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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><b><font size=5 color=black
face=Georgia><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black;
font-weight:bold'>Only Wild Fish Matter in ‘Endangered’ Count,
Judge Rules <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
</NYT_HEADLINE>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=gray face=Arial><span style='font-size:
9.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:gray'>By <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/felicity_barringer/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
title="More Articles by Felicity Barringer">FELICITY BARRINGER</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</NYT_BYLINE>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=gray face=Arial><span style='font-size:
9.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:gray'>Published: June 14, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><NYT_TEXT>SAN FRANCISCO, June 13
— A federal district judge in Spokane, Wash., on Wednesday nullified a
Bush administration policy that counts hatchery fish along with wild fish when
making decisions about which species should be protected under the Endangered
Species Act. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>This counting method, the judge, John
C. Coughenour, wrote, “departs from the law’s central purpose,
which is to promote and conserve naturally self-sustaining populations.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Judge Coughenour also noted that six
years ago, a federal judge in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Eugene</st1:City>,
<st1:State w:st="on">Ore.</st1:State></st1:place>, endorsed the opposite
interpretation and called on the federal government to count genetically
similar hatchery fish with their wild relatives. In his order Wednesday, Judge
Coughenour indicated he would welcome the “happy result” of a
review by the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to settle the matter.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>A 2004 decision by the <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_marine_fisheries_service/index.html?inline=nyt-org"
title="More articles about National Marine Fisheries Service"><font
color="#004276"><span style='color:#004276'>National Marine Fisheries Service</span></font></a>,
which protects migrating fish that spend part of their lives in rivers and part
in the ocean, was roundly condemned by environmental groups, especially
advocates for wild salmon, as a fundamental distortion of the endangered-species
law.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>In the 1990s, when most of the 27
Northwestern salmon species currently protected under the act were being
evaluated, the fisheries service made its decisions on the status of the
naturally spawning fish. Depending on how many generations a fish species have
spent in the hatchery and what other stocks they have mingled with, they can be
genetically identical to the wild stocks or significantly different.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Several environmental groups,
including Trout Unlimited, American Rivers and the <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/sierra_club/index.html?inline=nyt-org"
title="More articles about Sierra Club"><font color="#004276"><span
style='color:#004276'>Sierra Club</span></font></a>, filed suit after one
species of salmon, the Upper Columbia steelhead, was downgraded to threatened
from endangered under the new policy.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>The judge agreed with their major
points. To commingle the numbers of hatchery and wild populations when deciding
on protections, he wrote, “is, in fact, contrary to the best available
scientific evidence.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>“A healthy hatchery population
is not necessarily an indication of a healthy natural population,” he
said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Jan Hasselman, a lawyer with
Earthjustice, which handled the case for the other groups, said in a statement
Wednesday, “Hatcheries never were meant to be a replacement for
self-sustaining populations of salmon in healthy streams.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Kaitlin Lovell of Trout Unlimited
said in the same statement that “we should strengthen legal protections
and accountability for wild salmon, not weaken them.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>D. Robert Lohn, regional
administrator of the fisheries service’s Northwest office, said in an
interview that his office’s policy was “managing for and protecting
the naturally spawning fish.” <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>“To the extent that we can use
hatchery fish to assure the survival or help rebuild the populations, we would
take them into consideration,” Mr. Lohn said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Sonya D. Jones, a lawyer with the
Pacific Legal Foundation, a property-rights group that has for years pressed
the government to count hatchery stocks when determining whether a salmon
species should be protected, said the group believed that Wednesday’s
decision and the 2001 ruling, by Judge Michael R. Hogan, were “in direct
contrast” and that it expected to appeal the latest one. <font
color=blue><span style='color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></font></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><em><i><font size=3 color=gray
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Leydecker</span></font></i></em></st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Friends of <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place>, Chair</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>California Trout, Inc., Advisor</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
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