Tribes Ask Court for Salmon Migration Protection

A coalition of conservationists, sport and commercial fishers, and businesses finds support from Columbia River treaty tribes for its efforts to protect, ensure the survival of and aid in the recovery of migrating salmon.

With 2005 shaping up as a historically poor water year, three Columbia River treaty tribes urged a federal judge to establish specific protections to ensure that Columbia River salmon are not left vulnerable to an inadequate federal salmon plan.

The tribes filed two documents supporting a collective plaintiffs motion for injunctive relief. The plaintiffs, a coalition of conservationists, sport and commercial fishers, and businesses, filed their motion for preliminary injunction that asks for two specific actions to ensure survival and recovery of salmon. First, federal agencies must adjust river flows, including limited drawdowns of two reservoirs, to move juvenile salmon downriver faster. Second, they must direct a portion of the river's flow over the dam spillways - the safest way for the juvenile salmon to get downstream and avoid the hydroelectric turbines.

Tribal scientists estimate these actions will yield a 10% faster downriver travel time and up to a 50% survival increase over and above what would be expected with the Bush Administration's 2004 salmon plan. Federal, state and tribal scientists have concluded that in-river migration, with flow augmentation and spill at all dams, is a much safer and more reliable way for salmon to reach the ocean than trucking and barging methods.

"The best hope for juvenile salmon this summer is to place them in an environment that most closely mimics the natural conditions that juvenile salmon have thrived under in the past," said Jay Minthorn, chairman of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

The injunction request, filed on March 21, 2005, is part of a larger legal challenge to the 2004 federal salmon plan. A lawsuit was filed in February in a federal court in Portland, Oregon by a coalition of fishing and conservation groups and the State of Oregon. The tribes are active in that court proceeding as amicus curiae.

Should the Bush Administration's salmon plan be implemented, ratepayers and taxpayers will bear a $6 billion dollar burden over the next ten years with little or no biological benefit. The new federal plan, which the tribes argue has directly ignored earlier court instructions, allows salmon to continue to decline, abandons the idea that the species must be recovered, and treats the dams like they are an immutable part of the river environment.

"Today, we put some biologically sound and responsible actions on the table," said Olney Patt, Jr., executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. "The salmon can't wait for the theoretical, untested or unfunded - they need practical actions."

Adding to the urgency of these measures is the current water forecast. Weather services predict this will be the third lowest runoff year on record. In 2001, the Columbia Basin experienced its second worst water year. That year federal agencies sacrificed fish protections in favor of power production causing salmon and steelhead to suffer the lowest in-river survival rates - as low as 1% in the case of Snake River fall Chinook- on record.

"Ultimately our goal is to restore healthy, harvestable salmon runs for the benefit of the entire Pacific Northwest. This injunction will protect salmon and hopefully provide the incentive for the federal government to comply with the Endangered Species Act," said Minthorn.

The March 21st filings - a memorandum in support of the plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction and a declaration by Frederick Olney, a former biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service - are posted below as Adobe PDF files or can be viewed at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish website. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, and the Yakama Nation made the filings.

About CRITFC: The Portland-based Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission provides technical support and coordination for fishery-management policies of the Columbia River Basin's four treaty tribes: the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Yakama Nation and the Nez Perce Tribe. Please visit CRITFC's website to learn more about the organization and its member tribes.

Motion for Preliminary Injunction.pdf

Declaration by F. Olney.pdf