Four Tribes Offer Plan For Salmon ‘Gravel-To-Gravel’ Proposal Would Require $325 Million

A “gravel-to-gravel” plan to rebuild mid-Columbia and Snake river salmon runs to commercially harvestable levels was proposed Thursday by leaders of four Indian nations.

Yakama, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Nez Perce representatives told the Northwest Power Planning Council their watershed-oriented plan, which could require $325 million in direct spending, would be the fastest way to restore salmon, sturgeon, lamprey eel and other migratory fish stocks.

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission draft proposal covers the Snake almost into southern Idaho and the Columbia between Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams.

It includes specific plans for 23 river basins ranging from the Methow and Okanogan in north central Washington state to the Deschutes in central Oregon and the Salmon across central Idaho.

“We have been advocating this approach for a long time. We call it ‘gravel-to-gravel management’ by an adaptive management process … which is really learning by doing,” Yakama chairman Jerry Meninick said.

“As Indian people who have lived in these areas over a very long period of time, we are able to recognize the landscape of mountains, rivers, plants and trees and the ability of nature to revitalize the creatures living in those areas if given a chance,” Meninick said, “but we are here today to say that the time to act is now.”

Commission executive director Ted Strong said the commission would seek to take over fish and wildlife restoration from the Bonneville Power Administration or at least share management with other agencies.

“The tribes are willing to take on the accountability for those fish and wildlife expenditures,” added John Platt, a special assistant to the commission president.

“The failure of existing regulatory mechanisms is not so much a failure of the structure but a failure to act,” said Umatilla chairman Donald Sampson.

Council members responded politely, but neither they nor the council staff would comment in detail because they had yet to examine the proposal.

Additional briefings were planned next week in Washington - Tuesday for senators, Wednesday for White House and Interior and Commerce department officials and Wednesday for representatives - Strong said.

Public comment is being solicited through August, and a final plan will be issued in September, he added.

Objectives of the plan include:

Halting salmon declines within seven years.

Building salmon returns above Bonneville Dam to four million fish in 25 years.

Restoring migratory fish runs to historic levels within 200 years.

Establishing lamprey needs within seven years.

Increasing tribal sturgeon catches to 3,300 fish within 25 years.