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COLUMBIA RIVER INTER-TRIBAL FISH COMMISSION 



729 N.E. Oregon. Suite 200. Portland. Oregon 97232 Telephone (S03) 238-0667 



Fax (503) 235-4228 



March 19, 1993 



The Hon. Elizabeth Furse, Member of Congress 



316 Cannon Building 



U.S. House of Representatives 



Washington, D.C. 20515 



RE: Written testimony concerning salmon restoration through habitat protection and hatchery 

 reforms relevant to the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Subcommittee on 

 Environment and Natural Resources, Hearing on the Roles Watershed Management and Hatchery 

 Practices will play in the Restoration of River Ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest, March 9, 

 1993. 



Dear Rep. Furse: 



Pursuant to your request of March 15, 1993, to Mr. Ted Strong, Columbia River Inter- 

 Tribal Fish Commission (CRTTFC) Executive Director, I am submitting the following comments 

 on the testimony presented to the Subcommittee on March 9. I have asked my colleague, Mr. Jon 

 Rhodes, a hydrologist and expert on habitat protection, to join me in these comments so that the 

 Subcommittee would have access to Mr. Rhodes' perspectives on the importance of habitat 

 protection, and the benefit of some highly specific information on the role of habitat protection 

 in salmon restoration. We open with comments on hatchery reforms, followed by a discussion 

 of the importance of habitat protection. We conclude with specific recommendations for habitat 

 protection actions that can be taken on federal and private lands. 



The Need for Hatchery Reform 



In concert with all the members of the scientific panel, we agree that hatchery technology 

 has a role to play in the restoration of river ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest. We also agree 

 with Dr. Kapuscinski that hatchery reforms are essential in order for hatchery technology to play 

 an effective and positive role in recovery of Columbia basin salmon populations. In the Columbia 

 River basin and elsewhere, state and federal agencies have used federal money for hatcheries to 

 raise the wrong species and stocks of salmon with the wrong technology and released them in the 

 wrong locations for too many years. Hatchery reform is necessary so that technologies can be 

 applied to restore, and to maintain for as long as necessary, the biological and genetic diversity 

 of salmon in the Columbia River basin. Hatchery reform is necessary to restore the historical 

 species composition of salmon to the localities where they were once locally abundant. Hatchery 



