Scientists Blast Feds’ Plan To Barge More Fish But Panel Endorses Batt’s ‘Spread-The-Risk’ Approach

A scientific panel charged with separating fact from fiction in the contentious debate over saving Northwest salmon is blasting the federal proposal to continue barging most young fish around dams.

The scientists flatly rejected the recommendation of the Army Corps of Engineers and Bonneville Power Administration to increase barging.

And they said trucking fish around the dams should be stopped immediately. That practice is driven by economics, not biology, they declared.

Reinforcing the arguments of barging critics, the scientists said fish managers must continue the “spread-the-risk” approach advocated by Idaho Gov. Phil Batt that moves some fish in barges but leaves others in the river to be moved downstream on increased flows.

In a letter sent Thursday to Clinton administration officials, Batt reaffirmed his support, urging the federal government to work with the states and tribes to quantify the policy “and make in-season adjustments consistent with an adaptive management philosophy.”

The report strikes at the heart of a central issue in the long process of trying to restore the dwindling Columbia and Snake river runs.

“Our conclusions weren’t necessarily what they expected,” said Richard Williams, chairman of the 11-member scientific panel.

As the report was being prepared, one of the scientists on the panel, University of Montana ecology Professor Jack Stanford, resigned, citing the failure of federal agencies to grapple with the real causes of salmon decline.

The panel had previously said that the key to restoring the runs was returning the reservoir-ridden Snake and Columbia rivers to a more natural state.

Stanford dismissed a recent study claiming that transported fish were more likely to survive to adulthood than fish left in the river.

“Increased survival associated with barging … is trivial when weighed against the increased survival that is needed to reverse the steep, inexorable decline in salmon and steelhead returns to the Columbia River,” Stanford wrote in his letter of resignation.

Congress called for the panel two years ago to review Northwest salmon recovery programs, which have cost $3 billion during the past 15 years and failed to halt the salmon decline.