Fisheries Chief Backs Regional Salmon Panel

Federal officials support a regional panel to replace a federal panel charged with deciding how best to operate Columbia River dams for salmon recovery, a top fisheries official said.

“It is essential that some entity be able to make decisions,” William Stelle, regional director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said at a public meeting. “Gridlock is not an option.”

The announcement is the strongest public support yet that federal officials have shown for a bid by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber to create a new regional panel made up of Northwest states and Indian tribes.

The effort to reach consensus on how to operate federal dams without hurting fish has been marked by conflict and deep disagreement.

Both Montana and four Indian tribes with treaty rights to Columbia fish have withdrawn from the process, charging that their concerns were not being taken seriously.

Stelle told those remaining in the federal-state effort that fisheries service lawyers are drafting a proposed legal structure for the new forum. The new forum, Stelle said, could replace a federal panel that has grappled for two years over how to best run the hydrosystem.

Federal, state and tribal officials will meet Monday and Wednesday in Portland to develop a new decision-making structure.