18 



Problems with water quality standards. There are several places 

 throughout the basin where temperature is a major problem, for 

 example. Salmon and trout have very specific temperature require- 

 ments. In some parts of the basin, water temperatures are far too 

 high for 



Mr. Manton. Why is that? 



Mr. Moyer. One reason certainly is that the riparian areas, the 

 streamside areas of the streams, have been damaged in the basin 

 where timber harvest has occurred and taken away the shade. 

 These are trees that provide the shade to keep temperatures down 

 in the region. That is a big problem that needs to be fixed. 



So that is one example of a water quality problem that needs to 

 be fixed. Again, I would say these problems are fixable and we are 

 not too far along in terms of degradation in the basin, that I know 

 of, to be able to restore the systems. 



Mr. Manton. Thank you, Mr. Moyer. 



I'll turn the remainder of the time over to Mr. Hamburg. 



Mr. Hamburg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I want to repeat, as several of my colleagues have, how much I 

 appreciate people coming from afar to speak with us, and as a Rep- 

 resentative from northern California, north coastal California, a lot 

 of the concerns that have been brought forth today are certainly 

 shared in my district. 



What I would like to spend my few minutes getting some under- 

 standing of is hatcheries and the situation where we try to restore 

 salmon runs, using hatcheries, problems that occur or do not occur, 

 according to your opinion, with respect to the proportion of hatch- 

 ery fish to native fish in a situation where you are trying to restore 

 runs of salmon. 



Mr. Smith, maybe we could start with you, and I will ask other 

 panelists to jump in. If you could just talk about what — maybe as a 

 way to jump into it — what risks hatcheries present to wild salmon 

 stocks, as you see that. 



Mr. Smith. Well, I know there is a debate on the genetic varia- 

 tion of fish that are stocked from hatcheries versus wild stock and 

 what that means to the wild populations. The debate has not been 

 resolved. I believe that since we have been stocking fish in those 

 streams for 50 to 70 years that every stream has been stocked one 

 way or another with a variety of fish that may not have been 

 native to the area. That is one concern. 



The second concern is I don't think you can get the levels or 

 meet the expectations of everybody without some kind of artificial 

 stocking program. I do think we should be cautious in carrying out 

 such a program. And as we go along, I think we will learn more 

 about the effects of stocking programs, but I would not dismiss 

 stocking as a way to restore these runs. 



On the other hand, I don't think you can solely depend upon 

 stocking. You must deal with the harvest as well as the habitat 

 part of the equation. Right now, I think we are getting a fairly 

 good handle on the harvest, although I know when you go to the 

 ocean, the ocean is large and you have difficulty doing so. We do 

 know how to restore, and given the resources, I think we could 

 move into that and still deal with our hatchery program and use 

 hatchery as a supplement to wild stocks. 



