486 



While the framework the Council established has identified all 

 the necessary elements for an effective recovery and rebuilding ef- 

 fort, the measure of its success will depend on future actions. It is 

 unfortunate that the Council was unable to estabUsh many of the 

 critical elements of rebuilding plans, including rebuilding targets 

 and schedules for all salmon stocks, as well as survival targets and 

 performance standards. Successfully fleshing out these important 

 details of rebuilding plans will require sufficient fiinding from the 

 Bonneville Power Administration and the cooperation of many im- 

 plementing agencies and input fi'om the National Marine Fisheries 

 recovery planning effort. 



The Fish & Wildlife Service under the Coordination Act, has 

 been working with the States and tribes to develop a Columbia 

 River system flow and reservoir operations alternative that if im- 

 plemented would lead to the rebuilding of salmon runs. 



The Service's 1993 alternative was submitted to the Corps of En- 

 gineers in our March 1993 Coordination Act Report, but was not 

 implemented. The Service will continue to work with the tribes and 

 state agencies to modify the operations alternative, which will in- 

 corporate the needs of listed species and species of concern in the 

 Columbia River basin. 



Bonneville, the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclama- 

 tion have agreed to proceed with full-scale analysis of our alter- 

 native through their Systems Operations Review. We urge these 

 three federal agencies to give serious consideration to this £ilter- 

 native, and are confident that our work will be beneficial to future 

 deliberations by the Council and the action agencies. 



There are many obstacles to recovery and rebuilding of salmon 

 runs in the Columbia River basin that the Council has addressed 

 by developing intermediate-term actions in their Strategy for Salm- 

 on, One of the most difficult obstacles is how to overcome the im- 

 pacts on fish migration of the four lower Snake River dams and im- 

 poundments. The dams and reservoirs have greatly reduced water 

 velocities through the lower Snake River, which has increased the 

 time of exposure for migrating smolts to predation, high water tem- 

 peratures and diseases. 



Another strategy for overcoming these effects is to decrease the 

 cross-sectional area and volume of the reservoirs to increase water 

 velocities. The Strategy for Salmon calls for drawing down res- 

 ervoirs behind the four lower Snake River dams by April of 1995, 

 to increase water velocity during the juvenile fish migration period 

 unless it is found to be structurally, economically or biologically in- 

 feasible, or inconsistent with the Northwest Power Act. 



We will continue to work through the Council's process and with 

 the federal action agencies to evaluate alternatives and implement 

 drawdown. As I said earlier, for any part of the Council's fish and 

 wildlife program to be successful, it must have adequate funding to 

 carry out its mandate. For the future, we suggest that a portion of 

 the Bonneville's reserves be dedicated to ensure fish and wildlife 

 funding stabiUty. The establishment of additional mitigation trust 

 funds would also help stabilize funding of specific fish and wildlife 

 program activities. For the near term, Bonneville should budget 

 sufficient funds to implement the Council's program. 



