Judge James Redden
A federal judge in Portland is preparing to decide whether the government is doing enough to save Columbia River salmon.
Judge James Redden held a hearing on Monday that is likely to be the last before he rules for a third time on government plans to manage Columbia River dams to save fish species protected by the Endangered Species Act – he has rejected such plans twice before.
Monday’s hearing dealt with the Obama administration’s first stab at the issue. Tweaking a plan left over from the Bush administration, the national fisheries agency called for what it termed “rapid response actions” that would be handy if fish runs fall below expectations. Redden has questioned why those so-called “on-the-shelf” plans wouldn’t be implemented now.
Challenging the river plans are environmentalists, the state of Oregon and the Nez Perce tribe, who say the Obama administration’s plan is mostly the same as the previous proposals.
No single dam kills more than a small percentage of fish, but the cumulative toll is significant. Most of the dead are juveniles making their spring migration to the ocean.
The biggest source of tension could be the question of breaching of four dams on the Lower Snake River in Washington state – the Obama administration’s plan acknowledges the idea as a last resort. (AP)
