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Congressman DeFazio. members of the task force, my name is AI Wright. I am the Executive Director 

 of the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee (PNUCC). PNUCC is a non-profit association 

 of public and private electric utilities and direct service industries in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and 

 Montana. We represent the three major Bonneville Power Administration customer groups on regional 

 power and environmental issues. We appreciate the opportunity to express our views on recovery of 

 salmon stocks in the Columbia Basin. 



The first half of my testimony are responses to the questions that the task force asked us to address. In 

 the second half, I will attempt to dispel several myths that pervade current salmon recovery folklore and 

 that, I believe, are impediments to regional consensus on recovery of weak stocks. 



RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS 



1. Is the NPPC's Strategy For Salmon an appropriate and sufficient framework for salmon 



recovery efforts in the Columbia Basin? What are the strengths and weaknesses? 



The Strategy for Salmon takes a first step toward an ecosystems approach to fish and wildlife protection 

 and mitigation but more is needed. Most imponantly, the Strategy needs a better conceptual framework. 

 The Strategy has been developed by adopting thousands of fish and wildlife projects, which were 

 proposed by various interests, and then attempting to build a strategy out of this "smorgasbord" of 

 projects. The NPPC should first evaluate fish and wildlife needs and establish a conceptual base with 

 goals and objectives and then adopt projects that meet those needs. 



The Strategy and other fish programs in the Pacific Northwest do not focus on weak stock management 

 or recovery. To serve as the framework for salmon, or other fish recovery, the conceptual base of the 



PNUCC September 21. 1993 -1- PB:i: 



