Federal salmon plans unveiled in Fresno
Many questions raised on the chinook plan.
Mark Grossi
The Fresno Bee
04/28/2010
About 50 people listened Wednesday as federal officials made their long-awaited first announcements in Fresno about plans to restore chinook salmon runs in the San Joaquin River. But there were not a lot of answers to big questions.
Instead, people learned that this was just the first step in designing a specific plan to put fish back in the river by December 2012.
It was still a landmark meeting for restoring the river and salmon runs, which died off after Friant Dam was built in the 1940s.
Spring- and fall-run salmon disappeared in the San Joaquin after the dam was built. As part of a lawsuit settlement, federal officials last year began releasing water from Friant to refill dried portions of the river.
Now, as part of the restoration process, the National Marine Fisheries Service is planning to bring back spring-run salmon, which is protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Other meetings will be scheduled in the coming months.
People have asked questions about this part of the restoration for years.
Will the first fish come from hatcheries or another river in Northern California? Will they be young or adult? How many will be needed to get the population going again?
"Those questions are being discussed," said spokeswoman Elif Fehm-Sullivan of the fisheries service. "We will need to know the condition of the spring-runs on other rivers to see if they can be used [to repopulate the San Joaquin] in certain years."
Officials said the goal between 2012 and 2025 is to have 25,000 adult fish in the spring-run.
The path will go through a federal legal maze that includes the Endangered Species Act. Besides the fisheries service, other agencies involved will include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The audience consisted of many groups with different interests, including irrigation districts, conservationists, environmentalists and scientists.
George Nokes, a former regional manager with the state Department of Fish and Game, said federal officials would need to consider the stress the new fish would endure when the reintroduction begins.
"You need to think about where you will put them and how they will acclimate," he said.
There are also highly technical legal questions, particularly involving the Endangered Species Act.
Rhonda Reed, a biologist who led the discussion for the fisheries service, said the act's protections for the new run of fish probably would stop near the confluence of the Stanislaus River, many miles downstream.
Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/04/28/1914549/federal-salmon-plans-unveiled.html#ixzz0mXdUACvx
