2/1/12
Watershed groups and other conservationists expressed concern Tuesday night with terms used to rank salmon population areas in the a long-awaited draft recovery plan in fear it would reduce efforts for populations not listed as a “priority.”
National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration' fish biologist Julie Weeder, the recovery coordinator, said the terminology was not meant to reduce any efforts, but the feedback was exactly the type of information the National Marine Fisheries Service was looking for. She said the agency is required to create the plan, a set of guidelines for the recovery of coho salmon in Southern Oregon and Northern California, but the implementation is voluntary. The coho salmon was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1997 after habitat degradation, harvest and water diversion, drought, floods and poor ocean conditions led to its depletion.
”I firmly believe that this plan will not succeed unless it makes sense to people,” Weeder said, adding that she wants as much community input as possible to create a more accurate final draft and encourage community participation.
After 12 years of research, NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service released its draft recovery plan in January. Clarence Hostler, a regional supervisor with NOAA, said the service recognizes that the draft still needs to be revised, and it will continue to be revised throughout the years. The plan is scheduled to be updated every five years.
”It's better to have an imperfect plan, rather than no plan at all,” he said.
According to the service, the plan will provide short term solutions and long term solutions to restore habitat, ranging from increasing channel complexity by adding woody debris, to improving the timing or volume of water flow by establishing statewide groundwater permit program. The plan also includes guidelines for monitoring and collecting data.
While several individuals at the meeting thanked the service for creating detailed profiles of each area, they were all concerned about the feasibility of the plan. In addition to wanting clarity on the ranking of areas and threats, concerns included addressing timber practices, including language specifying the ability to reassess areas that have been termed as not a “core” area, and extending the comment period for 30 days or longer. The service is holding several other meetings in the next month in Northern California, and the deadline for the comments is March 5. Weeder said she would be willing to meet with people in addition to the public meetings, and it may even be possible to hold another public forum.
Electronic copies of the draft plan are available at www.swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/recovery or on a CD by contacting Cynthia Anderson at 825-5162 or by sending an email with “CD ROM request for SONCC coho salmon draft recovery plan” to
