<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/03/05/news/top_stories/top4.txt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/03/05/news/top_stories/top4.txt</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3> <BR>Lamprey, sturgeon next for federal listing?
</FONT>
<P>Published March 5, 2004 <BR>By DYLAN DARLING
<P>A coalition of environmental groups is threatening to sue the federal
government in an effort to get further <BR>analysis of whether several species
of lamprey need to be added to the Endangered Species List.
<P>The notice of intent to sue came as three of the same groups were celebrating
a court victory earlier in the <BR>week to get a similar study done for green
sturgeon.
<P>Some of the lamprey and the green sturgeon are found in the lower reaches of
the Klamath River, which is <BR>already home to a species of threatened coho
salmon.
<P>U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte in San Francisco ordered federal fisheries
scientists to reconsider their <BR>finding that sturgeon do not merit federal
protection, saying the National Marine Fisheries Service's failure <BR>to take
into account the large loss of spawning habitat didn't make sense.
<P>Both lamprey and sturgeon migrate between the Pacific Ocean and spawning beds
in rivers. Neither species <BR>is harvested commercially.
<P>A dozen groups, including the Oregon Natural Resources Council, petitioned
the Service to list four species of <BR>West-coast lamprey as threatened or
endangered in January 2003.
<P>Wendell Wood, ONRC Southern Oregon field representative, said the Service has
missed its deadlines to make <BR>decisions about whether to study the lamprey.
<P> "What Fish and Wildlife is saying now is that they are simply not
funding the study," he said.
<P>Whether federal money is available or not, Wood said, the lamprey species are
in decline and could need to be <BR>listed.
<P>Curt Mullis, manager of the Wildlife Service's Klamath Falls office, said he
has little information about the <BR>issue, other than some of the species are
found downstream in the Klamath.
<P> "There is not a whole lot we know at this point," he said.
<P>Wood said the condition of the lamprey and their populations are important
because the fish are a popular <BR>food for salmon and trout. The eel-like
jawless fish have a larval stage of four to six years, during which they
<BR>look like worms, feed in the mud of stream beds, and become prey for trout,
crayfish, and birds.
<P>In later stages, lampreys latch on to other kinds of fish, sucking nutrients
from the hosts.
<P>Not much is known about the lampreys or the green sturgeon, except that their
numbers are dropping, <BR>Wood said.
<P>Green sturgeon no longer spawn in the San Joaquin, South Fork Trinity and Eel
rivers in California or the <BR>Umpqua. Limited spawning occurs in the Klamath,
Rogue and Sacramento rivers.
<P>Sturgeon are large, long-lived fish. The green sturgeon is one of the smaller
species, but still can grow to <BR>more than 7 feet long and weigh up to 350
pounds. The fish date back to the age of the dinosaurs.
<P>Jim Milbury, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the
agency was still analyzing the <BR>judge's ruling and had no immediate comment.
<P>Wood said the Bush administration avoids having to list more species for
protection by not funding studies <BR>for them. This forces the environmental
groups to take the government to court, he added.
<P> "We don't like to have to use the ESA as the only way to protect fish
and wildlife," Wood said. "We should be <BR>trying to recover species before
they need to be listed."
<P>Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said
the lawsuits are just another <BR>attempt by the environmental groups to get
more water sent down the river from the Klamath Reclamation <BR>Project.
<P>He said the agencies' delays in funding studies could be a result of the
"landslide" of lawsuits they have to deal <BR>with from groups like the ONRC.
<P>"They are trying to create a state of emergency that is not here," he said.
<P>On the Net: <BR>Oregon Natural Resources Council: www.onrc.org
<P>The Associated Press contributed to this story.
<BR></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>