PLF Files Lawsuit
Challenging 16 Salmon ESA Listings
Throughout the West
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 Foundation
Founded 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.
