OUTDOORS: Settlement could curtail harvests
Bob Mottram; The News Tribune

Washington Trout - the organization that has threatened to sue Washington
state over salmon hatcheries - says its separate salmon-harvest lawsuit
against the federal government has ended in a negotiated settlement that
could curtail harvests on Puget Sound.

The lawsuit challenged a joint state-tribal plan for harvesting Puget Sound
chinook salmon.

The fish-conservation organization says the settlement calls for the
National Marine Fisheries Service to write a full-blown Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) by 2004 that analyzes the impacts of the Puget Sound Joint
Resource Management Plan (RMP) developed for chinook salmon by the
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Puget Sound treaty Indian
tribes. It says the settlement "opens the door for important changes in
salmon-harvest policies and practices."

The state and the tribes say they believe the plan they developed is
scientifically sound.

Washington Trout contends that the plan imposes too much risk for chinook
listed as "threatened" under the federal Endangered Species Act. It says the
impact statement that the Fisheries Service produces will contain a
"no-harvest" alternative among those to be considered.

The Endangered Species Act requires Fisheries Service approval of any
management plan that might affect listed salmon. Washington Trout filed its
lawsuit against the Fisheries Service in 2001, challenging its approval of
the RMP on grounds it had failed to produce an Environmental Impact
Statement or Biological Opinion concerning the plan. It contended that
federal law requires both documents.

The Fisheries Service agreed to postpone final approval of the RMP for a
year, until 2004, while it prepares an EIS and a Biological Opinion.

Tim Waters, spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said
his agency will assist the federal Fisheries Service "in any way they ask us
to in preparation of the EIS. We feel the management plans as written now
are scientifically sound, but we'll do everything we can to support the
expanded process."

Tony Meyer, spokesman for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, which
represents treaty tribes, said the joint plan "is conservative and
protective" of listed chinook.

"Analysis through the EIS process will clearly show that the plan
effectively provides for the rebuilding of the threatened chinook
populations," Meyer said.

Washington Trout said the Fisheries Service had "agreed to study a specific
list of alternatives to the RMP ... including no fishing at all. ... This
... could result in much more conservative fishing regulations in Puget
Sound."

The Fisheries Service had approved the RMP for a two-year trial, with final
approval scheduled for 2003. Instead, it will grant a temporary re-approval
for an additional year, and will not consider final approval until after
completion of the EIS. However, it agreed to produce a Biological Opinion
and an Environmental Assessment - which are less rigorous than an EIS - in
2003. Under terms of the settlement, Washington Trout said, the
Environmental Assessment also will include comparisons to other
harvest-management alternatives, including a no-fishing alternative.

"This has the potential of requiring changes to the harvest plan even before
the 2004 EIS is completed," the organization said.

Brian Gorman, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said
that, while the Fisheries Service would have to consider a no-harvest
alternative, "that doesn't mean we would have to embrace it. It would depend
on what direction the facts pointed us in and what the public response to
the draft EIS told us."

Gorman said his agency will hold a public hearing in Seattle on Aug. 22 to
solicit input about what alternatives the Fisheries Service should consider
in drafting the EIS.

Washington Trout recently gave the state 60-day notice that it plans to sue
to shut down 18 salmon hatcheries on Puget Sound whose operation it contends
negatively impacts listed wild chinook salmon.

Bob Mottram: 253-597-8640
bob.mottram@mail.tribnet.com