Fish Police Force Lands On Endangered List Power Council Assesses Spending On Fish, Wildlife With New Help From Scientific Advisory Group

A gun-toting, four-state police force intended to nab salmon poachers and habitat vandals may be history.

The Northwest Power Planning Council decided Wednesday to cut off funding for the police force at its meeting in Helena, where the council set priorities for its 1998 Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program.

The program is intended to make up for damage to salmon and other fish and wildlife caused by hydroelectric dams.

About $20 million has been spent by Bonneville Power Administration ratepayers on the police force since its inception in 1992. Its proponents asked for another $4 million for the force in the coming year.

Police force administrators still have the option of trying to change the council’s mind.

It won’t be easy. The council acted on the recommendation of an independent science advisory board that for the first time was used to evaluate salmon and wildlife protection programs in the basin.

The fish cops were just one of several programs that didn’t withstand that scrutiny.

More than $50 million in salmon spending was put on hold by the council Wednesday pending further review.

Other programs put on ice or slated for cutback include a costly squawfish elimination program and proposals to build more hatcheries. The council also adopted a recommendation by the advisory board that salmon research contracts be awarded by competitive bid.

The advisory board was created by legislation pushed through Congress last year by Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash.

Salmon spending has come under increasingly tough scrutiny after media reports, including a 1996 series of articles in The Spokesman-Review, that more than $3 billion has been spent to save the fish since 1980 with little result.

Council members approved about $94 million in additional salmon and wildlife protection spending in the coming year. The council has $127 million a year to spend for the fish and wildlife program.

Holding some of that money back pending further review is a first for the council, which in the past has approved most projects proposed by state agencies and tribes.

Many programs continued year after year with little or no independent review to determine whether they were effective. The law enforcement program is a case in point, some council members said.

“That was a pilot program that was supposed to be over in three years and we’re into the fifth year,” said John Brogoitti, vice chairman of the council and one of two members representing Oregon. “We had no control or idea about how the money was being spent.”

John Etchart, one of two representatives for Montana and chairman of the council, said he doesn’t want ratepayers stuck with costs that should borne by taxpayers.

The connection between the police force and fixing damage caused by dams is tenuous at best, council members agreed. The independent advisory board also found “little substantiation that illegal catches are a major problem for salmon survival.”

Since 1992, BPA ratepayers have paid for a full-time force of more than 35 officers, outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, including an $85,000 fixed-wing airplane with $392,339 in heat-seeking radar equipment; night-vision goggles at up to $5,011 a pair; $1,999 binoculars; infrared spotlights at $2,500 each; guns and body armor.

In 1995, the force spent $3.6 million, made 1,484 arrests, and tracked down 139 illegally caught salmon in four states. On their patrols, officers found few violations of fishery laws. The compliance rate topped 96 percent in some states.

If the force is eliminated, “there are bound to be layoffs,” said Rod Nichols, a spokesman with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. However, agencies would keep all of the equipment purchased for them by the BPA.

Nichols disputed the council’s claim that the force should be paid for by taxpayers instead of BPA ratepayers.

The police force is needed to keep the promise of making up for damage to fish and wildlife caused by construction of the hydropower system, Nichols said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: POWER COUNCIL The eight-member council is made up of two representatives from Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Montana charged with protecting salmon while assuring the Northwest an economical and efficient electric power supply.