Watch Out Endangered Species: Obama Sides With Bush on Northwest Salmon Plan

Snake River salmon travel farther and climb higher than any other salmon on Earth. Photo courtesy Save Our Wild Salmon

When President Obama took office, he rightly stated that in a speech before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “For more than three decades, the Endangered Species Act has successfully protected our nation’s most threatened wildlife, and we should be looking for ways to improve it — not weaken it.” Hopes ran high amongst conservation groups.

But today, the Obama administration seems to have forgotten their vow and have announced that they will side with a Bush-era federal plan for endangered wild salmon on the Columbia and Snake Rivers in the Pacific Northwest — a move that ignored the impacts of climate change and will weaken protections standards for endangered species across America.

“The administration has chosen to wear blinders regarding the impacts of climate change on

Snake River salmon high-elevation spawning habitat. © Matt Leidecker

salmon,” said John Kostyack, the executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Conservation and Global Warming program. “The science tells us that our rivers and lakes are warming. This administration had an opportunity to confront this problem and to protect salmon from the impacts from climate change.  Instead it elected to ignore the impacts and defend a discredited strategy written by the previous administration.”

Just one month after oil began spilling into the Gulf of Mexico — crushing wildlife and fishing communities — and on the eve of Endangered Species Day, this decision seems even more ironic and devastating.

And after vowing to restore scientific integrity and strengthen the ESA, not weaken it, it is mind-bloggling that the Obama administration would choose to adopt the failed analysis and strategies previously put into place under Bush’s reign.

“We believed the President when he said he would follow science and strengthen the ESA, but the administration has seemingly allowed regional political pressure to trump science and law,” said Brock Evans, President of the Endangered Species Coalition. “Tomorrow is Endangered Species Day. We should be celebrating and working to protect America’s endangered species, but instead, for Columbia Basin salmon, we’re mourning. Even so, make no mistake — we’re not done fighting to save species like wild salmon. They are simply irreplaceable.”

What’s next? Conservation groups will assess the proposed briefing schedule set forth by the federal agencies. And what can you do until then? Fight! You can voice your frustration towards an administration by taking action here and stay up to date on the issue at www.wildsalmon.org.