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Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Federal 

 Energy Regulatory Commission. 



• The National Marine Fisheries Service has worked closely with us as it meets its 

 Endangered Species Act obligations to develop recovery plans for the listed Snake 

 River stocks. Regional Director Rolland Schmitten has endorsed our approach 

 repeatedly and encouraged the region to implement our program as a foundation for 

 the eventual provisions of the recovery plans. These plans have been delayed by 

 complex scientific questions, and we are helping the recovery team with analysis. 

 Although we are focused on the immediate needs of the listed Snake River salmon 

 stocks, our program measures address the Columbia Basin more comprehensively, 

 in part to prevent the need for future listings. 



We recognize, as does Mr. Schmitten, that the Council and the Fisheries Service 

 have different missions. Our fish and wildlife program aims to improve all salmon 

 stocks in the Columbia Basin, while the Fisheries Service is required by law to 

 focus more narrowly on the listed stocks. 



We are working closely with the Fisheries Service to ensure that our fish and 

 wildlife program, particularly the Strategy for Salmon, is coordinated with recovery 

 plans for listed salmon stocks so that implementation of our measures is not 

 delayed. 



We are encouraged that Mr. Schmitten is committed to a more open process in 

 developing recovery plans for salmon under the Endangered Species Act. 



• The Corps of Engineers, Bonneville and other agencies are evaluating drawdown of 

 the Snake River and John Day reservoirs to speed juvenile salmon migration. These 

 evaluations continue under the review of the Council's Drawdown Oversight 

 Committee, but the Corps recently announced it would miss the November 1993 

 deadline by at least six months. 



• The Corps and the Bureau of Reclamation, as operators of Columbia Basin dams, 

 cooperate with Bonneville in adjusting river operations to improve conditions for 

 fish and wildlife. The three agencies cooperated in 1992 in implementing the 

 Strategy for Salmon's flow measures under constraints of a severely low water year, 

 the provisions of treaty obligations withCanada and, in the case of Reclamation, 

 state water laws. The agencies are also cooperating in evaluating the feasibility of 



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