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have acknowledged that the existing measures in our salmon strategy are by 

 themselves Insufficient to protect all wezik stocks or rebuild to flshable levels. 



Your third question concerns the essential elements of a rebuilding plan. We 

 believe that a rebuilding plan must improve salmon survivcil at all stages of the 

 salmon's life cycle. In that, we concur with the Recovery Team. We believe, 

 however, that an effective effort must also go beyond the immediate listed stocks if 

 we are to ever get off the Endangered Species Act treadmill. In addition, we have 

 other legal mandates including tribal treaty rights and the rebuilding obligaUons 

 of the Pacific Salmon Treaty with Canada that must be addressed in the Columbia 

 River Basin. These will require measures beyond those needed to remove listed 

 salmon stocks from the Endemgered Species list. 



Many of the salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin are in deep trouble 

 despite substanUal recovery efforts to date. Arguably, the stocks that are in the 

 worst condiUon are those in the Snake River that are being protected under the 

 Endangered Species Act. This year only about 600 naturally spawning spring 

 Chinook salmon Eire expected to return above Lower Granite, and the outlook for 

 summer and fall chinook is similarly disastrous. 



But the combination of impacts that brought the Snake River runs to within a 

 few steps of extinction are not unique to the Snake River. They are the same 

 conditions that have damaged salmon runs throughout the Columbia Basin. We 

 know there are many reasons for the decline of these runs, some human-caused, 

 others not. The impact of dams, historic overfishing and poor hatchery pracUces. 

 for example, can be blamed, and so can damage to spawning and rearing habitat. 

 Much of the reduction in this year's runs may be attributable to the seven-year 

 drought in the Columbia Basin and to very poor feeding conditions in the ocean. 

 But a successful recovery program must be able to withstand unfavorable natural 

 conditions - just as the runs were able to withstand adverse natural conditions 

 when they were healthy. If it doesn't, the runs will be lost. The runs are declining 

 despite substantial regional efforts during the last 12 years to improve their 

 survival. Twelve years is only about three generations of salmon, and so it may be 

 too soon to gauge success. 



