Agency Proposal On Steelhead Goes Public Tuesday Snake River Sockeye And Chinook Have Declined To Nearly Extinction

Area residents next week will have the opportunity to tell National Marine Fisheries Service officials what they think of the agency’s proposal to put Idaho steelhead on the endangered species list.

The agency will gather comments during a public hearing Tuesday.

Leaders of Idaho Rivers United, a 1,500-member salmon and steelhead advocacy group, reluctantly support the listing.

That’s because the Snake River steelhead and its relatives, the Snake River Sockeye and Chinook, have declined nearly to extinction.

Scientists know federal dams kill large numbers of juvenile salmon and steelhead each year as the fish migrate from Idaho spawning streams to the Pacific, despite 20 years of collecting juvenile fish at the top of the 350-mile slack water dams and barging them downstream.

An independent panel of fish scientists said earlier this year that to survive, the fish need the faster current a more natural river system would provide.

“The back-to-back reservoirs must be turned back into rivers,” Idaho Rivers United’s Salmon and Steelhead Project Coordinator Charlie Ray wrote in the group’s comment to the fisheries service. “The pseudo-scientific charade of barging must be halted and the fish allowed to migrate in restored rivers.”

Ray said that if steelhead are listed, the group could sue to force the federal government to take actions that recover the fish.

A recent economic study indicates steelhead fishing is a 2,700-job, $90 million-per-year business in Idaho.

Ray encouraged those who care about salmon and steelhead to testify at Tuesday’s hearing to advocate bypassing the four Washington dams to provide migrating fish with adequate current.

“I encourage them to say to the National Marine Fisheries Service, do what the fish need,” Ray said. “Turn the river back into a river.”

Gov. Phil Batt and Fish and Game Commission Chairman Richard Meiers oppose listing steelhead.

Batt said listing wouldn’t recover the fish and would hurt Idaho’s economy. Meiers said listing would add an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.

Several politicians this year said they would consider supporting a federal audit that examines whether the dams are an economic asset or a liability .

John Carr is executive director of the Direct Service Industries. The group represents six aluminum companies that buy electricity produced by the Lower Snake River dams.

Carr said the group hasn’t taken a position on steelhead listing.

Carr said now is the right time to debate whether the government should retire the dams or continue barging migrating fish around them, spilling fish over them and trying to build better fish bypasses on them.