LAST WEEK'S STORIESHISTORY
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Methow Valley News May 16, 2001 Endangered Species Publisher's Comment - by Lee Hicks NMFS to Carson salmon: "Go forth and spawn" Arrowleaf conservation effort gets $2.5 million DOE restricts water to 70 irrigators Publisher's Comment by Lee Hicks Representatives of three of the four "initiating governments" in watershed planning took a necessary step in urging that the fourth entity, Okanogan County, help clear up confusion over the county’s role in the process. Whatever the reasons—some understandable and more clear and others less so—the county had stepped away from the table since last fall. The county has now agreed to send a voting representative to sit with the other initiating governments, which include the Town of Twisp, the Colville Tribes and the Methow Valley Irrigation District, which has the largest number of water users in the Methow basin. Somewhere along the way, it appears the county confused its role as the "lead agency" under state watershed law by acting less in its oversight capacity and more to direct and control the process. That, coupled with county reticence to act as one of the government members, made for a complicated situation. Along the way, the county’s notice of intent to sue federal agencies over endangered species issues—no matter how valid the reasoning—may have served to cloud the watershed planning stream. Litigation and the watershed process are not mutually exclusive, albeit on separate tracks. Unfortunately, all this had served to diminish the fact that much positive work has been completed or in progress, including improvement of fish passage and installation of ditch screens, placement of stream gauges and completion of hydrology studies. In the aggregate, when integrated with existing studies of the past two decades, these efforts might lead to some realistic solutions to helping fish other than the simplistic one of just turning off the water tap. Let’s hope the county stays at the table and in the process that has consumed so much citizen and agency time over the past two years. NMFS to Carson salmon: "Go forth and spawn" By John Hanron An agreement announced Monday (May 14) between state and federal agencies and native tribes will allow spring Chinook salmon—regardless of their ancestry—to spawn naturally in the Methow River. Chris Pasley, manager of the Winthrop National Fish Hatchery , said the new management plan was put into effect immediately. Crews Monday chased 400-500 returning spring Chinook salmon out of Spring Creek, the stream that heads into the hatchery, and built a weir across the channel near its mouth to keep any more fish from entering the hatchery. Instead, he said, a total of about 1,000 salmon will be collected at trapping ponds on the Twisp, Chewuch and Methow rivers and hauled to both the national hatchery and the state hatchery in Winthrop for broodstock. "They’ll end up spawning somewhere out there in the river," Pasley said, "and that’s the point of the whole new plan." With 5,000 spring Chinook already counted at Wells Dam just halfway into the season, that could mean as many as 7,000 salmon allowed to ply and spawn in the waters on the Methow River system this summer. The agreement, made between National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Yakama Nation and the Colville Confederated Tribes, signals a turnaround from the federal government’s previous stand of not allowing salmon from the Carson hatchery stock to mingle with what it considered the more purely native Methow composite stock. Pasley noted that data collected last year showed that most of the hatchery fish of Carson origin that spawned in the river did so between Spring Creek and the Foghorn ditch, with very little evidence of them venturing up the tributaries. When the salmon are collected for the hatcheries, workers will be able to separate eggs by origin. Endangered Methow composite stock will remain in the local hatcheries while Carson stock eggs and young will be utilized for re-establishing runs in other river systems, such as the Okanogan. Monday’s agreement was hailed by tribes and government agencies alike as being based on "sound biological principles." The tribes praised NMFS for its flexibility in enforcing the Endangered Species Act. Larry Peck, deputy director for the USFWS, said a long-term plan for the Methow must still be established, and said all parties will actively pursue that. The agreement also addresses management of spring Chinook in the Wenatchee and Entiat river systems, where Peshastin Creek and possibly Icicle Creek will see new salmon stocks. Donna Darm, acting regional administrator for NMFS in Seattle said the agreement "incorporates flexibility to experiment with different hatchery practices." "Collaboration like this is the surest way to restore healthy salmon populations and get them off the Endangered Species List, and we are happy to have been a part of it." Rob Jones, chief of NMFS’ Hatcheries and Inland Fisheries Branch, said the agreement is consistent with the agency’s goal of phasing out the Carson stock, and in fact, will accomplish that goal more quickly. Rather than processing the high proportion of Carson stock that return to Spring Creek, the hatcheries will process a higher proportion of Methow composite stock collected at the trapping ponds. "We’re no longer going to be maintaining pure Carson stock at the hatcheries," he said. Jones said the Carson stock will be left to fend for itself, and NMFS’ biologists don’t believe it will survive more than a few years in the Methow basin. An informational meeting with NMFS and state and federal fishery representatives is planned for Wednesday (May 23) from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Methow Valley Community Center in Twisp. Arrowleaf conservation effort gets $2.5 million by Lee Hicks Federal funds to aid endangered fish will be used to finance a conservation buyout of the former Arrowleaf resort site as the result of action last week by the Bonneville Power Administration. The federal hydropower marketing agency approved $2.5 million that would enable the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to buy conservation easements on the 1,100-acre site near Mazama. Last December the Trust for Public Lands bought the property for $15.165 million from erstwhile developer R. D. Merrill Co. TPL split the site into six parcels and sold three of those totaling more than 400 acres to private buyers for about $6.4 million. TPL has been struggling to find other private buyers and to get additional funding for the easements. State F&W bought the easements in several groups for nominal $10 down payments. The agency and TPL expected that the BPA funding for mitigation of fish and wildlife impacts from dam operations would help fund the purchase within a year. During that time, several private individual and non-profit groups guaranteed loans to cover the shortfall between the amount paid by the three site buyers and what TPL had to pay Merrill. The Arrowleaf funding is part of $15 million that BPA earmarked for "high priority projects" that would theoretically offset impacts of 29 federal dams in the BPA system. Trust for Public Lands had initially asked for $3.75 million for the Early Winters property. Nearly $13 million, or about 86 percent, of the funding will go to acquiring ranches and conservation easements in Washington and Oregon. Arrowleaf was the third largest amount for land purchases. The others were for purchasing Oregon ranches at $4.2 million and $2.65 million. In a prepared statement, the BPA said the funding was, "designed to provide immediate aid to endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin." BPA acted on recommendations of the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority, which is comprised of government and tribal representatives. The funding proposals from TPL and other applications were then reviewed by the Northwest Power Planning Council which recommends fish and wildlife mitigation measures to BPA. Carrying considerable weight in the process was support for the Arrowleaf funding by the National Marine Fisheries Service. In effect, NMFS told BPA it could get "credits" under NMFS’ 2000 biological opinion for endangered fish in the Columbia and Snake rivers hydropower system operation. A NMFS official, in a February letter, asked that the Power Council include Arrowleaf specifically as a high priority project in the Council’s recommendation to BPA. Another NMFS letter, dated April 20, confirmed that Arrowleaf and the other projects would benefit listed fish. NMFS’ blessing holds substantial sway with BPA. As the Northwest faces its most severe drought in more than two decades, the power agency must weigh a variety of options as to whether or when to spill water over dams to balance the needs of fish and power production. Environmental groups and tribal interests have argued recently that NMFS biological opinions, and BPA’s strategies to comply, allow too much latitude for power production at the expense of fish protection. Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund filed suit earlier this month challenging the hydrosystem plan as "inadequate." DOE restricts water to 70 irrigators By Lee Hicks The Department of Ecology has restricted water use for about 70 irrigators in the Methow basin who have interruptible rights issued since 1976. Similar constraints were placed last Tuesday (May 8) on 75 users in the Okanogan basin. Ecology has the authority to regulate irrigation to preserve instream flows for fish. Restrictions were also placed on Methow basin interruptible rights in late summer of 2000. An Ecology statement said runoff predictions for major rivers continue at 45-65 percent of normal for May, which tracks similar numbers in April. The Methow River at Winthrop was flowing at about 600 cubic feet per second May 8, only 15 percent of the 11-year mean of 4,000 cfs according to the U. S. Geological Survey hydrograph. By Monday morning (May 14), the river had risen to 2,120 cfs, about 41 percent of the mean for that date. At Pateros on Monday the flow was 2,280, or 45 percent of the mean. About 150 irrigators on the Columbia River mainstem have agreed to monitor and report their water use to Ecology. They can continue withdrawals by demonstrating conservation. Ecology has also begun a drought-driven program to expedite decisions in 15 days on applications for water transfers and changes, and emergency water permits. Opinion | Sports |
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