Batt Unveils New Policy On Salmon

Idaho is about to get an official new salmon policy.

It will be as different from the old one as a chinook is from a shellfish.

It will reject the idea of Snake River drawdowns, which were championed by former Gov. Cecil Andrus. It also will clash with the opinions of most, if not all, of the state’s own fisheries biologists.

Replacing the drawdowns would be an emphasis on barging fish; a provision for some spilled water to help get salmon past the dams; and an insistence on a steady summertime water supply at Dworshak Reservoir.

Idaho Gov. Phil Batt last week downplayed the difference between his approach to salmon recovery and that of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

“We’re not as far apart as it might seem, and the gap is constantly narrowing,” Batt said.

Fish and Game is doing the best it can “under the circumstances,” said department director Jerry Conley. The most pressing issue, he said, is finding the best way to help this year’s migration of young salmon, which has already begun.

The governor’s ideas on ways to help the 1995 migration were released Friday by the two men he appointed to the Northwest Power Planning Council.

As for a long-term state policy, Conley would only say: “We’re practical enough to know that a drawdown right now isn’t going to take place.”

Recovery of endangered Snake River salmon is up to the federal government.

But Idaho’s opinion counts. The state has two new Batt-appointed members to the Northwest Power Planning Council, which oversees federal hydropower operations. And it has the option of suing the National Marine Fisheries Service if it is unhappy with that agency’s salmon recovery plan.

Under Andrus, Idaho Fish and Game already sued once. The fisheries service responded by saying it would consider drawdowns in 1999 if other tactics failed to boost the salmon runs.

If Idaho isn’t satisfied with that response, it must sue again.

It’s hard to imagine that happening.

Batt, a Republican who replaced Democrat Andrus in January, has rejected drawdowns from the start.

“We’re saying drawdown is out because it’s divisive in the state,” said Mike Field, one of Batt’s appointees to the Northwest Power Planning Council. “We need a strategy that will bring the region together. If fish are fighting with the region, they’ll lose.”

Drawdowns are dramatic drops in the lower Snake River reservoirs. They would speed up the salmon’s trip to the ocean, theoretically increasing the number of adult salmon that return to spawn.

Drawdowns would also interrupt barge traffic, hydropower production and river recreation. That’s why Batt prefers that the federal government forget them, and continue barging many salmon around the dams.

To help fish that remain in the river, he’s willing to have some water sent over spillways. “Spilling” means lost hydropower, but keeps fish away from deadly hydropower turbines.

Batt also wants to:

Limit the amount of southern Idaho irrigation water that could be used to flush salmon downstream. Batt’s “cap” on those releases happens to match what the National Marine Fisheries Service is seeking.

Prevent huge water fluctuations in Dworshak Reservoir. Dworshak, a boaters’ playground on the North Fork of the Clearwater River, has become a prime source of water to flush salmon downstream.

Field said he doesn’t expect everyone to buy into the state’s new salmon policy, but that everyone’s opinion is being heard.

Environmentalists, who support drawdowns, have been given only token involvement in discussions so far, said Charles Ray of Idaho Rivers United.

Ray thinks biologists are being ignored, too.

“It’s really unfortunate that Fish and Game is being forced to knuckle under to politics instead of advocating good science,” Ray said.

The view is different among business people in Idaho’s inland seaport.

Dan Schenkein, executive director of the Lewiston Chamber of Commerce, described Batt’s approach as better from “a recreation, energy and transportation standpoint, and to some extent from a salmon recovery standpoint …

“Andrus pushed his plan without universal scientific consensus that that would be the best way to recover the salmon run.”

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