Clinton Shunning Nw Salmon, Say Groups

The Clinton administration is failing to make good on its promise to protect Northwest salmon, conservation and fishing groups said Thursday.

“We’re sounding the alarm that salmon are on their way to extinction, thanks to the federal government’s seriously inadequate salmon recovery efforts,” said Lorraine Bodi, co-director of American Rivers’ Northwest office in Seattle.

American Rivers and the Save Our Salmon Coalition issued a report highly critical of government efforts to transport the fish around hydropower dams in barges and trucks in the five years since Northwest salmon were declared endangered in 1992. They maintain the only way to save the fish is to alter operations at the dams, spilling water over the dams and increasing water flow to speed travel to the ocean - a costly proposition opposed by many commercial users of the rivers.

Clinton administration officials defended their efforts, saying many factors - from overfishing and predation to streamside habitat destruction and ocean conditions - have contributed to the salmon’s decline.