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"Endangered" Means There’s Still Time Endangered Species Act, in political limbo, is salmon’s best chance for recovery he statistics for the wild salmon’s decline in the Pacific Northwest are staggering. In 1913, more than 33 million sockeye salmon were harvested. Currently the total salmon harvest for all five species averages around 24 million fish yearly. On the Columbia River, the sockeye and Snake River chinook salmon face extinction and are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973. Less than 1,000 wild spring chinook are expected to return to Idaho this year, a quarter of the level from just four years ago. On a local level, the South Fork of the Nooksack River spring chinook returns averaged 340 fish yearly from 1984 to 1992. In 1992 the return was 103 fish. The federal government will be studying them to see if they should be listed as an endangered species under the ESA as part of a survey of all salmon species in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Once a species is listed it becomes illegal to take, possess or sell that species. Along with this listing comes critical habitat designations and habitat conser vation plans. But as of 1992 only 16 percent of listed species had critical habitat designations. This is due to underfunding and the US Fish and Wildlife Service's fear of political repercussions f rom designating critical
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How could the ESA save Nooksack River spring chinook? Recently I spoke with Tom Edwards Jr., a fisheries technician with the Lummi Natural Re sources Department. Tom monitors chinook salmon runs in the Nooksack River and reviews logging practices in the Nooksack watershed. Over the last 20 years, siltation from sloppy logging practices has formed an increasingly larger Nooksack river delta. The silt also smothers salmon eggs. When I asked what could be done to save the spring chinook runs if they were listed under the ESA, he said, "I’d focus on stream restoration, rebuilding strearasides to cool the water tempera tures down. Slow down development. Limit the clearcut sizes and close the unused logging roads." Listing the spring chinook run under the ESA could bring these changes. habitat.
The ESA itself is threatened. The act is up for reauthorization and Congress will debate it in 1995. A strengthened ESA can better protect the endangered salmon runs of the Pacific Northwest. According to Chuck Lennox, chair of the Endangered Species Act Coalition of Washington, the act is in need of improvements. To help protect salmon, the act should manage on an ecosystem basis instead of on a species by species basis. This means protecting entire watersheds and landscapes for salmon. It also would mean listing multiple species of salmon or mul tiple runs. It could also help if citizens could sue immediately over controversial projects such as dams and timber sales instead of having to wait 60 days in which significant damage could be done to salmon and their habitat. In addition, more funding is needed to implement the act and to enforce it. CONTROVERSIAL L4WS