For more than 20 years, the
fate of 13 threatened and endangered salmon stocks in the Pacific
Northwest has been a contest between the status quo agenda of
politicians and power producers and a legacy of the Nixon era, the
Endangered Species Act.
A few months ago, many of us in
the press who have been following the salmon story predicted that
the Bush administration’s long awaited recovery plan would
end up as confetti in a judicial paper shredder. And so it has.
U.S. District Court Judge James Redden ruled three weeks ago that
the Bush plan violates federal law on four counts and amounts to a
“shameless assault on the Endangered Species Act.”
Judge
Redden’s mounting frustration was evident June 10 when he
convened warring stakeholders to his courtroom in Portland, Ore. A
no-nonsense man who seems keenly aware that the clock is ticking
toward extinction for salmon, Redden characterized the new Bush
plan as “an exercise in cynicism.” Then he delivered the bombshell
he’d held in reserve.
The courtroom was hushed with
suspense as he ordered the Bonneville Power Administration to
comply with salmon advocates’ request for heavy releases of
water from four Columbia Basin dams — three on the Snake
River and one on the Columbia. This “summer spill” had been urged
by fisheries zoologists to help juvenile salmon reach the sea.
Redden closed the session by characterizing the
controversy over salmon as one made sick by years of bitter battles
in federal courtrooms. After reminding everyone that Snake River
fall chinook are in serious peril, he threw down the gauntlet to
warring adversaries: “I want you to take advantage of this moment
to get together and start talking. It’s not an insoluble
problem…You’ve got an enormous responsibility here.
You’re the ones who can put it together.”
There, of
course, is the rub, since no real solution has ever been sought.
The proof is in declining fish counts. Over a period of 20 years,
three presidential administrations have spent $4.5 billion to bring
native salmon stocks ever closer to extinction. Look at the record:
- In 1994, Redden’s predecessor,
Judge Malcolm Marsh, issued an injunction against the Clinton
administration’s recovery plan because it protected
hydropower producers and other stakeholders at the expense of the
fish. - In 1997, a year-long
investigation by the Idaho Statesman found that the economics of
business as usual made no dollars and cents. Snake River dams
provide just 3 percent of the region’s hydropower, a gift to
wheat farmers and barge operators. In addition to that gift,
American taxpayers are forced to pay billions of dollars to fund
ineffective, politicized recovery plans for ever-dwindling salmon
stocks. - In July 2000, the Clinton
administration unveiled a new recovery plan that finessed the
subject of dam removal during a presidential election year. Once
again, Judge Redden ruled that the proposed political solution
violated the Endangered Species Act by ignoring humanity’s
impact on endangered species. - In
2003, Redden ordered the Bush administration to resubmit a plan
that complies with the Endangered Species Act. When the Bush plan
was unveiled in 2004, it drew scorn from a coalition of Indian
tribes, state agencies and conservation organizations, which asked
the court for an injunction to stop the plan. Redden
complied.
Now, the Bonneville Power
Administration estimates the “summer spill” will cost an estimated
$69 million in lost revenue. The agency and its allies, Oregon Sen.
Gordon Smith, R, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, R, and Idaho Gov. Dirk
Kempthorne, R, would have us believe that this is the price of
giving scientists a seat at the recovery table. Their solution to
the salmon crisis can be summed up in a single word: extinction. In
a move that could not be more blatant, Sen. Craig just introduced a
rider to an energy appropriations bill that would kill the agency
that counts salmon swimming through the Columbia and Snake rivers.
By their actions and failures, politicians, the
Bonneville power Administration and the National Marine Fisheries
Service have convinced the courts that they are unequal to the task
of enforcing the law without judicial coercion. Judge
Redden’s June 10 order cuts through the cynicism of
stakeholders and reaffirms the letter of the law as it was written.
Thanks to Judge Redden’s courage, we may have one
last chance to get this thing right, for us and for the fish.
Paul VanDevelder is a contributor to Writers on
the Range, a service of High Country News
(hcn.org). He is the author of Coyote Warrior: One Man,
Three Tribes and the Trial that Forged a Nation. He
writes in Corvallis, Oregon.
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