8 PEER-REVIEWED REASONS OF SALMON DECLINE
by USFWS

Followed by biography of fisheries scientist David Vogel

 VIDEO/AUDIO of David Vogel describing the 8 peer-reviewed reasons for the decline of coho salmon.

"These individuals were charged with developing information and measures necessary to restore anadromous fish in the lower Klamath River Basin," states biologist/scientist David Vogel.  "The factors that were referred to with regard to the declines in salmon were attributable to 8 causes:

1. Over fishing
2. Logging
3. The Trinity River Diversion , which is a transbasin diversion from Klamath Basin to  central valley in California
4. Irrigation Diversions in the lower Klamath Basin tributaries, not the mainstem but the tributaries
5. The 1964 Flood
6. The 1976 - 77 drought which was a 50 year/100 year drought, back-to-back
7. Sea Lion predation
8. Brown Trout predation

"There's not a single mention in this extensive document, again a peer-reviewed document, that even mentions the Upper Klamath Basin or irrigation in the Klamath Project," states David Vogel. This document is the "Final Report Hoopa Valley Reservation Inventory of Reservation Waters Fish Rearing Feasibility Study and a Review of the History & Status of Anadromous Fishery Resources of the Klamath River Basin", prepared by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in March 1979.

"This other report is the 'Lower Klamath River Instream Flow Study', prepared by Donald Anglin, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in August of 1994. The Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs funded the study" relates Deb Crisp, Tulelake Growers Association executive director.

"It lists the two primary reasons for the decline in the anadromous fisheries as being ocean harvest and degradation of habitat in the tributaries to the Lower Klamath River. Once again, Klamath Project diversions are not mentioned, flows in the main stem are not identified as a limiting factor.

There is no empirical data that supports a relationship between Coho populations or populations of other salmonids and flow releases at Iron Gate Dam."

The previous quotes by David Vogel were obtained via videotaped interview  2001.

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Biography of David Vogel

David Vogel was trained as a fisheries scientist and has worked in this discipline for the past 28 years. He has a Master of Science degree in Natural Resources (Fisheries) received from the University of Michigan in 1979 and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology received from Bowling Green State University in 1974. He previously worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for 14 years and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for one year. During his tenure with the federal government, he received numerous superior and outstanding achievement awards and commendations, including Fisheries Management Biologist of the Year Award for six western states.

For the past 13 years, Vogel has been a consulting fisheries scientist, primarily working on fishery resource issues in the western United States. He has worked as a consulting fisheries scientist on behalf of federal, state, and county governments, Indian tribes, and numerous other public and private groups. He is presently the Principal Scientific Investigator for research projects on salmon on behalf of federal and state agencies in California.

Vogel has extensive knowledge of the habitat requirements for fish species in rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries. During his employment with the USFWS from 1981 to 1990, he directed a large program to perform research on salmon in California’s Central Valley and developed fishery resource restoration measures. He also performed numerous research projects on salmon for the USFWS in many rivers and streams in the Pacific Northwest. He has worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Interior, the California Attorney General’s Office and other entities as an expert witness on fishery resource issues.

For more than a decade, Vogel has advised the Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) on Klamath River basin fishery resource issues. He was a principal contributor of biological information for the 1992 Biological Assessment on Long-Term Operations of the Klamath Project. Vogel was the principal author of the “Initial Ecosystem Restoration Plan for the Upper Klamath River Basin” in 1993 and one of the primary contributing authors to the Upper Basin Amendment to the Klamath River fishery restoration program. He has prior knowledge and work experience in the Klamath River through his work with the USFWS and served as the Acting Project Leader for the Klamath River salmon projects in the mid-1980s. Additionally, he became very familiar with Klamath River salmon issues through his representation on the California Department of Fish and Game’s (CDFG) Salmon Smolt Quality Committee during an eight-year period in the 1980s and through various temporary assignments as the USFWS Division Manager for fishery resources in California, Idaho, and Nevada during the late 1980s.

In 2002, Vogel provided testimony to the U.S. Congress House Resources Committee concerning the use of peer review for scientific decisions under the Endangered Species Act.