The success of salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin depends on the willingness of the region to make those tough choices. The report, along with other federal studies currently under way, will eventually provide the foundation for a salmon recovery plan that is due next spring. Not breaching the dams, restoring habitat on federal lands, sharply cutting back fishing and changing hatchery operations so they are used to spawn wild fish and not to sustain a commercial fishery. Deferring a decision on dam breaching, but working to restore habitat on federal and private lands in the Columbia Basin, locking in current fishing levels for the foreseeable future and overhauling hatchery operations to provide more spawning of wild fish. Breaching the dams, imposing habitat restrictions on federal and private lands, curtailing most fishing and increasing conservation programs at hatcheries.
Federal scientists believe each option has a chance of success.
While the final alternative, the most aggressive, may have the best chance of success, it likely would be unpalatable politically. Prior to the 1960s, up to 16 million salmon returned each year to spawn in rivers and streams of the Columbia Basin. Today, only about 1 million fish return, and most originate in hatcheries, not from the wild, the report said. Given the impacts of extensive hydropower development on the salmon runs of the Columbia Basin, this focus is entirely understandable and appropriate. At the same time, however, maintaining a broad, more comprehensive focus on other major sources of declines is equally important if recovery efforts are to succeed.