Free Republic

The nets that volunteers held in a remote river valley near Bodega Bay were full of the squiggling bluish fish that biologists hope will be the seed population of a new race of coho salmon. The scaly, flapping critters were carried in nets from a truck 25 yards to the banks of Salmon Creek, a western Sonoma County tributary that winds through a stunning rural valley. The 305 hatchery-raised coho were the first of their kind seen in any significant numbers in the degraded watershed since the mid-1970s, but their release last month was more than just a reintroduction. It...

A judge has ruled that coho salmon have been illegally listed as an endangered species, a victory that comes too late for the farmers of the Klamath River Basin and the families of four young firefighters. In the spring of 2001, the government ordered irrigation water cut off to 1,400 farms in southern Oregon and northern California to save suckerfish and salmon... [snip] Last week, federal judge Michael Hogan agreed with the Pacific Legal Foundation that the government violated the ESA when it failed to include hatchery fish in its assessment of the coho’s status. ...the Klamath community was practically...

* Fish-friendly agriculture made the difference. * Cutting-edge projects of land owners open eyes of decision-makers. * A united effort with other resource-based groups paid off. CRESCENT CITY, CALIFORNIA - The extraordinary efforts of farmers, ranchers and timber were recognized on Friday, when the California Fish and Game Commission voted 3 to 2 to postpone the final vote for listing the coho salmon to the California Endangered Species Act. So coho limbo continues, at least, until August; and it may linger for another six to seven months. The shocking postponement of the decision is full of legal twists and turns,...

Catching wild coho 12/22/03 JOE ROJAS-BURKE Encouraged by relatively bountiful returns of Oregon's coastal coho salmon -- protected under the Endangered Species Act -- wildlife authorities are letting anglers have a go at the threatened fish for the first time in a decade. Legal fishing for wild coho is taking place in only two shallow coastal lakes near Florence -- Siltcoos and Tahkenitch -- where populations held up stronger than most during the decades of overfishing and habitat destruction. "It's a unique situation," said Lance Kruzic, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency that approved the...

After a decades-long slide toward extinction, coho salmon are returning in torrents to Oregon's coastal rivers. Estimates of the run -- seldom more than 50,000 fish since the 1970s -- last year pushed above 264,000. This turns out to be very good news at the White House. President Bush's top environmental advisers see in it the potential for removing Oregon's prized coastal coho and many other animals and plants from protection under the Endangered Species Act -- a sweeping law the Bush administration has deemed overly burdensome and in need of reform. Their goal: Show how the federal government can...

Coastal coho, a success story? 06/14/03MICHELLE COLE President Bush's top environmental adviser met with Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski Friday in Salem to negotiate an agreement that could lead to removing the Oregon coastal coho from the federal endangered species list. The Bush administration committed $250,000 to finance a scientific review of whether the coastal coho, listed as threatened in 1998 and showing pronounced returns in the past two years, have recovered sufficiently. Depending upon the outcome of that review, the U.S. government could begin delisting the coastal coho in Oregon and transferring responsibility for managing the species to the state,...

More water near certainty for Klamath this year By John DriscollThe Times-Standard The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation intends to put significantly more water down the Klamath River after receiving forecasts that spell out a wetter year than first expected. But the bureau is waiting to hear from a U.S. District Court judge in Oakland before making the switch, saying it doesn't want to rework flow schedules twice. "We've got those wheels rolling," said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken. Judge Sandra Armstrong has apparently indicated that she intends to come down in favor of more water for salmon, which died by the...

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) - Displaying dead and decaying salmon, members of a downstream Klamath River tribe demonstrated Friday against the federal government's decision to cut back on emergency water flows in the river. Two pickups carrying counterprotesters drove by the rally. Someone in one of the trucks yelled, ``You guys poisoned the fish ... you guys poisoned the fish.'' The Bureau of Reclamation authorized an emergency, two-week pulse of water on Sept. 27 after up to 30,000 adult chinook salmon died in the lower Klamath River. The emergency release from the Upper Klamath Lake will end Saturday to leave...