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US Salmon Plan Slammed by Staff Green Consumer Guide - September 13, 2004

The Bush Administration’s recently published draft plans for wild salmon recovery have been deemed a ‘major backward step’ by conservation and fishing organisations. The Federal Salmon Plan reassesses the threat posed to salmon by dams, calling for operations that meet demands of electrical generators and barge operations.

Opponents to the scheme claim that dams block salmon movement up and down river, harming the natural migration process. Juvenile salmon die in the still water reservoirs formed on the upstream side of the dams due to the lack of downstream current needed to move them to the ocean.

"Today's plan disregards sound science and the law. Such an extreme change of directions is not just bad news for imperiled salmon; it is bad news for people too," said Todd True, Earthjustice. "This administration was asked to take several reasonable steps forward toward long-term salmon recovery and instead they have taken pretty much every giant step backwards they could find."

"This plan has gone from bad to worse," said John Kober, National Wildlife Federation. "Instead of ensuring that we will see long-term salmon recovery and abundance, it jeopardizes whether we will have salmon at all."