Urge your Rep. to Sign the '08 Salmon Letter

Please contact your Representative today - urge him/her to sign the "2008 Congressional Salmon Letter"! As you may recall, the Administration recently released its "new" salmon plan for Columbia and Snake River salmon. Still in draft form, the plan has already been heavily criticized as inadequate, unscientific, and very likely illegal.

Now several members of Congress are getting involved. Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Thomas Petri (R-WI) are circulating a sign-on letter in the House of Representatives, urging NOAA Fisheries to strengthen and improve its salmon plan so that it allows for real recovery of these remarkable fish. Salmon, fishing, and taxpayer advocates are working hard to make sure that House members are hearing from their constituents.

Please help us send a message to your Representative urging them to sign the '2008 Congressional Salmon Letter' today!

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Please join the Blumenauer-Petri 2008 Salmon Letter today!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing you to encourage you to support sound science and economics by signing Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Thomas Petri's letter to NOAA-Fisheries concerning the agency's recently-released salmon plan for the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

Wild salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest are a valuable economic and cultural resource that support thousands of good jobs and world-renowned fishing across the Pacific coast and inland to Idaho. For centuries, salmon has provided the Northwest Treaty tribes and people of our nation with a delicious, nutritious food. And, as a keystone species, salmon is a critical indicator of the health of our watersheds and our ecosystems.

Today, however, the salmon and steelhead of the Columbia Basin are in serious trouble. Many of the important values that salmon represent - jobs, food, fishing, and ecological health - are also threatened and in precipitous decline. In order to protect and restore this important resource, I ask for your leadership in Congress.

Over the past 25 years, the federal government has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on ineffective, costly salmon plans for the Columbia and Snake Rivers. These plans so far have consistently ignored the best available scientific and economic information. They have also been repeatedly rejected in federal court as inadequate and illegal. As a result, these expensive efforts have failed to recover endangered salmon and steelhead. In fact, the condition of salmon stocks continues to worsen.

Last year, for example, just four individual Snake River sockeye salmon survived to return to their spawning gravels in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho. Today, all Snake River salmon and steelhead are in danger of extinction. Across the entire Columbia Basin, the number of officially listed stocks under the Endangered Species Act has grown to thirteen.

Last fall, under court order, NOAA-Fisheries released its latest plan for Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead. Unfortunately, this "new" plan repeats many of the expensive, ineffective approaches of the past. In certain instances, this new plan actually weakens provisions found in earlier illegal plans. The "new" plan also fails to adequately address the impacts of climate change on salmon recovery. Further, it ignores the findings of hundreds of scientists that the removal of the four lower Snake River dams must be a cornerstone of any truly effective plan. A final version is expected to be delivered by the Administration to federal court on March 18.

Before the final version is released, Congress has an opportunity to provide important input to the federal agencies. The 2008 Blumenauer-Petri salmon letter can send a strong message to the Administration that another costly and ineffective salmon plan will be unacceptable to Congress and the people of the Nation. The final plan should protect and restore wild salmon to abundant, healthy, and fishable populations. But it will only do so if it is guided by the best available scientific and economic information. Please support a sensible and successful approach to Pacific Northwest salmon recovery by adding your name to the 2008 Blumenauer-Petri salmon letter.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
January 17, 2008


Background Information

Here is a recent article on the feds' "new" salmon plan:
Federal judge critical of salmon plans in the Seattle PI. December 11, 2008.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- The federal judge overseeing efforts to balance salmon against dams in the Columbia Basin has told federal dam operators their latest effort does not appear to be any better than two previous failed plans, and he will take over the process rather than send it back to them a third time.

U.S. District Judge James Redden wrote parties in the long-running case to come to court Wednesday prepared to answer tough questions, such as whether the plans for running dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers so they don't harm salmon were based on the best available science, a demand of the Endangered Species Act.

The judge wrote that the plan appears to rely heavily on $1.5 billion worth of habitat improvement projects, hatchery reforms, predator control and dam modifications, with no assurance Congress will pay for them or that they will help salmon.

On the upper Snake River in Idaho, the federal agencies don't appear willing to consider significant change to the status quo of running the dams, the judge added.

Redden said he may appoint a panel of experts to independently evaluate the biological analysis of the dam operations plan, known as a biological opinion, in addition to the evaluation done by NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency in charge of salmon recovery.

The agencies that operate 24 federal hydroelectric dams and irrigation projects in Oregon, Washington and Idaho have acknowledged that the dams would lead to salmon extinction without mitigation.

As required by the Endangered Species Act, they offered $1.5 billion worth of projects to make up for them.

The projects include habitat improvements, hatchery reforms, predator control and modifications to some dams so that young salmon slide over them while migrating to the ocean, rather than having to navigate spillways -- but with no significant change in how much water would be going through turbines.

NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency in charge of salmon recovery, has found that the plan will lead to salmon recovery.

But the state of Oregon, Indian tribes, and conservation groups have raised serious doubts.

The plan was developed by the Bonneville Power Administration, which sells the power produced by the dams, the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operate the dams.

NOAA Fisheries spokesman Brian Gorman characterized the letter as a way to be sure all parties are prepared for the issues that will be addressed in the Wednesday hearing, rather than a warning.

Earthjustice attorney Steve Mashuda, who represents the conservation groups that brought the lawsuit, agreed the judge wants answers to issues that remain in doubt.

"There is nothing new in this plan, certainly not enough to see these stocks recover," Mashuda said.

The judge noted that if he vacates the biological opinion, dam operators could be liable for illegally killing threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead, known as a "taking" under the Endangered Species Act.

Redden also reminded the parties that he wants to see an analysis of removing four dams on the lower Snake River, a last-chance option adamantly opposed by the Bush administration that was not included in the current plan.