PLF Files Lawsuit Challenging 16 Salmon ESA Listings
Throughout the West
Contact: Russ BrooksPhone: (425) 576-0484
Eugene,OR; December 13, 2005:
Pacific Legal Foundation today filed a sweeping
lawsuit challenging 16 Endangered Species Act listings of
salmon spanning four western states, charging the federal government
with illegally distinguishing between hatchery and naturally spawned
fish. PLF says NOAA Fisheries Service's new hatchery policy and the
listings violate the ESA, and contradict PLF’s 2001 landmark federal
court victory in
Alsea Valley Alliance v. Evans.
In
Alsea, a federal court ruled the government had violated the ESA
when it ignored the prolific numbers of hatchery salmon in listing the
Oregon coast coho as threatened. Federal officials agreed to comply with
the ruling by reviewing the status of its salmon listings and updating
them to ensure they complied with the court’s ruling. Instead, PLF says
NOAA’s "relistings" are nothing more than a shell game; the agency
continues to justify the ESA listings by "counting" and evaluating only
the naturally spawned fish in determining whether a given population
warrants listing, then listing the entire population of both hatchery
and naturally spawned fish—but excluding hatchery salmon from ESA
protection.
"Four years ago, federal officials promised they
would issue new findings on salmon listings that would comply with the
court’s decision in
Alsea," said Russ Brooks, the managing
attorney for PLF’s Pacific Northwest office who successfully litigated
the
Alsea Valley Alliance case. "Instead, the agency continues to
ignore the law and the scientific reality that thousands of hatchery and
naturally spawned fish thriving in western rivers mean that salmon are
not threatened with extinction."
"The ESA does not allow federal
regulators to treat some members of a species differently when they
exist in the same river, in the same natural ecosystems, and interbreed
together," added Brooks.
PLF says that the salmon listings are
crippling the economies of western states, driving prices up, and
killing jobs in almost every major economic sector from farming and
agriculture to new home construction and transportation.
"This
policy is an insult to the tens of thousands of people whose livelihoods
are being held hostage by needless regulations to protect fish that
aren’t endangered," said Brooks.
PLF filed the lawsuit on behalf
of a broad coalition of property owners, farmers, and business groups
representing tens of thousands of citizens in Oregon, Washington,
California, and Idaho, including Alsea Valley Alliance, Oregon State
Grange, Jackson County Pomona Grange, Washington Farm Bureau, Washington
Association of Realtors, Building Industry Association of Washington,
California State Grange, Greenhorn Grange, Central Coast Forest
Association, Coalition for Idaho Water, Idaho Farm Bureau, Idaho Water
Users Association, Pioneer Irrigation District, and Idaho State Senator
Skip Brandt.
About Pacific Legal FoundationFounded in
1973, Pacific Legal Foundation is a nonprofit, public interest legal
organization dedicated to defending individual and private property
rights. PLF is a national leader in the effort to reform the Endangered
Species Act and raise awareness of the act’s impact on people. PLF’s
Pacific Northwest Center is located in Bellevue,
Washington.