[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 74 (Tuesday, April 18, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19388-19391]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-9545]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[I.D. 040795A]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Notice of
Availability of a Proposed Recovery Plan for Review and Comment; Public
Hearings
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability; public hearings.
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SUMMARY: NMFS has developed its Proposed Recovery Plan for the Snake
River sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), Snake River fall chinook
salmon, and Snake River spring/summer chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus
tshawytscha). It is available upon request. NMFS seeks public comment
and has scheduled 11 public hearings on this Proposed Recovery Plan.
DATES: Comments on the Proposed Recovery Plan must be received by July
17, 1995, if they are to be considered during preparation of a final
recovery plan. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for dates and times of
public hearings.
ADDRESSES: Requests for a copy of the Proposed Recovery Plan should be
addressed to Recovery Plan Coordinator, National Marine Fisheries
Service, 525 NE Oregon Street, Portland, OR 97232 telephone: 503-230-
5400. Written comments and materials regarding the Proposed Recovery
Plan should be directed to the same address. See SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION for locations of public hearings.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert Jones, Recovery Plan
Coordinator, (503-230-5420).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Salmon are culturally, economically, and symbolically important to
the Pacific Northwest. Columbia River chinook populations were at one
time acknowledged to be the largest in the world. Prior to the 1960's,
the Snake River was the most important drainage in the Columbia River
system for producing salmon. But in the 1990's, Snake River salmon
struggle to exist. Snake River salmon have declined to such low levels
that protection under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; 16
U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) is needed to prevent their extinction (56 FR
58619, November 20, 1991; 57 FR 14653, April 22, 1992; 59 FR 42529,
August 18, 1994; and 59 FR 66784, December 28, 1994). In the 1800's,
there were approximately 1.5 million Snake River chinook salmon; by
1994, only 1,800 adults returned to the Snake River. Snake River fall
chinook salmon numbered over 72,000 50 years ago, but only 400 adults
were counted at Lower Granite Dam in 1994. As many as 4,400 Snake River
sockeye salmon could be found 40 years ago, but last year only one
returned to Redfish Lake.
The ESA requires that the agency responsible for a listed species
develop and implement a recovery plan for its conservation (defined by
the ESA as recovery to delisting) and survival, unless it is determined
that such a plan will not promote the conservation of the species.
Accordingly, NMFS appointed the Snake River Salmon Recovery Team (Team)
to assist in the development of the recovery plan for the Snake River
salmon. In May 1994, the Team submitted its final recommendations to
NMFS. NMFS used these recommendations to formulate the Proposed Snake
River Salmon Recovery Plan.
The conservation of natural salmon and their habitat has not been
afforded balanced consideration in past resource allocation decisions.
Natural salmon are those that are the progeny of naturally spawning
parents. Development in the Pacific Northwest has often proceeded with
the assumption that improved technology or management would mitigate
impacts on natural salmon stocks. The Region's reliance on uncertain
mitigation schemes (as opposed to fundamental conservation strategies)
has been a very costly approach, both for natural salmon and the
public.
However, recent efforts have concentrated on conserving natural
salmon and their habitats. There is new emphasis being placed on
natural fish escapement, improved migration conditions for juveniles
and adults, increased riparian area protection, and equitable
consideration of natural fish in resource allocation processes. This
focus differs from previous management and represents important
progress [[Page 19389]] toward recovering listed Snake River salmon,
restoring Columbia Basin ecosystem health, and benefiting other species
presently in serious decline.
Summary of the Proposed Recovery Plan
The goal of the Proposed Recovery Plan is to restore the health of
the Columbia and Snake River ecosystem and to recover listed Snake
River salmon stocks. Many of the recommended actions will directly
benefit other species such as other salmon stocks, sturgeon, and bull
trout. Implementation of the Proposed Recovery Plan should also
conserve biodiversity, a factor that is essential to ecosystem
integrity and stability. Many of the actions in the Proposed Recovery
Plan have been used to formulate reasonable and prudent measures in
current section 7 consultations.
The Proposed Recovery Plan discusses the natural history and
current status of Snake River salmon. It also addresses known and
potential human impacts, and displays the costs directly attributable
to recovery. In addition, the Proposed Recovery Plan identifies
delisting criteria and biological objectives, and proposes the tasks
required to meet them. Tasks are identified in the areas of
institutional structure, tributary ecosystem, mainstem and estuarine
ecosystem, harvest management, and artificial propagation.
NMFS' approach to Snake River salmon recovery places highest
priority on ameliorating the primary factors for the species' decline
and eliminating existing impediments to recovery. The Plan does this by
proposing actions that offer immediate benefits, and refining those
actions over time to ensure the most efficient use of limited
resources. This strategy incorporates an adaptive management process;
it allows actions to be added, deleted, or refined as important
scientific information and analyses becomes available.
Institutional Structure
NMFS believes (as did the Team) that an improved decision-making
process is necessary to restore Columbia Basin ecosystem health and
ensure Snake River salmon recovery. Such a process will also protect
and improve habitat through the adaptive management process, prevent
further listings, and conserve other fish and wildlife. To achieve
these goals, NMFS will appoint, convene, and chair a Recovery
Implementation Team that will represent state, tribal, and Federal
policy leaders and thereby ensure effective coordination, teamwork, and
communication among all entities having responsibility for Snake River
salmon recovery. To ensure that salmon recovery actions remain
scientifically based, NMFS will also consider appointing and convening
Scientific Advisory Panel and technical committees to provide
scientific and technical support to the Recovery Implementation Team.
Delisting Criteria
The Team's and NMFS' recovery requirements and delisting criteria
for ESA-listed Snake River Basin salmon are very similar and fall into
two major categories: (1) Remedying the environmental (and other)
factors that have reduced the stocks to levels that are in danger of
extinction; and (2) rebuilding populations to levels where there is
evidence of improved productivity, even when considering the potential
impacts of severe stochastic environmental events (e.g., protracted
drought, oceanic El Nino effects, etc.). Both of these categories must
be achieved in order to consider delisting. To determine rebuilding
levels above, NMFS proposes to use cohort replacement rates and numeric
delisting criteria.
The cohort replacement rate describes the rate at which each
subsequent cohort, or generation, replaces the previous one. When this
rate is exactly 1.0, a population is neither increasing nor decreasing.
If the ratio remains less than 1.0 for extended periods, a population
is in decline, and could continue into extinction--a risk that led
originally to listing Snake River salmon. For population rebuilding,
the cohort replacement rate must be greater than 1. For delisting to be
considered, the 8-year geometric mean cohort replacement rate of a
listed species must exceed 1.0. For Snake River spring/summer chinook
salmon, this goal must also be met for 80 percent of the index areas
available for estimating cohort replacement rates.
For sockeye salmon, the numerical escapement goal is an 8-year
(approximately two-generation) geometric mean of at least 1,000 natural
spawners returning annually to Redfish Lake and 500 natural spawners in
each of two other Snake River Basin lakes. The numerical escapement
goal for Snake River fall chinook salmon is an 8-year geometric mean of
at least 2,500 natural spawners in the mainstem Snake River annually.
Snake River spring/summer chinook salmon have two numeric delisting
criteria; both must be met for delisting to be considered. The first
numerical escapement goal for Snake River spring/summer chinook salmon
is an 8-year geometric mean corresponding to at least 60 percent of the
pre-1971 brood year average redd counts for 80 percent of the available
index areas. The second numerical escapement goal for spring/summer
chinook salmon is an 8-year geometric mean equal to 60 percent of the
1962-67 brood year average count of natural spawners past Ice Harbor
Dam (goal is equal to 31,440).
Tributary Ecosystem
Land and water management actions, including water withdrawals,
unscreened water diversions, stream channelization, road construction,
timber harvest, livestock grazing, mining, and outdoor recreation have
degraded important salmon spawning and rearing habitats. To protect
tributary ecosystem health, NMFS proposes a three-part approach: (1)
Protect remaining high quality habitat by ceasing activities that would
degrade ecosystem functions and values that listed fish need, (2)
restore degraded habitats, and (3) provide connectivity between high
quality habitats. Federal lands and Federal actions should bear, as
much as possible, the burdens of recovering listed salmon species and
their habitat. However, non-Federal lands constitute approximately 35
percent of the Snake River salmon critical habitat. Therefore, an
ecosystem approach that emphasizes integrated Federal and non-Federal
land management is needed. To achieve this, all stakeholders in a
subbasin or watershed are encouraged to participate in management
partnerships. The Proposed Recovery Plan also proposes actions that
will reduce the loss of listed species at water withdrawal sites,
rebuild salmon populations by providing adequate instream flows and
improving fish passage at barriers, reduce losses of listed salmon
associated with poor water quality, and reduce impacts on salmon
resulting from recreational activities.
Mainstem and Estuarine Ecosystem
In the mainstem and estuarine ecosystem, salmon face problems
associated with their downstream and upstream migrations. The journey
through the lower Snake and Columbia Rivers has become more hazardous,
since eight hydroelectric dams were built and their reservoirs created.
Each dam delays juvenile fish in their transition to the ocean
environment and exacts additional losses. Seventy percent of the 482
miles between the mouth of the Columbia River and Lewiston/Clarkston on
the Snake River has been converted from free-flowing river into
reservoirs. This change has [[Page 19390]] slowed the rate of
downstream travel for smolts and increased the amount of habitat
favorable to predator species. Hatchery fish and exotic species compete
with and prey on the listed salmon in the mainstem ecosystem.
NMFS examined various approaches to improving the downstream
survival of juvenile Snake River salmon (as well as that of other fish
that migrate through the corridor). The actions considered include
improving inriver and dam passage conditions, improving collection and
transportation systems for juvenile migrants (especially under adverse
river conditions), and drawing down reservoirs.
NMFS proposes to proceed on a long-term adaptive management
approach that will depend upon a combination of improved inriver
migration conditions, improved transportation, and major structural
changes at dams. The Proposed Recovery Plan recommends a major decision
point when sufficient adult survival information is available in 1999.
In the interim, all necessary studies, planning, design, and
environmental documentation for drawdowns should be completed. At the
same time, inriver migration conditions should be improved to the
maximum extent possible using techniques such as increased flows,
increased spill, physical improvement of the dams, and aggressive
surface bypass development and testing. Significant improvements should
also be made in transportation operations. The overall approach is to
proceed on a path that implements measures in the short term that are
most likely to increase survival while at the same time enhancing our
ability to isolate and address major causes of mortality in the future.
The listed and unlisted fish also need improvements in their upstream
passage conditions. To accomplish this, the Proposed Recovery Plan
prescribes actions such as installing extended length screens,
operating turbines at peak efficiency, extending the period during
which the juvenile bypass system is in operation, implementing a gas
abatement program, remedying water pollution problems, developing
emergency auxiliary water supplies for adult fishways, and decreasing
water temperatures.
To minimize predation and competition problems in the migration
corridor, the Proposed Recovery Plan contains actions to control
predation by squawfish, birds, marine mammals, and non-native fishes
such as smallmouth bass, walleye, and channel catfish. Measures are
also proposed to reduce American shad populations in the Columbia River
because they both prey on and compete with juvenile salmon.
Harvest Management
Snake River salmon are not directly targeted for harvest, but they
are incidentally caught by commercial, recreational, and tribal
fisheries in the ocean and in the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Incidental
harvest of Snake River sockeye salmon and Snake River spring/summer
chinook salmon is minimal. However, fall chinook salmon are caught
incidentally in commercial and sport fisheries from Southeast Alaska to
California, in nontreaty inriver sport and commercial fisheries, and in
treaty fisheries above Bonneville Dam. In each of these fisheries,
listed Snake River fall chinook are mixed with a number of other
natural and hatchery-origin stocks. At present, these fisheries are
managed through a complex system of interrelated forums.
The Recovery Plan proposes to amend the existing inriver harvest
management rules so that they incorporate explicit management criteria
to protect Snake River salmon. To minimize the number of fall chinook
caught in ocean fisheries, NMFS proposes to implement a management
strategy that is consistent with the Pacific Salmon Commission's
objective of meeting adult chinook goals by 1998. These goals are
established for a number of stocks and are based on a chinook
rebuilding program that was fully implemented in 1984. This approach
takes a broad view of stock protection and focuses on the coastwide
status of chinook stocks, including those from Puget Sound, the
Washington and Oregon coast, and the Columbia River, all of which are
under review for listing under the ESA.
Artificial Propagation
Artificial propagation in the Columbia River Basin has contributed
successfully to ocean and inriver commercial, sport, and tribal
fisheries. In some cases, hatchery production has slowed the decline of
natural salmon populations or helped preserve them. However, effects
from intensive hatchery production (such as supporting harvest rates in
excess of what the natural populations can withstand, using natural
fish for hatchery broodstock, and causing introgression into natural
gene pools) have also contributed to the continued decline of some
natural salmon populations. Ecological interactions between hatchery
fish and natural fish such as competition, predation, displacement, and
disease transfer need to be minimized.
The Proposed Recovery Plan proposes to conserve remaining Snake
River salmon gene pools through captive broodstock, supplementation,
and gene bank programs. It also proposes to protect listed species from
excessive genetic introgression, minimize impacts on listed salmon
resulting from interactions between Columbia River Basin hatchery
salmon and natural salmon, improve the quality of fish released from
hatcheries, reduce predation and competition interactions between
listed salmon and steelhead and hatchery trout, restore listed chinook
by reintroducing them to historic habitat, and conduct research for the
purpose of optimizing production and conserving natural populations.
Incremental Costs of Recovery Actions
The Proposed Recovery Plan discusses only those incremental costs
specifically resulting from actions designed to achieve recovery under
the ESA. It does not include the economic and social effects
attributable to other authorities and responsibilities. NMFS intends to
develop a more complete estimate of the direct costs of the proposed
recovery tasks and a better description of the time required to carry
out these tasks. There will be opportunity to comment on this
supplemental cost and schedule information before NMFS issues a final
recovery plan.
In addition to the direct cost information, NMFS and the Team are
keenly aware of public interest regarding the potential indirect and
socioeconomic costs and benefits of recovery efforts for Snake River
sockeye and chinook. The decline of the currently listed stocks and
other fisheries in the Columbia River Basin has imposed substantial
losses upon the fishery dependent communities and economies of the
Pacific Northwest. Implementation of a broad-based recovery effort for
Snake River salmon will also inevitably result in some social and
economic costs to the Pacific Northwest. Some recovery actions are
relatively limited in geographic scope and economic impact, while other
actions could trigger changes in the regional economy.
In light of this interest, NMFS asked economists from the
University of Washington to reconvene the Snake River Salmon Economic
Technical Committee, review the Team's recommendations, and develop an
economic analysis of the Team's recommended actions. This analysis is
described in the February 1995 report, ``Economics of Snake River
Salmon Recovery; a Report to the National Marine Fisheries Service,''
which will be distributed with the Proposed Recovery Plan. NMFS and the
Team [[Page 19391]] believe that this report is a thorough economic
evaluation of the Team's recommendations.
No such similarly detailed economic evaluation has yet been
conducted for the tasks and objectives contained in this Proposed
Recovery Plan. However, many of the Team's recommendations are similar
to those NMFS proposes, and the relationship of the Team's
recommendations to the NMFS Proposed Recovery Plan tasks is discussed
at the end of each chapter or section of this plan. Readers of the
Proposed Recovery Plan are encouraged to review Economics of Snake
River Salmon Recovery; a Report to the National Marine Fisheries
Service.'' A more complete economic analysis of the NMFS Proposed
Recovery Plan is under development and will be made available upon
completion.
Public Comments Solicited
NMFS intends that the final recovery plan will take advantage of
information and recommendations from all interested parties. Therefore,
comments and suggestions are hereby solicited from the public, other
concerned governmental agencies, the scientific community, industry,
and any other person concerned with this Proposed Recovery Plan. Areas
on which NMFS would particularly like to receive input include the
sections on institutional structure and economics.
Public Hearings
The public hearings are scheduled as follows:
1. May 15, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Lewiston, ID.
2. May 17, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Boise, ID.
3. May 18, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Stanley, ID.
4. May 23, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., LaGrande, OR.
5. May 24, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Richland, WA.
6. May 25, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Astoria, OR.
7. May 31, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Portland, OR.
8. June 6, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Seattle, WA.
9. June 8, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Ketchikan, AK.
10. June 9, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Sitka, AK.
11. June 17, 1995, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Columbia Falls, MT.
The hearings will be held at the following locations:
1. Lewiston--City Community Bldg., 1424 Main, Lewiston, ID .
2. Boise--Interagency Fire Center Auditorium, 3905 Vista Ave.,
Boise, ID 83705.
3. Stanley--Stanley Community Center, Stanley, ID 83278.
4. LaGrande--Eastern Oregon State College, LaGrande, OR 97850.
5. Richland--Richland Federal Bldg., 825 Jadwin Ave., Richland, WA
99352.
6. Astoria--Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria, OR 97103.
7. Portland--Federal Complex Auditorium, 911 NE 11th Ave.,
Portland, OR 97232.
8. Seattle--NMFS, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, 2725 Montlake
Blvd., East, Seattle, WA 98112.
9. Ketchikan--Civic Center, 888 Venetia Avenue, Ketchikan, AK
99901.
10. Sitka--Centennial Building, 330 Harbor Drive, Sitka, AK 99835.
11. Columbia Falls--Columbia Falls High School, 610 13th Street,
Columbia Falls, MT 59912.
Dated: April 12, 1995.
Patricia Montanio,
Acting Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 95-9545 Filed 4-17-95; 8:45 am]
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