Coho Protection Under Siege
EPIC Moves To Block Industry Lawsuit

February 1, 2002


EPIC and 12 other conservation and fishing organizations moved on February 26 to intervene in a federal lawsuit that seeks to eliminate the protected status of the coho salmon in southern Oregon and northern California. The lawsuit asks the court to drop the listing of coho salmon under the Endangered Species Act in an area where it is at great risk of extinction, and is the latest in a series of similar lawsuits brought to revoke the protected status of salmon and steelhead throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The Pacific Legal Foundation filed this lawsuit based on a September 2001 ruling that stripped the "threatened" status from coho salmon in northern Oregon. The district court ruled the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) erred in making its determination for that population of coho because it only included wild salmon and not those that are born and raised in hatcheries. However, an emergency appeal was filed by conservation organizations, and an appeals court reinstated the "threatened" status until they make a final ruling in the case.

This latest lawsuit seeks to dismantle protections for coho salmon in coastal rivers and streams stretching from Cape Blanco, Oregon to Punta Gorda, California, including the Klamath, Eel and Mattole rivers in California. Coho salmon are in serious trouble in this portion of their range, with naturally spawning fish in northern California numbering less than 6 percent of their abundance during the 1940's. Logging, grazing and development continue to cause erosion and other damage to the coho salmon's habitat today. It is imperative that efforts to protect the coho salmon increase rather than decrease if we are to prevent it from becoming extinct.

NMFS failed to appeal the ruling in the Oregon case, and the organizations involved in this action are concerned the Bush Administration, which oversees NMFS, will not provide an adequate defense for the coho salmon in this one. Intervenor status would allow EPIC to submit briefs to the court, present oral arguments and file any necessary appeals, and we intend to take every effort to ensure that the much-needed protections for coho salmon are not taken away.

EPIC, WaterWatch, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Trout Unlimited, and other organizations that joined in this action are represented by Patti Goldman and Michael Mayer of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.



This article can be found online at www.wildcalifornia.org/publications/article-30