04-05-2004, 06:36 PM
PORTLAND, OR--A federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to scrap its methods designed to help Columbia River Basin salmon populations, heeding conservationists' claims that endangered fish were being hindered by hydroelectric dams.
The ruling opens the possibility of stepped-up government intervention to meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. The ruling is a setback for the Bush administration, which is opposed to actions that compromise hydroelectric output at Columbia Basin dams. The White House must now devise a salmon recovery strategy that meets the court's standards. Blain Rethmeier, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, says attorneys in the case haven't decided whether to appeal.
Twelve populations of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Many other stocks have already been driven to extinction after decades of intense fishing and habitat destruction from logging, mining, cattle grazing and dam-building.
The government issued its blueprint for recovery in December 2000, after state and federal agencies spent five years evaluating breaching. The agencies had focused on four runs of salmon and steelhead that must surmount eight dams to reach spawning grounds on the Snake River in Idaho.
In deciding against breaching, federal officials, with White House support, instead promoted habitat restoration, improvement of hatcheries and adjustments to fish-passage devices at dams.
But Judge James A. Redden's ruling says the fisheries service failed to meet the legal standard to show that protective actions would be "reasonably certain" to occur and make up for the harmful effects of dams.
Redden has scheduled a hearing for May 16 to decide what becomes of the current management plan while the fisheries service works on a new one.
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The ruling opens the possibility of stepped-up government intervention to meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. The ruling is a setback for the Bush administration, which is opposed to actions that compromise hydroelectric output at Columbia Basin dams. The White House must now devise a salmon recovery strategy that meets the court's standards. Blain Rethmeier, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, says attorneys in the case haven't decided whether to appeal.
Twelve populations of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Many other stocks have already been driven to extinction after decades of intense fishing and habitat destruction from logging, mining, cattle grazing and dam-building.
The government issued its blueprint for recovery in December 2000, after state and federal agencies spent five years evaluating breaching. The agencies had focused on four runs of salmon and steelhead that must surmount eight dams to reach spawning grounds on the Snake River in Idaho.
In deciding against breaching, federal officials, with White House support, instead promoted habitat restoration, improvement of hatcheries and adjustments to fish-passage devices at dams.
But Judge James A. Redden's ruling says the fisheries service failed to meet the legal standard to show that protective actions would be "reasonably certain" to occur and make up for the harmful effects of dams.
Redden has scheduled a hearing for May 16 to decide what becomes of the current management plan while the fisheries service works on a new one.
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