Press release: Fisheries Service decision not to appeal coho de-listing will bring together federal and regional recovery efforts

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Contact: Larry Cassidy, Council chairman
Related link: Council report - Issues surround ruling to remove coho salmon from ESA listing

November 9, 2001

The chairman of the Northwest Power Planning Council reacted favorably today to an announcement by the National Marine Fisheries Service that it will increase its support for local efforts to develop salmon and steelhead recovery activities in the Columbia River Basin including the Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.

“Our fish and wildlife program is based on locally developed plans for the tributary watersheds, or subbasins, of the Columbia/Snake system, and I think I speak for the entire Council when I say I am excited by the prospects of working with the Fisheries Service to address the needs of all fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin, including threatened and endangered species,” Council Chairman Larry Cassidy of Vancouver, Washington, said. “Local input, and avoiding duplication, is the key to salmon and steelhead recovery.”

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Today in Seattle, D. Robert Lohn, regional director of the Fisheries Service, announced the agency would not appeal a recent federal court ruling that stripped threatened species status from Oregon coast coho salmon, which the Fisheries Service had defined to include both hatchery-bred and naturally spawning fish. Instead, Lohn said the Fisheries Service would continue existing protections for the more than 20 other Endangered Species Act-listed populations in the region that include hatchery-bred salmon while initiating a public review of its salmon hatchery policies. He said the agency also would increase its support for locally developed plans that are consistent with regional and federal goals, including the Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.

“Mr. Lohn said he intends to work with the Council in a collaborative process at the subbasin level to develop scientifically credible recovery actions that could be adopted in his agency’s plans and ours, and we are ready and eager to work with him,” Cassidy said. “By working closely together, I am optimistic we will benefit the fish and reduce or eliminate duplication of efforts and expense.”

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