and the ESA listings would just go away," Gorman said from his office in Seattle. "We have been saying all along there will be no wholesale de-listings, though there might be some changes.
"Certainly the ESA is not going to go away. Habitat protection is not going to go away. Good hatchery management is not going to go away."
Timothy Harris, attorney for the building group, said he could not anticipate when or how a federal court in Spokane, Wash., would act on the missed deadline.
"I'm just trying to get the government to do their job," Harris said. "Delay in this case is the friend of the radical environmentalists who want to see fish remain on the endangered species list even though there is no legal justification for it."
Originally, NOAA fisheries decided to overhaul its policy on hatchery operations and review the salmon listings after U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene dissolved the threatened species listing for Oregon Coastal Coho in 2001 based on a lawsuit brought by property rights advocates.
Hogan ruled that NOAA Fisheries could not fail to protect fish spawned in hatcheries if they were part of the same group - known as an evolutionarily significant unit - as fish spawned in the wild.
Based on the ruling, petitions were filed to take nine groups of salmon off the threatened and endangered lists. They are Snake River steelhead, middle Columbia River steelhead, upper Columbia River steelhead, Snake River spring-summer chinook, Snake River fall chinook, Upper Columbia River spring chinook, Snake River sockeye, Puget Sound chinook, and Hood River Canal summer chum.
After NOAA Fisheries missed the one-year deadline for the review, the Building Industry Association of Washington filed a lawsuit demanding faster action. Faced with that lawsuit NOAA Fisheries agreed to the Wednesday deadline.
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