Countless species have thrived over the eons in the
clear-running streams of the ancient redwood forest.
Coho and chinook salmon, steelhead trout, the
southern torrent salamander and the eerily
prehistoric tailed frog are among the many fish and
amphibian species that have adapted to life in cold,
deep pools far below a dense redwood canopy.
However, since Europeans first brought their
technologies of resource extraction to California's
steep coastal valleys over a century ago, all of these
creatures have suffered. The annual spawning run
of wild coho salmon has declined roughly 90% over
the past 50 years, from more than 200,000 in the
1940s to approximately 10,000 today. Sadly, the
whims of industry-friendly politicians may
determine once and for all whether the coho swims
back from the brink of extinction or finally slips
over the edge.
The massive decline in coho populations primarily
results from degradation of its habitat in coastal
streams. Ranch-ing, logging, and road-building
projects clog the gravel beds coho use for spawning
with silt and sediment, while culverts and other
water diversions create barriers to migration. Water
temperatures now rise to lethal levels every summer
in streams once shaded by the forest canopy. Coho
spend more time than other salmonid species in
freshwater streams and are especially sensitive to
changes in water temperature. Thus, the status of
the coho is an indicator of the overall health of our
coastal stream systems and the surrounding
landscape.
In response to this decline, strict regulations have all
but shut down the commercial salmon fishing
industry, failing completely to focus on the
systematic habitat degradation that is killing off the
coho. While the timber industry thrives under laws
providing for only minimal watercourse protection,
commercial fishermen continue to be driven out of
work. In late 1993, the National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), the federal agency that has
jurisdiction over "anadromous" fish species (species
that migrate from the sea to spawn in coastal
streams), finally accepted a petition to list the coho
under the Endangered Species Act. When their
required "status review" continued for almost a year
beyond the legal deadline, EPIC with dozens of
other groups sued NMFS, seeking to immediately
list all three coho populations, called "Evolutionarily
Significant Units," or "ESUs," south of the Columbia
River. Although we won the case, NMFS' top
officials only listed one ESU, covering coastal
streams from the Mattole River south to Santa Cruz.
Alleging scientific disagreement about the need for
listing, NMFS elected to delay listing populations to
the north for six months, and has failed to issue
promised guidelines for protection of the central
California population.
After this series of unjustified delays, the Clinton
administration finally listed the northern
California/southern Oregon population of coho
salmon as "threatened" under the federal
Endangered Species Act on April 25, 1997.
Wishing to soften the economic impact of the
impending listing of the coho salmon the California
Resources Agency convened a "Coastal Salmon
Initiative" in January 1996. This "CSI process"
involved "stakeholders" from a wide range of
interestsenvironmentalists, industry representatives,
fishermen and restoration advocatesand aimed to
develop a recovery program that would meet ESA
requirements in the event of a coho listing.
Although some progress was made in convening a
competent scientific panel and outlining a basic
recovery program, the Resources Agency predictably
favored the interests of large landowners over all
others. As one court-ordered deadline drew near, a
set of pseudo-scientific "data" disputing the need for
listing was prepared by the California Forestry
Association, the state's most prominent timber lobby
group. Resources Secretary Doug Wheeler then
presented this bogus science verbatim to NMFS as
the state's official position on the issue, allowing
NMFS to justify further delay.
This act of shameless collaboration spelled the end
of the CSI process; the fishermen and
environmentalists walked out, leaving standards for
protection of coho up to NMFS. However, NMFS
has refused to offer protection or recovery measures,
deferring to state agencies such as the California
Department of Forestry (CDF) and the Water Quality
Control Board that have allowed the coho's decline
in the first place. While NMFS waffled and stalled,
bulldozers plowed through river channels,
streamside canopy crashed to the ground, and road
systems dumped tons of sediment into rivers and
creeks.
The long-awaited decision to list the Transboundary
ESU on April 25 failed to list the coho salmon in
central Oregon. Despite the listing in California,
NMFS and Governor Wilson are desperately trying
to negotiate an agreement that is unlikely to protect
and recover coho populations. Based on EPIC's
experience defending threatened species, we believe
that the federal listing under the ESA does not
guarantee protection for the species. Despite the
prohibitions against "taking" of the coho, NMFS's
protection standards for the coho will probably be
minimal. Advocacy and watch-dog groups like EPIC
will once again need to use the courts and the
legislature to push the agencies to adopt meaningful
protections as mandated under the ESA so that the
coho along with other threatened specieswill not slip
into oblivion.
