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We think it is important to take a broad view in salmon rebuilding efforts in 

 the Columbia River Basin and not focus narrowly on the Snake River stocks. 

 Petitions have been filed to protect fish stocks elsewhere in the Columbia River 

 Basin under the Endangered Species Act. To us, this emphasizes the need for 

 coordinated, basinwide recovery efforts. The ESA imposes a recovery planning 

 process that is something like emergency surgery. To attack a problem that is so 

 wide-ranging, the region needs a broad approach — a holistic health care plan 

 rather than emergency surgery to aid specific stocks. 



Fortunately, the Northwest Power Act of 1980 gives us the opportunity to 

 address the decline of salmon populations regionwide. Through this law. which 

 created the Northwest Power Planning Council, the region developed a 

 comprehensive program to protect and rebuild salmon and steelhead populations 

 basinwide. It is the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program and. 

 particularly, that component of the program known as the "Strategy for Scilmon." 

 We completed it in late 1992. and it is being implemented. 



We believe the Strategy for Salmon is compatible with at least five legal 

 mandates that our region is attempting to fulfill. The first is the Northwest Power 

 Act. The second is the Endangered Species Act. The third is our nation's 

 responsibility to Columbia Basin Indian tribes under the treaties of 1855. The 

 fourth is our nation's obligations to rebuild naturally spawning salmon runs 

 under the U.S. /Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty of 1985. The fifth is the Clean 

 Water Act. 



Efforts on all these fronts cein and should proceed simultaneously and in a 

 coordinated way. None of these mandates is less important than any other. They 

 all edm to protect and enhance fish and wildlife populations in the Columbia River 

 Basin, albeit to different levels. 



Our Strategy is comprehensive, in that it includes measures designed to 

 improve salmon survival at every stage of the life cycle. It is based on the best 

 available science, as required by the Northwest Power Act. Both the Council and 

 the Recovery Team faced the difficult task of sifting through a considerable 

 amount of data, analyses, judgments and opinions to identify the needs of salmon. 

 The Teaim's mission was to develop an Endangered Species Act recovery plan that 



