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STATEMENT OF DR, RAY J. WHITE 



Dr. White. I am an independent stream habitat consultant from 

 Edmonds, Washington. I have 35 years experience in analyzing and 

 restoring stream habitats, so what we are talking about, I have 

 long association with. Including, among other things, service as a 

 State fishery biologist in Wisconsin, and most recently teaching at 

 Montana State University where I retired a couple of years ago. 

 And I have had very close participation with the Forest Service and 

 BLM scientists and managers. 



I have long served on Trout Unlimited's Board of Scientific Advi- 

 sors and I appear today on behalf of that conservation organization. 



I strongly support the initiatives of the Forest Service and BLM 

 for better salmonid habitat. There is great potential, as we are 

 hearing today, for positive changes in these agencies so that public 

 forests and grasslands can better help save the Pacific salmon re- 

 source from demise. 



The Forest Service and BLM have developed excellent knowledge 

 about aquatic resources on their methods to protect and restore wa- 

 ters. This has been through the work of scientists like Drs. Sedell, 

 Swanson and Mr. Williams, who I believe is in the room, and many 

 other people in the Forest Service and BLM. 



You can have tremendous faith in those professionals. They are 

 some of the world's foremost stream scientists and managers. 



What needs to be done is to free them from certain agency tradi- 

 tions and fund them to do what they know must be done. In par- 

 ticular, I support the watershed approaches like those in the Pa- 

 cific River Council's proposal and in earlier efforts to forge eco- 

 system-wide management, such as the so-called "Gang of Four" re- 

 port. 



I would like to speak to certain attributes of the watershed strat- 

 egy; it is important because it addresses habitat. That is the basis 

 of the fishery. It is important because it is based on science, rather 

 than whim. And it is important because it puts top priority on 

 keeping the good habitat we have left, places second the priority, 

 also very important, on restoring damaged habitat. So I urge you 

 to put this watershed approach into effect on Federal lands in the 

 Northwest. 



Why? Because as we've just heard, our Pacific salmon are really 

 in bad trouble. Also because past efforts to solve habitat problems 

 for them has been inadequate and because the salmon need such 

 major coordinated help now. 



That is important to recognize and for us not to beat around the 

 bush. It is things people do that have driven the resource to its 

 knees. Washington's, Oregon's, Idaho's, and California's wild salm- 

 on populations are pitiful, fast-declining remnants of what they 

 once were. And as Mr. Tiensen has just mentioned, there is the 

 stopping of fishing on some stocks. So a national treasure is col- 

 lapsing. It is the same mistake we made with the Atlantic salmon 

 on the East Coast, and more recently with Great Lakes fisheries 

 and many other magnificent fisheries in the United States. 



The question is are we going to complete the mistake on the 

 West Coast. The stocking of millions of hatchery salmon per year 

 has failed to stem the decline. It has harmed wild populations and 



