Gotta love those riders - piggy-backing stuff like this on the back of innocent spending legislation. Please read and call your legislators TODAY. (reposted w/permission)
HELP PROTECT OUR NORTHWEST WAY OF LIFE!
“STOP THE RIDER!”
Urge your U.S. senators to safeguard recent court decisions
that move salmon and steelhead recovery forward.
Here in the Northwest, we know how vital salmon and steelhead are to our way of life. They create family-wage jobs, sustain cultures and communities, and contribute to the economic and ecological health of our region.
Anti-salmon forces in Congress are threatening to overturn recent court decisions that have been good for salmon and fishing communities. Senator Craig from Idaho is expected to try and attach a rider — a bad amendment — to a spending bill that would remove these hard-won protections, and may even overturn the court’s entire decision.
Please contact your senators today and urge them to defend this important victory for the Northwest!
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
In Washington, DC: (202) 224-3441
In Seattle: (206) 220-6400
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)
In Washington, DC: (202) 224-2621
In Seattle: (206) 553-5545
Tell your senators (you can call to leave a message with their receptionist):
Actively work to defeat a rider or any other attempt in Congress to overturn federal court decisions for salmon.
Support Judge Redden’s decision to require the federal government to develop an effective and legal salmon recovery plan;
Support Judge Redden’s decision to require spill at the dams this summer for migrating juvenile salmon;
We need the Senator's leadership to develop an effective, lasting recovery plan that restores salmon and strengthens our communities.
The court’s decision is vulnerable to attack as we speak; A rider may appear as soon as tomorrow: time is of the essence. Please call your senators today! Thanks so much!
Background:
Three weeks ago, a federal court in Portland, presided over by Judge James Redden, invalidated the Bush Administration’s biological opinion (salmon plan) for the Columbia and Snake Rivers. In doing so, it agreed with fishing businesses, fishing and conservation groups, and taxpayer advocates that the government’s plan failed to chart a course for real salmon and steelhead recovery, and could, in fact, allow for extinction of the Northwest’s wild salmon and steelhead. By overturning this profoundly flawed plan, the court has given salmon and salmon-based communities a new lease on life: Federal agencies now have a chance to go back to the drawing board and craft a plan that actually works for the entire Northwest and the salmon and steelhead that mean so much – economically, culturally, and ecologically – for our region.
However, the court’s decision is now vulnerable to attack in Congress. It has been reported in the press that Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) is planning to interfere with the judicial process by undermining the court’s decision through back-door legislative maneuvers (using something called a “rider”). With most populations of Columbia-Snake River salmon and steelhead on the brink of extinction, this is no time to play politics with our Northwest future. The court’s carefully-considered decision provides our region, including our senators, with a great opportunity to develop a salmon recovery plan that takes us in the right direction – toward harvestable, self-sustaining populations of wild salmon and steelhead, a thriving regional economy, and the Northwest way of life we all cherish.
For more information: Joseph Bogaard, Save Our Wild Salmon:
206-286-4455, x13
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