Gorton Wants Salmon In Hands Of Scientists Senate Panel Approves Amendment To Take Recovery Decisions Away From Tribes, Regional Managers

The Senate Appropriations committee has voted to put decisions on Northwest salmon restoration in the hands of a panel of scientists.

Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., sponsored the amendment that would transfer responsibility for salmon recovery projects from tribal experts and regional managers for government fish and wildlife agencies.

Panel members would be picked by the National Academy of Sciences.

Supporters of the bill approved on Tuesday and now awaiting final Senate action, claim present efforts to restore declining fish runs are marked by conflicts of interest and focused more on preserving jobs than salmon.

Gorton maintained that 75 percent of the approved salmon restoration projects were proposed by people or agencies involved in the selection process. At the same time, he said 78 percent of the projects proposed by outsiders were rejected.

“It’s like having the Defense Department ask Boeing to decide which brand of aircraft the military will use,” Gorton told The Oregonian. “The conflict of interest raised more than a few eyebrows.”

Aide Heidi Kelly pointed out that every time an electric bill is paid, money is shelled out for salmon recovery and “we want to make sure the money is spent wisely.”

Wild salmon in the Columbia Basin have continued their slide toward extinction despite an expenditure of nearly a billion dollars by Northwest ratepayers over the past 15 years.

“Gorton’s amendment is a strong step in the right direction to solving some major problems that in my mind look fraudulent,” said Bill Bakke, founder of the Native Fish Society, an environmental advocacy group in Portland.

“While the dollars have been there, the funding hasn’t been used to solve problems in the basin,” Bakke said.

For example, he said, the selection committee allocated $42 million to hatchery projects and only $1.3 million to natural production programs, despite studies showing hatchery fish contribute to the decline of wild salmon runs.

But Ted Strong, executive director of the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, denounced the scheme.

“It represents just another layer of scientific bureaucracy and completely second-guesses all the scientific expertise,” Strong said.

The four-state Northwest Power Planning Council makes the final decision on which projects Bonneville Power Administration ratepayer money will finance.

The council and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is charged with protecting endangered salmon, established a panel of scientists earlier this year to review recovery efforts.

And Council Chairman John Etchart of Montana said the concerns behind Gorton’s legislation are understandable.

“There’s been an appearance of a conflict of interest that’s of concern to the council and it’s of concern to the senators,” Etchart said, although he questioned the need for another scientific panel and wondered how it would be financed.