Judge Urges Federal Agencies to Address Flaws in Plan for Columbia River Salmon

摘要

In devising a recovery plan for Columbia River and Snake River salmon, federal agencies "improperly rely on speculative, uncertain, and unidentified" habitat improvements to conclude that the threatened and endangered species are 'trending toward recovery,' " according to the federal judge presiding in litigation over the plan (National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service, D. Or., No. CV01-640, letter to counsel of record 5/18/09). In a May 18 letter to counsel representing plaintiff environmental and fishing groups and defendant federal agencies in the case, Judge James Redden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon outlined a number of flaws in the federal government's salmon recovery plan, drawn up in 2008 by National Marine Fisheries Service.