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necessity for additional scientific efibrt on these issues has been frequently 

 expressed over the years in the Council's program, and elsewhere. One of the 

 primary impediments to progress has been the difficulty of framing the question to 

 be answered and securing agreement on methods to evaluate the flow/velocity and 

 transportation survival relationships. In our flow/survival hypotheses 

 rulemaking, we projX)se to pose the questions so that they can be openly 

 addressed. We conducted public hearings around the region and took public 

 comments on the proposed hypotheses through this month. We are scheduled to 

 make a decision in late July. 



Meanwhile, the Team's draft recovery plan proposed that, to improve 

 downstream survival, the region should select either a transportation or in-river 

 migration path as soon as possible. As things stand, the Council has not found it 

 prudent to choose one particular approach to downstream migration over another. 

 The Team's final recommendations are broader, urging that if smolt collection and 

 transportation from the dams and in-river migration without drawdown of the 

 lower Snake River reservoirs does not result in significantly improved survival, 

 then the region should consider implementing other options — such as drawdowns 

 or a new smolt collection facility at the head of Lower Granite reservoir. 



Available data do not point to either transportation or in-river migration as 

 the sole means to sustain or rebuild populations. Benefits firom improvements in 

 river passage or transportation are uncertain, especially for naturally spawning 

 stocks. In view of these considerations, we called on the region to put in place an 

 immediate, multi-faceted program of increased flow and velocity, improved bypass, 

 increased spUl, unproved transportation and predator-control measures. We 

 believe these immediate actions could minimize the risk of failure and improve 

 salmon survival. However, our analysis also indicates that they will be insufficient 

 — even when taken together with significant improvements in other areas of the 

 life cycle ~ to protect all weak stocks or reach the rebuilding goals set by the 

 Council. 



Accordingly, we said that as a matter of urgency the region should make all 

 necessary preparations to implement expeditiously a number of additional 

 measures: drawdowns of lower Snake River reservoirs, additional water storage in 

 the Snake River Basin and improved water-use efficiencies. We urged that the 



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