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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Group Warns Steelhead Will Become Endangered

Associated Press

A sportsmen’s group says a recent report from the Idaho Fish and Game Department shows Idaho’s wild steelhead are headed for the same trend as endangered salmon.

Idaho Steelhead and Salmon Unlimited said in a news release that a Fish and Game report on 36 steelhead-producing streams in the Snake, Clearwater and Salmon river drainages showed a 44 percent decrease in wild juvenile steelhead since 1990.

In 1990, almost 1 million wild steelhead migrated out of Lower Granite Dam below Lewiston.

In 1996, Fish and Game estimates only 567,147 will migrate out.

“This is the same trend we saw with chinook salmon starting 20 years ago,” said Mitch Sanchotena, executive coordinator for the organization. “Federal dams in Oregon and Washington destroyed our salmon fishing and now they are destroying our steelhead fishing.”

Wild steelhead are an important part of Idaho’s steelhead fishing. It’s estimated that 25,000 people fish for steelhead each year, generating at least $45 million in revenue.

Lane Hansen, president of Idaho Steelhead and Salmon Unlimited, said the fish resource depends on hatchery steelhead, but that depends on the genes in wild fish. “Without them, we can’t keep producing a hatchery steelhead that will migrate 1,900 miles to the ocean and back,” he said.

The Fish and Game Department’s research shows a steady decline of wild steelhead smolts leaving Idaho throughout the 1990s.

The department also expects a decline in wild steelhead production in 1997 and 1998, based on recent counts of returning adults, spawning counts in 1994-95 and snorkel counts last summer.

Sanchotena said the Clinton administration needs to do a lot more for Idaho steelhead at federal downstream dams, the sooner the better.