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A Recovery Plan Must Protect the River Ecosystem. 



A fundamental purpose of the ESA is to provide a means of 

 conserving the ecosystems upon which endangered species depend. 

 The Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries are a 

 critical part of the ecosystem upon which listed salmon depend, 

 am ecosystem that all parties admit has been badly degraded. The 

 river ecosystem is the part of the salmon life cycle most lethal 

 to the salmon and most in need of improvement, the admitted 

 source of most mortality to migrating fish. 



When it comes to improving the river ecosystem, we know the 

 fundamentals that must be at the heart of recovery. First, 

 setting aside the rhetoric over fish flows and looking at the 

 best available scientific information, we know that improving 

 salmon survival requires better, faster flows for migrating fish. 

 This is the conclusion of the state fishery agencies and tribes, 

 and of NMFS in its recent assessment of flow data, an appendix to 

 its 1994-98 Biological Opinion. 



The need for improved flows, while not satisfied, underlies 

 the Power Council's Strategy for Salmon as well. By way of 

 illustration, the Power Council recently presented the following 

 scientific hypothesis: 



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