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style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">FISHERIES:<?xml:namespace
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style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Editorial:
Short-sighted Klamath Fisheries managers dismiss chinook
plan<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on"><SPAN class=articleheadline><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Eureka</SPAN></FONT></B></SPAN></st1:place></st1:City><SPAN
class=articleheadline><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> Times Standard
– 3/3/05<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">By Felice Pace,
former conservation director for the Klamath Forest
Alliance<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Last week the Klamath Fisheries Management Council
(KFMC) meeting in <st1:City w:st="on">Eureka</st1:City> considered but failed to
endorse a management plan for <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>
spring chinook salmon. Like its larger "uncle" -- the Pacific Fisheries
Management Council -- the KFMC is dominated by interests which depend on salmon
harvest. These interests fear the impact a plan to conserve and restore spring
chinook would have on ocean and in-river commercial and sport salmon harvest
quotas. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The position of the KFMC is understandable. Who can
fault someone for wanting to protect the income of her family and his industry?
But the failure of the KFMC to muster the resolve to take on spring chinook
conservation and restoration is short sighted. That's because it is likely to
lead to renewed calls, petitions and litigation to list Klamath River spring
chinook under provisions of the <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> and federal Endangered Species
Acts. Such actions will raise tensions among constituencies that have made
common cause in recent years on water management and dams. They may also result
in a listing of springers as endangered. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Skeptics will point out that federal fisheries officials
have already considered whether spring chinook should be listed and concluded
that in the Klamath River they are not a species or a distinct population
because they are not sufficiently different than the more numerous fall chinook
salmon. But this federal decision is based on political not real science and
will not hold up under scrutiny. For example, federal fisheries managers refused
to list Klamath springers because they said there was not evidence of genetic
differences from the fall chinook. But, in fact, genetic studies showed more
difference between spring and fall chinook in the Klamath as compared to spring
and fall chinook in the <st1:place w:st="on">Sacramento River</st1:place>.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">But <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:place></st1:City> springers were found to be a
distinct population and were listed under provisions of the federal ESA. The
federal fish bureaucrats decision on Klamath springers is, therefore, arbitrary
and can be successfully challenged. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Is that what the members of the KFMC want to see? If
not, they must bite the bullet and actively support real springer conservation
before the Pacific Fisheries Management Council. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The members of KFMC who are unwilling to support
meaningful spring chinook conservation are among the same interests calling for
removal of Klamath River dams to restore salmon to the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Upper</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. Springers are by far the main
species which would benefit from restoration to the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Upper</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River
Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. The calls for dam removal are weakened when
interests refuse to support conservation and restoration when it affects their
personal, member or industry bottom lines. The implications of KFMC inaction
will not be lost on managers and stockholders of Scottish Power, owner of the
<st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> dams and may well come back to
haunt KFMC members. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">In summary, the failure of KFMC members to support real
spring chinook conservation is short-sighted and wrong headed. The individual
members are all players with the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, the group
which sets the salmon conservation agenda coast-wide. These interests need to
look further ahead and actively support voluntary springer conservation. This
will result in reduced salmon harvest in the short run but far greater harvests
in the future when springers are restored. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Felice Pace, formerly conservation director for the
Klamath Forest Alliance, has worked for salmon conservation and habitat
restoration in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River
Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> and coast-wide since 1986. He lives in
Klamath. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The opinions expressed in this My Word piece do not
necessarily reflect the editorial viewpoint of the Times-Standard.
#<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><A
href="http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2906~2742354,00.html">http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2906~2742354,00.html</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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