Racicot To Yank State From Salmon Panel Montana Governor Says Fisheries Service Ignores Upstream Interests In Recovery Efforts

Montana Gov. Marc Racicot said Thursday the state is withdrawing from an executive committee on salmon recovery in the Columbia River basin because the National Marine Fisheries Service ignores upstream interests.

Racicot said the state instead would work with the Northwest Power Planning Council, which he called “the region’s only true forum for integrating basinwide resource management needs.” He urged other states and tribal leaders in the Northwest to join him.

Racicot made the comments in a letter to William Stelle, regional director of the fisheries agency, who heads the committee. He was sharply critical of the federal agency’s role.

Telephone calls to the agency’s Seattle office seeking comment on Racicot’s letter were not immediately returned.

Racicot said that while the NMFS “claims to recognize and embrace the concept of ‘ecosystem management,’ the reality is that in the NMFS process there is little discussion of what results in the most good and the least harm to all elements of the Columbia’s ecosystem.”

Montana is the largest contributor of storage water in the basin, and the demands for drawdowns from its storage reservoirs to help flush salmon downstream have increased steadily, Racicot said.

But the sharp drawdowns have severely impacted the endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon and the bull trout, which is expected to be listed soon, as well as other declining fish populations.

“Nonetheless, implementors of the Endangered Species Act consistently refuse to give meaningful consideration to Montana’s proposals for salmon flow operations that are not so damaging to our biological resources,” Racicot said.

By contrast, he said, the power council did consider Montana’s situation and the other species that justified concern, and arrived at release schedules for Montana dams that considered the needs of other species in Montana as well as downstream salmon recovery.

“While the Northwest Power Act and the council may not be perfect, I believe they continue to provide the most appropriate forum to resolve regional resource management issues,” Racicot said.

Racicot said he is convinced that Montana’s participation in the NMFS process is being used to mask the failure of NMFS operations to provide broad ecosystem protection.

Racicot said he also believes that “institutional defects” in the Fisheries Service “will prevent Montana’s interests from being fairly heard.”

‘The Columbia River Basin needs a forum that has a clear mandate for basin-wide ecosystem management,” he said.

He repeated his invitation for others to join Montana in using the power council as an alternative, adding: “In the meantime, Montana will no longer participate in a process that can only work to our detriment.”