To reinvigorate the case, the tribes focused narrowly on the state's admittedly faulty construction and maintenance of culverts, pipes that carry water under streets and railroad tracks and through embankments. Improperly built or maintained culverts block salmon from reaching more than 3,000 miles of streams valuable for salmon reproduction, according to state estimates. The filing by the tribes comes in a long-running case and ostensibly deals only with culverts, but the document carries much broader implications. While refraining from predicting success in this new filing, an attorney for the tribes acknowledged that it could boost the Indians' ability to affect public policy. What the impact will be down the road is impossible to say.
Scientists say manifold efforts are required to restore the plummeting salmon runs.
Environmentalists are pushing for more water to be left in streams by farmers, local governments and others. They also have pursued lawsuits aimed at stopping timber cuts, which can allow unshaded streams to grow too warm for salmon to thrive. Also at issue is construction of buildings, seawalls and docks alongside streams, bays and other waters. Although the state is enjoying record prosperity, many Indians are out of work because salmon runs have plunged. Much of the decline is traceable to degradation of spawning streams, they said.