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Methow Valley News April 27, 2000 Endangered Species Coverage Water needs for fish turns to "biological needs" New language could be significant By Lee Hicks The Methow basin watershed planning unit was set to review potential changes to a proposed fish and water agreement before resuming talks with federal and state agencies Friday (Apr. 28). The planning unit review, scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday (April 26), would focus in part on new language suggested to show a relationship between streamflows and water needed for threatened and endangered fish. Instead of specific "target flows" for all basin streams, at an April 18 negotiating session the possibility of addressing the "biological needs" of fish at specific stream locations was discussed. "That’s what we want to do is talk about the biological needs of fish not instream flows, which may or may not be needed," according to county water resources director Dennis Beich. Beich said that focusing on biological needs for such things as rearing habitat and water for fish redds, or eggs, and adequate water without barriers to migration could be more important than specific flows in helping fish. "We want to focus the effort on specific sites. We probably can’t solve the whole basin wide instream flows (issues)," Beich said. In the April 18 meeting, the planning unit and representatives of National Marine Fisheries Services, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state departments of Fish and Wildlife and Ecology met in the first round of negotiations for an agreement that would succeed a proposal that met significant local opposition last November. The planning unit’s position is that more hydrological data is needed, including stream and irrigation ditch monitoring, before charting the best course to help protect water users and aid recovery of fish. Opinion | Sports |
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