I received this from Buzz Ramsey today.



Subject: Scientists Urge Bush to Scrap Salmon Plan



Scientists Urge Bush to Scrap Salmon Plan

WASHINGTON, DC, November 24, 2004 (ENS) – The Bush administration’s revisions to the federal salmon plan for the Columbia and Snake Rivers is "scientifically indefensible" and further undermines an already inadequate effort to save the icon of the Pacific Northwest, according to a letter sent to the White House Tuesday by 250 scientists.

The letter signers criticized the plan for breaking with longstanding scientific views and evidence by claiming that Columbia and Snake river dams do not jeopardize federally protected salmon and steelhead.

The signers include fishery biologists, ecologists, hydrologists and other salmon or fishery-related experts from 37 states across the country, including more than 160 from Pacific salmon states.

The salmon plan has long been the source of controversy and litigation as policymakers, federal officials and interested parties wrestle with how to protect and restore wild Pacific salmon.

The plea by the scientists comes a week before the new plan is expected to be finalized.

The Bush administration was forced to rewrite the plan in response to a court order issued in May 2003 by U.S. District Court Judge James Redden, who ruled the plan violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) because there was no certainty the recommended actions would be carried out.

Thirteen different salmon and steelhead populations listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA live in waters impacted by the 14 federal dams on the Columbia River Basin.

A key part of this latest proposal is the decision to allow NOAA Fisheries to ignore the impact of the dams’ existence and instead only evaluate the impacts of dam operations.

Both impacts were considered in the prior biological opinions that lay at the heart of the federal salmon plan.

Bush officials say the change in policy will not jeopardize future of the ESA-listed salmon and steelhead because technology can mitigate the impact of the dams.

They contend the plan balances the energy and water needs of the Northwest with the commitment to increasing healthy salmon stocks.

Critics say the Bush revisions rest on politics, not science.

"If this new plan is adopted in its current form, the recovery of wild Columbia Basin salmon will likely fall farther from our reach," said Jim Lichatowich, the former Chief of Fisheries Research and Assistant Chief of Fisheries for the state of Oregon. "A science-based plan cannot ignore the full impacts of hydroelectric dams on salmon, as this plan does."

Serious concerns about the draft plan were also raised by scientists in documents from the State of Oregon, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Alaska and Idaho Departments of Fish and Game and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. Tribal comments have prompted an independent scientific review of the plan by the Western Division of the American Fisheries Society.

"This salmon plan does a poor job of alleviating the symptoms of dam operations that harm juvenile and adult salmon - low river flows, high river temperatures, etc," said Roy Heberger, and Idaho fisheries biologist who retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2000 after 33 years of service

"Even worse," Heberger said, "it fails entirely to account for the root problem - the dams and reservoirs themselves. Instead the administration inexplicably treats the concrete as though it were part of the natural environment."

* * *