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Methow Valley News August 3, 2000 Endangered Species Coverage Tribes lead protest to let fish spawn Weir blocks entry into hatchery, no citations issued yet By John Hanron Colville Confederated Tribal elder Mary Marchand remembers when her grandfather, and then her father, used to bring her up into the Methow Valley as a child to fish for salmon, which once ran abundant in these waters. "For years, we have been praying for salmon to come back," she told a gathering of people in Winthrop last week. "Now that they are back, it’s disheartening to see how they’ve been treated." Marchand was one of about 75 people—tribal members, private citizens and candidates for elective office—who convened just outside the Winthrop National Fish Hatchery last Wednesday (July 26) to protest plans to eliminate the Carson stock of Chinook salmon from the Methow basin. The group placed a weir across Spring Creek, which feeds the hatchery, to stop any more salmon from entering the facility. "The Yakama Nation considers salmon a treaty reserve resource," stated Randy Settler, chairman of the Yakama’s Fish and Wildlife department. "We’re here to protect that resource to ensure they are here for generations to come. We believe they are significant; they are alive. We would like to see those fish go out into these waters and live." The two hatcheries above Spring Creek, the Winthrop National Fish Hatchery and the Methow State Fish Hatchery, have collected 1,435 spring-run Chinook salmon between those that have returned and those collected at Wells Dam. According to Greg Pratschner, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s manager of the Winthrop, Leavenworth and Entiat hatcheries, the agency had agreed to try and collect at least 1,000 spring Chinook, which would give the hatcheries enough eggs to fill their rearing ponds with young salmon. In previous years, any extra Chinook salmon entering the hatchery would have been clubbed and the meat given to native American tribes and federal prisons for food. But this year, public outcry forced the National Marine Fisheries Service and the USFWS to reconsider that policy. An agreement was reached that will involve planting extra spawning Carson stock adults or fertilized eggs in Omak Creek and in the Big White Ponds on the White Salmon River. Pratschner estimated there were about 1,100 more Chinook somewhere in the river system above Wells Dam, though the time for spawning is nigh and he suggested that most of those fish were already finding a spot to spawn. Of those, Pratschner said, between 20 and 40 percent were likely the "wild and endangered" Methow composite. NMFS recognizes the Methow composite as endangered, while the Carson stock is considered by the agency to be less suited for conditions in the region. Organizers of last week’s protest said all of the spring Chinook salmon that have returned to the Methow, whether Carson stock or Methow composite, should be allowed to spawn naturally in order to increase the number of fish in the river. Don Sampson, executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, in a July 25 letter to all of the region’s legislators, said designation of the Carson as non-native and the Methow composite as the endangered native was "arbitrary and capricious," and "exclusion of the Carson stock from the Methow will limit spring Chinook recovery in the Upper Columbia." He pointed out that limited salmon recovery means continued limitations on native fishing on the Columbia as well as increased restrictions for landowners who depend on river water for irrigation. Directed by NMFS to eliminate the Carson stock of spring Chinook salmon from the Methow River system, hatchery workers will identify the origins of the salmon in their facilities during spawning, raising as many Methow composite stock as they have on hand for reintroduction into the Methow system. NMFS has allowed as many as 300,000 eggs from Carson stock fish this year. The combined capacity of the hatcheries is 1.1 million eggs. Pratschner, who was present at last week’s protest, said the blocking of the creek to the hatchery was "a direct violation of ESA section 10," and said a citation was likely, though none were issued at the protest. "It will be pretty hard to ignore something so deliberate and obvious," he said. Sampson, whose agency helped coordinate the protest, said he would welcome testing NMFS’ ESA policy in court. "Bring it on," he said of a possible citation. "We have lots of lawyers. Their ESA policy is a house of cards." Absent from the demonstration were officials from NMFS, whom Sampson said he "invited." NMFS official Mike Grady said the agency was aware of the protest but stayed away "for some obvious reasons," preferring not to be "a lightning rod." The protest was hailed by County Commissioner Dave Schulz as monumental. "This is a special day," he told the group that had circled up before marching to the creek. "This is a day we can turn this around." Opinion | Sports |
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