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— Negotiations on and /or settlement of Idaho et. al. v. NMFS et. al. 



before Judge Malcolm Marsh; 



— The forthcoming recovery plan from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal 



Fish Commission; and 



— The Detailed Fishery Operating Plan from CBFWA for hydropower 



passage. 



Clearly the Recovery Team recommendations should not become the first or 

 the last words on salmon recovery. 



Finally, NMFS should take some immediate emergency steps to 

 prevent further decline of the Snake River salmon. As acknowledged in the 

 Recovery Team recommendations, spill has been demonstrated over and 

 over again to give migrating juvenile salmon the safest possible passage past 

 the dam structures themselves. Flow augmentation and reservoir 

 drawdowns offer smolts the safest path through the reservoirs. Therefore. 

 NMFS should secure the maximum possible fish flows, and work should 

 begin immediately so that John Day reservoir can operate at minimum 

 operating pool (MOP) and Lower Granite reservoir can operate below MOP at 

 the earliest possible date. At the very brink of extinction, salmon in the 

 Columbia /Snake watershed simply do not have time to spare; nor does the 

 Pacific Northwest economy. 



Sierra Club —Page 9 



