Tribes Threaten Action If Salmon Cash Withheld Council Recommends Waiting To See If Programs Effective

Tribal leaders are threatening legal action over the Northwest Power Planning Council’s recommendation to withhold cash for dozens of tribal salmon programs until they are proven effective.

Of the $57.6 million at stake, $48.2 million would have covered salmon programs run by tribes alone or by tribes in conjunction with other agencies.

In a letter to the council, the head of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said the tribes are upset that their programs seem to have been singled out for harsher review than programs proposed by the Bonneville Power Administration and other agencies.

The federal power marketer is the main source of revenue for salmon restoration. The agency considers council recommendations in allocating $127 million a year to the recovery campaign.

Council members and staff said the reason so much of the strict review falls on the tribes is that 67 percent of all the proposed programs are tribal.

In addition, tribal programs emphasize hatcheries and stream restoration, areas singled out for review by a panel of scientists convened to review council programs, they said.

“We didn’t pick on anybody,” council member Stan Grace of Montana said. “We set principles. Then we applied the principles. It’s how things fell out.”

Chairman John Etchart, also from Montana, said strict review is essential because the credibility of the entire salmon recovery process is at stake.

“Plainly what we are doing is hurtful, and that’s not something I feel good about,” he said. “But if you are going to fund projects based on science and some projects don’t meet the test, some people are going to feel hurt.”

Don Sampson, chairman of the board of trustees of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, said the council has cut some of the most effective programs, including a tribal effort that has returned 2,300 salmon and steelhead to the Umatilla River.

Among the projects on hold is construction of a $2.2 million satellite hatchery on that river.