[env-trinity] Editorial Record Searchlight

[Byron]

Editorial: However counted, fish need healthy rivers 

Redding Record Searchlight - 5/2/04

Federal fishery managers announced a new policy last week to count
hatchery-raised salmon along with their wild kin when deciding whether a run
deserves listing as endangered or threatened. The decision provoked the
usual alarm from conservation groups and praise from those who bear the
weight of Endangered Species Act restrictions, but the political sniping
misses the point. A federal judge ruled that the genetically
indistinguishable fish should be counted together, the 9th Circuit rejected
an appeal, and there the law stands. 

Bob Lohn, NOAA-Fisheries' regional administrator, said that "properly run,
hatcheries can become a kind of extension of natural habitat." True enough,
but fishery managers must avoid turning complacent as their stocks, on
paper, suddenly appear healthier. While hatcheries can be an "extension" of
nature, they cannot replace healthy streams. 

Hatcheries were first established on the West Coast nearly 150 years ago,
and the era since has brought a steady decline in salmon runs, to the point
that wild populations are virtually extinct on many rivers. Whatever bump
the new rules cause will in no way reduce the work needed to revive
self-sustaining, viable salmon stocks.

 

Byron Leydecker

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Consultant, California Trout, Inc.

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 519 4810 ce

415  383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumin.org (secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

 

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