Contact: Brian Gorman FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(206) 526-6613 (O) 2/8/95
(206) 441-1250 (H)
The National Marine Fisheries Service today issued a "biological opinion" on a federal management plan that contains significant new steps to improve protection for salmon stocks on federal land.
The land management plan, known as "Pacfish," was produced by the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. It establishes habitat conservation areas for salmon in and along rivers and streams, and sets goals and standards to protect salmon within that habitat.
The fisheries service is responsible for protecting fish listed under the Endangered Species Act. Three species of salmon found in the Pacific Northwest's Snake River, all within federal lands affected by today's announcement, are classified as endangered under that federal law.
A biological opinion, part of the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, is written by the federal agency responsible for listed species. It identifies those activities conducted by other federal agencies, including permitted activities, that may or may not jeopardize the continued existence of a listed species.
According to William Stelle, director of the fisheries service's Northwest regional office in Seattle, "Pacfish is an example of how we work with the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, especially in terms of how we integrate the needs of endangered salmon with the needs of Americans who are economically dependent on the income they derive from public lands."
Such economically significant activities as logging, livestock grazing and mining, along with construction of related infrastructure like roads, are managed to a large degree by the Forest Service and BLM, when they take place on public lands such as national forests and rangeland.
Stelle said the Pacfish plan is an improvement over existing blueprints and that it should avoid or reduce degradation of designated critical habitat for salmon from most ongoing and future land management activities.
The Pacfish guidelines are intended to reverse habitat degradation while the Forest Service and BLM complete environmental impact statements for the upper Columbia River Basin, a process that should take about 18 months.
The agencies' EIS documents will examine longer-term ecosystem management strategies for protecting and restoring salmon and steelhead trout habitat and will aid these fish, many on the brink of extinction, throughout public lands in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Northern California.
In a related matter, the fisheries service and the Forest Service announced a schedule to ensure that recent court rulings don't unnecessarily disrupt logging, grazing and mining in Pacific Northwest forests. The schedule calls for completion by March 1 of a biological opinion from the fisheries service, written in consultation with the Forest Service. The biological opinion will provide habitat protection for Snake River salmon.