Conserving, protecting, and restoring Idaho's coldwater fisheries and watersheds.

Nov 21
On the Eve of the Judge Redden Hearing The saga of Snake River wild Chinook salmon continues on November 23rd in the Oregon Federal District Court where Judge James Redden will hear arguments whether to approve or throw out the latest Federal government plan for managing the Federal hydropower dams. Earlier this decade public officials were ready to declare victory with the improved returns of wild Chinook salmon to the Snake River. In recent years the attention is on the big returns of sockeye to the Stanley Basin as well as the 2009 Snake River steelhead fishery. Less is said about the wild Chinook in recent years. Why is that? Maybe because the run has been in decline for the past five years? A string of productive years starting in the late 1990s has been matched with a streak of poor years. The chart above shows the number of wild chinook returning past the uppermost dam (Lower Granite since 1975) on their way to spawn in the Snake River tributaries of eastern Oregon and Idaho. The years in red are when the numbers of returning adults were less than necessary to perpetuate the population when compared to the prior generation. Call it a lifecycle survival rate. If the rate is 1.0 the population replaces itself. Better than 1.0 (black) the population is stable or rebuilding.  Less than 1.0 the population is in decline. Lots of years of less than 1.0 leads you down a path towards extinction. The day will be eventful as the Judge hosts the national Director of NOAA Fisheries in his courtroom (presumably she can make it a short week on the west coast and stay in Corvallis for the Thanksgiving break).  But once all the lawyers have argued, and the scientists have interpreted, and the modelers have modeled, and the well-healed managers and spin-meisters are done with their day and comfortable in their (all electric?) home, the Judge will have time to think about what it all means. And he would be well served were he to cut through the thickets of paperwork and remember that Snake River salmon are still experiencing more years where they are losing population than they are gaining, and look at the chart above and wonder if the government of the United States has even started to provide that the fish will survive with an adequate potential for recovery.

On the Eve of the Judge Redden Hearing

The saga of Snake River wild Chinook salmon continues on November 23rd in the Oregon Federal District Court where Judge James Redden will hear arguments whether to approve or throw out the latest Federal government plan for managing the Federal hydropower dams. Earlier this decade public officials were ready to declare victory with the improved returns of wild Chinook salmon to the Snake River. In recent years the attention is on the big returns of sockeye to the Stanley Basin as well as the 2009 Snake River steelhead fishery.

Less is said about the wild Chinook in recent years. Why is that? Maybe because the run has been in decline for the past five years? A string of productive years starting in the late 1990s has been matched with a streak of poor years.

The chart above shows the number of wild chinook returning past the uppermost dam (Lower Granite since 1975) on their way to spawn in the Snake River tributaries of eastern Oregon and Idaho. The years in red are when the numbers of returning adults were less than necessary to perpetuate the population when compared to the prior generation. Call it a lifecycle survival rate. If the rate is 1.0 the population replaces itself. Better than 1.0 (black) the population is stable or rebuilding.  Less than 1.0 the population is in decline. Lots of years of less than 1.0 leads you down a path towards extinction.

The day will be eventful as the Judge hosts the national Director of NOAA Fisheries in his courtroom (presumably she can make it a short week on the west coast and stay in Corvallis for the Thanksgiving break).  But once all the lawyers have argued, and the scientists have interpreted, and the modelers have modeled, and the well-healed managers and spin-meisters are done with their day and comfortable in their (all electric?) home, the Judge will have time to think about what it all means.

And he would be well served were he to cut through the thickets of paperwork and remember that Snake River salmon are still experiencing more years where they are losing population than they are gaining, and look at the chart above and wonder if the government of the United States has even started to provide that the fish will survive with an adequate potential for recovery.
Posted at 8:41pm

Page 1 of 1