[env-trinity] New York Times June 14

[Byron]

Only Wild Fish Matter in 'Endangered' Count, Judge Rules 

By FELICITY BARRINGER
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/felicity_barri
nger/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 

Published: June 14, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, June 13 - A federal district judge in Spokane, Wash., on
Wednesday nullified a Bush administration policy that counts hatchery fish
along with wild fish when making decisions about which species should be
protected under the Endangered Species Act. 

This counting method, the judge, John C. Coughenour, wrote, "departs from
the law's central purpose, which is to promote and conserve naturally
self-sustaining populations."

Judge Coughenour also noted that six years ago, a federal judge in Eugene,
Ore., endorsed the opposite interpretation and called on the federal
government to count genetically similar hatchery fish with their wild
relatives. In his order Wednesday, Judge Coughenour indicated he would
welcome the "happy result" of a review by the United States Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit to settle the matter.

A 2004 decision by the
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/nationa
l_marine_fisheries_service/index.html?inline=nyt-org> National Marine
Fisheries Service, which protects migrating fish that spend part of their
lives in rivers and part in the ocean, was roundly condemned by
environmental groups, especially advocates for wild salmon, as a fundamental
distortion of the endangered-species law.

In the 1990s, when most of the 27 Northwestern salmon species currently
protected under the act were being evaluated, the fisheries service made its
decisions on the status of the naturally spawning fish. Depending on how
many generations a fish species have spent in the hatchery and what other
stocks they have mingled with, they can be genetically identical to the wild
stocks or significantly different.

Several environmental groups, including Trout Unlimited, American Rivers and
the
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/sierra_
club/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Sierra Club, filed suit after one species of
salmon, the Upper Columbia steelhead, was downgraded to threatened from
endangered under the new policy.

The judge agreed with their major points. To commingle the numbers of
hatchery and wild populations when deciding on protections, he wrote, "is,
in fact, contrary to the best available scientific evidence."

"A healthy hatchery population is not necessarily an indication of a healthy
natural population," he said.

Jan Hasselman, a lawyer with Earthjustice, which handled the case for the
other groups, said in a statement Wednesday, "Hatcheries never were meant to
be a replacement for self-sustaining populations of salmon in healthy
streams."

Kaitlin Lovell of Trout Unlimited said in the same statement that "we should
strengthen legal protections and accountability for wild salmon, not weaken
them."

D. Robert Lohn, regional administrator of the fisheries service's Northwest
office, said in an interview that his office's policy was "managing for and
protecting the naturally spawning fish." 

"To the extent that we can use hatchery fish to assure the survival or help
rebuild the populations, we would take them into consideration," Mr. Lohn
said. 

Sonya D. Jones, a lawyer with the Pacific Legal Foundation, a
property-rights group that has for years pressed the government to count
hatchery stocks when determining whether a salmon species should be
protected, said the group believed that Wednesday's decision and the 2001
ruling, by Judge Michael R. Hogan, were "in direct contrast" and that it
expected to appeal the latest one. 

Byron Leydecker

Friends of Trinity River, Chair

California Trout, Inc., Advisor

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 

415 519 4810 cell

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org

http://www.fotr.org

http://www.caltrout.org

 <http://www.fotr.org>  

 

 

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