Federal and state approaches to salmon recovery at the millenium

Summary

“In this chapter, we describe the recent federal stance on restructuring the Columbia River federal hydroelectric system to aid salmonid recovery actions as outlined in the National Marine Fisheries Service’s 2000 Biological Opinion and related documents. We also place these documents and the actions they call for within the context of recent (2001) energy and water shortages, exacerbated by the region’s widespread drought conditions. We describe how these actions and approaches fail to incorporate key critical information related to salmonid life history and ecology, and therefore, why most upriver salmon and steelhead populations will remain at high risk of extinction in spite of a ‘new’ salmon recovery plan.”