Columbia Basin Bulletin: Russell Brooks Had Big Impact on Salmon Listing Policies

The attorney who won a landmark court case that threatened to undercut the threatened and endangered status of many salmon and steelhead runs on the West Coast died Sunday.

Russell C. Brooks of the Pacific Legal Foundation at Bellevue died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 41. Brooks is best known for a 2001 court case, known as the Alsea Decision, that shook the foundation of salmon and steelhead listings from northern California to the Snake River in Idaho .

In that case Brooks represented the Alsea Alliance and successfully argued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrongly distinguished between hatchery and wild coho salmon runs that return to coastal Oregon .

The federal agency in charge of protecting and recovering threatened and endangered salmon runs declared hatchery and wild coho were both members of the same population -- known as an evolutionary significant unit. But the agency listed only the wild coho has a threatened species.

Brooks argued, and Judge Michael Hogan agreed, since the hatchery and wild fish were members of the same population the agency could not list one without the other. Because the agency took the same approach in the listing of 23 other salmon and steelhead populations, the decision had ramifications far beyond coastal coho in Oregon .

As a result NOAA revised its hatchery policy and amended the listing of several runs of salmon and steelhead.

Many, including Brooks, speculated the agency would have to count both hatchery and wild salmon when making listing decisions and the ruling would lead to the removal of many of the runs from Endangered Species Act protection.

The agency did count both hatchery and wild salmon when assessing the status of salmon and steelhead runs. But despite Brook's desire the federal government continued to give the runs Endangered Species Act protections.

He vowed to challenge the action and filed two cases seeking a reversal. The foundation will continue to pursue the cases that are pending.

Brooks also was involved in litigation over the Klamath Irrigation Project in Oregon and won a court ruling invalidating critical habitat designation for the Western Snow Plover.

"He was one of those guys who figured he could do anything and was willing to try and was very passionate about what he did," said Rob Rivett, Pacific Legal Foundation president. "It's a real loss to us at PLF both personally and institutionally."

Brooks is survived by his wife Rhonda, his five-year old son Austin and

2 year-old daughter Savannah .