Endangered Sturgeon Topic Of Meeting

Plans to keep Kootenai River sturgeon from becoming extinct will be discussed at a public meeting Saturday in Bonners Ferry.

The gathering will begin at 1:30 p.m. in the senior citizens’ center. It was initiated by Sen. Tim Tucker, D-Porthill. He said Wednesday that the meeting is an effort to begin public debate about federal recovery efforts in the county that will be most affected by them.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the giant fish to the endangered species list last September. The agency is starting work on a recovery plan, a major part of which is sure to be a requirement for high springtime water releases from behind Libby Dam.

The change would mean a loss of hydropower profits, cause some farmland flooding and affect the level of Lake Koocanusa, the reservoir behind the dam.

Government biologists say the long-lived sturgeon stopped reproducing when the dam was completed 20 years ago. About 800 of them remain.

Among those present will be Idaho’s two members of the Northwest Power Planning Council, as well as representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Fish and Game Department, and Kootenai Tribe.

Some of the same agencies will be represented at another public session Saturday in Sandpoint, where the topic will be the winter level of Lake Pend Oreille. Kokanee salmon are the species of interest for that meeting, slated for 10 a.m. at the Sandpoint Community Center.