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This Website is Dedicated to Alvin Alexander Cheyne January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005 |
Salmon plan gets look from officials
Amended ODFW
plan gives officials time to prepare for return of
chinook salmon
Roger Smith can’t say when salmon will be back in the Upper Klamath Basin. That depends on when fish ladders or other means of fish passage are established beyond Portland-based PacifiCorp’s four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River.
But once passage is established, the salmon are expected to repopulate their historic habitat quickly, says the Klamath district fish biologist for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission last week amended the fisheries management plan for the Basin, giving officials time to prepare for the return of the chinook salmon.
Careful review
While Smith and others are tasked with determining the best means of reintroduction, others are carefully reviewing how salmon would impact irrigation and other aspects of the Basin.
“It’s going to take some careful review,” said Klamath County Commissioner John Elliott.
Elliott said he sees positive aspects to the return of salmon such as the establishment of recreational and commercial fisheries. But he’s also wary of any environmental regulations that may accompany the fish.
Environmental impact
Smith said salmon shouldn’t create any environmental problem s because they aren’t listed on any endangered or threatened species list, unlike the sucker species living in the Basin’s waters.
Concerns also include the ability of salmon to survive in the upper Basin, especially Upper Klamath Lake.
Smith said although water quality in the lake’s southern reaches can be poor, the quality in its northern bays and inlets is excellent and sustains the largest population of redband trout in North America.
Test populations of young salmon placed in the lake and the Williamson River thrived, he said.
When salmon get here
It will be years before salmon are capable of returning to the upper reaches of the Klamath River.
PacifiCorp is in discussions with federal and state officials about the future of its dams, and a final decision is expected by late September. The deal would then need to be approved by Congress and the White House.
Planning
The state commission’s fisheries plan paves the way for planning, though. Smith said not much needs to be done to the region’s waters before the salmon return. The screens already in place to keep fish out of irrigation systems are much more stringent than necessary for salmon.
Officials are trying to answer the questions of what strain of chinook salmon to reintroduce, and where. When passage is established, the fish should become regular inhabitants.
“We could see steelhead salmon in Spencer Creek within two or three years,” Smith said.
Kevin Moore, spokesman for the Klamath Falls office of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, couldn’t say how the salmon would impact the Klamath Reclamation Project because items such as the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement are still incomplete.
The restoration agreement allocates water among stakeholders in the Klamath River Basin. It also advocates removal of the four PacifiCorp dams. The agreement is in limbo until a decision is made on dam removal.
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