Photo © Matt Leidecker
In 1992, a lone Snake River sockeye battled his way to Redfish Lake in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. His name was Lonesome Larry and he was the only one that made it home that year. Snake River sockeye swim nearly 1,000 miles inland and climb more than 6,500 feet in elevation, battle a gauntlet of eight hydroelectric dams and predator-filled reservoirs to reach the biggest, highest, wildest, best-protected spawning habitat left in the lower 48 (above). Snake River salmon swim farther and climb higher than any salmon on Earth. They are also the most endangered salmon in the Columbia-Snake Basin.
Lonesome Larry’s epic journey nearly two decades ago has sparked a battle that still rages on.
After more than 15 years in court, federal agencies have continued to put politics before science, circumventing the Endangered Species Act and pushing Columbia-Snake River salmon to the brink of extinction and hurting salmon communities across the Pacific Coast.
Last month, U.S. District Court Judge James Redden in Portland, Ore. gave them one last chance to fix their Columbia-Snake Salmon Plan and follow the science and the law. He said in his letter that the federal agencies have “an obligation under the Endangered Species Act to rely on the best available science.” Judge Redden has ruled two prior plans illegal and has given the Obama administration more than a year to fix a failed Bush administration plan.
Instead of overhauling the Bush plan, the Obama administration made a few changes and is proposing no major changes in the operation of dams on the rivers, long blamed for killing the threatened and endangered fish. The agencies have proposed to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on new habitat improvements up and down the rivers by way of an “adaptive management implementation plan (AMIP)” that includes close monitoring of salmon stocks and quick, serious measures to intervene if the plan isn’t working.
But regional fisheries scientists say the AMIP won’t do enough to save endangered fish in basin.
The Western Division of the American Fisheries Society (WDAFS) released a scientific review of the Obama administration’s proposed additions to the federal salmon plan for the Columbia-Snake River Basin. WDAFS has concluded that the AMIP is not aggressive, rigorous, or specific enough to help bolster imperiled runs of wild salmon and steelhead.
“With this review, the independent scientists of the American Fisheries Society have shed some much-needed light on a topic that has already generated quite a bit of heat,” said Jim Martin, former chief of fisheries for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a press release. “These experts looked at the AMIP and asked two all-important questions: does it do enough to help struggling salmon, and does it utilize the best science? Unfortunately, the answer to both questions appears to be no.“
With another extension underway, salmon advocates are hoping that the Obama administration will take its final review seriously. After decades of litigation and federal failure, will it be enough?
Nicole Cordan of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition said, “Between WDAFS’s review and last week’s court decision, the Obama Administration now has one last chance to hit the reset button on salmon; we hope they’ll take this opportunity to truly fix their plan, and do so in a transparent, open way, using sound science that incorporates the work of WDAFS and other federal salmon biologists such as the experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”
Lonesome Larry’s legacy is still remembered today by groups fighting to save Pacific salmon for present and future generations. Salmon, if nothing else, are survivors. If we give them a river, they will return. The Obama administration has the opportunity to do just that.
