This seemed like an incredibly short time for public comment, and as it was the second time in less than six months NMFS had instigated a fast track action (see , Fish & Game Commission Votes For Emergency Lingcod Closure!), I decided to drive 240 miles in a blizzard to investigate.

The issues are complex enough that I wanted to separate the news from my personal comments. If you would like to know the sequence of events that brought us to this point read:

Chronology of Events of the KMP steelhead Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU)

Court orders NMFS to provide new determination on the KMP steelhead ESU by March 31, 2001

To NMFS' credit, they filed for an extension of the court allowed time frame to gather additional information and schedule additional hearings. The court denied their motion.

Current, Federal administrative procedures place the burden of proof on the governmental agency being sued. This is why it was relatively easy for the Federation of Fly Fishers to win their case. NMFS did not have objective data to back their decision.

Had NMFS decided to list the KMP steelhead in 1998, it is entirely possible we would be doing exactly the same thing right now because of a suit brought by Pacific Lumber.

The Bush administration is already exploring the possibility of changing the procedure to place the burden of proof on the party bringing suit against a government agency.

This was the environment in which about 80 of us found ourselves on Thursday night. In his opening remarks, Garth Griffin, conducting the hearing for NMFS, stated NMFS did not want to list the KMP steelhead.

The overwhelming number of citizens who attended and testified at the Gold Beach Hearing, were adamantly opposed to a NMFS listing. What I found most interesting about the group, which included around 30 fishing guides, was that they were for the most part, political moderates. Even the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife weighed in with a threat of filing suit if the steelhead were listed.

The results of NMFS listing KMP steelhead would appear to improve conditions for the fish by reducing water diversions and since conservative regulations were put in place a few years back, sport fishing will stay the same as it is today.

There is obviously a deeper reason for the nearly universal distain for the KMP steelhead listing in Oregon, even among the governmental agencies involved. I looking forward to finding out why, but that is another story.

One interesting aspect of the KMP is that 65% of the land is owned by the Federal Government.

The testimony presented to NMFS included presentations of how much had been done to improve habitat over the last 10 years. Curry County has over 230 miles of county roads in which every culvert has been modified so it is suitable for steelhead passage. Bear Creek Riparian Restoration Project has restored over a twenty mile long by 1/4 mile wide stretch of urban creek to near original condition. The Grants Pass area has installed nearly 200 fish screens and that number will grow to 400 over the next 3 years. One of the Curry County Commissioners even invited to come back for a tour of their fish habitat projects. Their general consensus was on shore improvements are nearing a level of completion.

Delisting procedures need to be more clearly defined and NMFS has to better educate the public as to what those procedures are.

What would the criteria for de-listing be? All the work done over the last ten years and the favorable weather conditions we have enjoyed the last 3 years have created a historically large number of fish recently. If this is the level at which one would consider the KMP steelhead threatened, can the fishery ever be significantly improved enough to remove the listing?

Natural predators such as mergansers and cormorants which feed on fry, and pinipeds such as the California Sea Lion, whose population has tripled to nearly 200,000 over the last 15 years since being listed, need be considered if steelhead populations are to increase. One guide testified that the majority of steelhead they're catching on the Smith and Chetco have some kind of scar from seals. Although it is likely they will be able to spawn, their ability to return to open water is questionable.

Research on the open ocean migration and life patterns of steelhead need to be conducted and agreements reached with the international fishing fleets for their protection as 75% of a steeelhead's life is spent in open ocean.

The Winter runs on all rivers in the KMP are healthy and strong. The summer runs are proving to be the ones in trouble. The Trinity River summer run is in the worst shape due to Bureau of Reclamation water diversions at Trinity and Lewiston Dams.

The summer run in the Main Stem of the Klamath River comes in a close second. The Copco dam, near Hornbrook, CA, was built in 1918 for power generation. Only the upper third of water held behind the dam is run through the powerhouse. This has created a large body of old deoxygenated cold water which just sits there while the much warmer surface water, loaded with fertilizer from irrigation run-off, is sent down stream with its high concentration of algae.

Uneven demand for electricity produced such wild fluctuations in flow that the Bureau of Reclamation built Iron Gate Dam, in the 1960's, a few miles down river to help even water releases. These large swings of flow are largely responsible for the near extermination of the summer run, but it happened decades ago!

The Main Stem also has a large population of Native Resident Rainbows. Some of these fish join the steelhead runs and some of the steelhead become resident. NMFS has jurisdiction over steelhead because they are a marine species, while the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has jurisdiction over the resident trout. Confused yet?

Some Fishsniffer background information on the Trinity River

"When the construction of Trinity Dam was authorized by federal legislation in 1955, the Secretary of the Interior was mandated to insure that fish and wildlife of the watershed were protected. However, this promise was broken by the federal government when they diverted 90 percent of Trinity River to the Central Valley. The steelhead and salmon runs, once some of the largest on the coast, declined dramatically.

However, federal legislation passed in 1984 reiterated the original mandate of the Bureau of Reclamation's to reestablish fish and wildlife to levels immediately preceding the construction of the Trinity Division of the Cental Valley Project." Dan Bacher 11-13-00.

The department agreed to increase flows on 12-29-00.

The irony is that the Federal Government is going to list every river in the KMP as having threatened steelhead populations due to a situation one of their agencies, the Bureau of Reclamation, is largely responsible for creating.

FYI:
The person who has to make the NMFS KMP steelhead listing decision by March 15, has yet to be appointed by President Bush.