NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Russell C. Brooks
Managing Attorney
Pacific Legal Foundation
Northwest Center
(425) 576-0484
Dawn Collier
Media Director
Pacific
Legal Foundation
(916) 419-7111
KLAMATH RIVER
SALMON PROTECTIONS
RULED
ILLEGAL!
FEDERAL COURT SAYS ENDANGERED SPECIES LISTING
OF KLAMATH COHO IS BOGUS
Klamath Farmers and
Businesses Driven to Bankruptcy
for Fish That Should Never Have Been
Listed
EUGENE, OR; January 12,
2005: Coho salmon in the
Klamath River Basin region have been illegally listed under the Endangered
Species Act as a threatened species, a federal judge declared yesterday. Ruling
from the bench, Judge Michael Hogan agreed with Pacific Legal Foundation that
the federal government violated the ESA when it failed to consider hatchery
fish in its assessment of coho in southern Oregon and northern California
rivers. ESA protection of coho in the Klamath River was a significant factor in
the government’s devastating decision to shut off irrigation water to
Klamath Basin farmers in the spring of 2001.
"This victory came too late for the
farmers who where pushed into bankruptcy and the businesses that were forced to
close to protect fish that were never endangered," said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Russ Brooks. "Our rivers and streams are
teeming with salmon, yet the Klamath community was practically destroyed
because of environmental politics run amok."
"This ruling should send a message to NOAA
Fisheries that they cannot continue to circumvent the ESA to keep salmon listed
when the prolific number of hatchery fish means salmon are not endangered. If
NOAA does not accept the reality that the ESA does not distinguish between wild
and hatchery fish before it issues its new hatchery policy, we will wind up
back in court," Brooks said.
The case, Grange v. National Marine
Fisheries Service, had been stayed by Judge Hogan pending
environmentalists’ attempts to appeal PLF’s landmark victory in
Alsea Valley Alliance v. Evans (2001). In that case, Judge Hogan held
that the government had illegally listed coho along the Oregon coast as
threatened when it excluded hatchery coho from fish counts. The Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals rejected the appeal in February, 2004.
In yesterday’s ruling, however, Judge
Hogan did not set aside the illegal listing, but left it in place while the
agency completes the review of 26 west coast salmon listings, which it agreed
to undertake as a result of its loss in Alsea. In June, 2004, NOAA
proposed a new hatchery policy, but simultaneously announced that it would
result in the relisting—not delisting—of west coast salmon and
steelhead populations.
However, Judge Hogan also indicated that
if a federal agency took a specific enforcement action on behalf of the illegal
listing which caused harm, those harmed could go to court and ask to have the
federal action stopped.
"In other words, as long as the federal
government complies with Judge Hogan’s ruling that the listing is illegal,
there won’t be a problem. But if they try to cut off the water again or
take some other similar action, we’ll be back in court," Brooks
said.
In November, 2004, PLF announced it will
file a sweeping lawsuit challenging all 26 listings if NOAA enacts the proposed
policy and continues to distinguish between hatchery and naturally spawned
fish. The final rule is scheduled to be published in June, 2005.
About Pacific Legal
Foundation
Founded in 1973, Pacific Legal Foundation
is a national leader in the effort to reform the Endangered Species Act and
raise awareness of the Act’s impact on people. PLF’s Pacific
Northwest Center is located in Bellevue, Washington. More information on the
Foundation can be found at www.pacificlegal.org.