Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
Our Klamath Basin
Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
|
Herald and News: Klamath Falls, Oregon http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2003/09/09/news/community_news/cit1.txt Sucker petition to get a second look U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered to reconsider denial of delisting petition By DYLAN DARLING A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider its denial of a petition to pull two species of suckers from the government's list of endangered species. Oregon District Judge Robert E. Jones made his ruling last week in a lawsuit brought by seven people from the Klamath Basin who petitioned to have the Lost River and shortnose suckers delisted in fall 2001. Jones ruled their petition was wrongfully denied. The Lost River and shortnose suckers were listed as endangered in 1988. On Oct. 19, 2001, James Buchal, a Portland attorney, filed a petition on the behalf of the seven to have the coho salmon removed from threatened status and the two kinds of suckers removed from the endangered species list. Buchal said the government is using "junk," or unsupported, science to keep the suckers listed. "If you dig into this you will find that every reason they had to list these suckers is unreasonable," Buchal said. "Every single reason for the listing in 1988 has been shown to be false." On May 10, 2002, the fish and wildlife service denied the petition. In its response to the petition the agency said: "We find that the petition and additional information available in our files did not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that delisting of the Lost River and shortnose sucker may be warranted." Buchal's petition was based on testimony before the U.S. Congress by David Vogel, a private sector biologist who worked for the fish and wildlife service for 14 years and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service for one year, from July 2001. Before Congress, Vogel said the 1988 listing was based on a "selective" and "distorted" review of data and the suckers should be removed from the endangered species list. He contended that either sucker population counts in the 1980s were wrong or the counts were accurate and the suckers have had a population boom since the listing. "The species were either inappropriately listed as endangered because of incorrect or incomplete information or the species have rebounded to such a great extent that the fish no longer warrant the 'endangered' status," he told Congress. Buchal said his clients don't see how the suckers can be listed as endangered when they are found throughout the Basin. "Every body of water in the Basin is full of the damn things," he said. With Jones' ruling, the Service now has three choices: appeal the ruling; offer more scientific data to reject the delisting petition; or proceed to a formal status review, Buchal said. John Engbring, supervisor of the Klamath fish and wildlife offices out of Sacramento, said the Fish and Wildlife Service is consulting with the Department of Justice about what it should do next. He said no decisions have been made yet. "It's still too early for us to know," he said. "We are now considering the different options." Curt Mullis, manager of the Fish and Wildlife Service office in Klamath Falls, echoed Engbring. "This Service has not established a position on what we will take," he said. He said the agency could have to reclarify the status of the suckers or do a status review. "There are a lot of twists and turns to the population numbers," he said. The Fish and Wildlife Service could also appeal the order to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Buchal wants the Service to do a status review of the suckers. "If the Bush Administration were friends of the farmers they could turn around and do the status review and have the delisting done in nine months," he said. Vogel, who works out of Red Bluff, Calif., is also involved with a case about last September's fish kill of 33,000 salmon on the Lower Klamath River. A trial is set for May to figure out what caused the death of the fish. Downstream interests, citing reports by the Yurok Tribe and the California Department of Fish and Game, say it was caused by low flows, brought on in part by the diversion of water to the Klamath Reclamation Project. Vogel, who was contracted to study salmon on the Lower River by the Klamath Water Users Association, says it was caused by warm water temperature and an early, large salmon run. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml |
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