FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Group Challenges Federal Inaction in Protecting Threatened Rogue River Coho Salmon

Years of delay in updating water diversion plan puts fish at risk

More than a decade after Rogue River coho salmon were listed under the Endangered Species Act, Oregon Wild asks federal government to finally determine if harm is caused to fish by Rogue irrigation.

Coho salmon (photo by NMFS)

After years of bureaucratic delay and false promises, the conservation group Oregon Wild today announced legal action against federal water management agencies for their failure to protect threatened Coho salmon in the Rogue River and the Upper Rogue Basin watershed. The lawsuit comes as the draft recovery plan for Coho shows a drop in Rogue Basin salmon population and a continued risk of extinction if action is not taken.

“For years, the federal government has pumped water all over the Rogue Valley without doing anything to find out how all of the canals, tunnels, dams, and dikes are impacting threatened salmon,” said Oregon Wild Conservation Director Steve Pedery. “In some years, salmon have been left high and dry while water flows uphill and sideways to feed irrigation demands. We need a better plan.”

Most of water diverted by the Bureau’s Rogue Basin Project is used for commercial agricultural with little consideration for salmon. These water storage and artificial conveyance systems continue to adversely affect fish and their habitat. Flows essential for salmon passage and migration are reduced by various Upper Rogue Basin diversion dams and canals, where that water should instead be providing essential instream flows to assure salmon reproduction and survival. The Bureau’s Rogue Basin Project, at Hyatt and Howard Prairie Reservoirs, also diverts some water that would otherwise naturally flow into the Klamath River.

In court papers filed today, Oregon Wild is seeking that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) produce, and the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) adopt, an endangered species plan to protect Coho salmon in southern Oregon’s Rouge Basin creeks and spawning streams. Termed a “Biological Opinion,” this management plan is mandated under the federal Endangered Species Act to assure that water diversions for irrigation do not negatively impact threatened Coho salmon – a species officially protected in 1997.  BOR and NMFS have never completed this legally required consultation despite over a decade of promises to do so. (See timeline attachment).

Two main tributaries of the Rouge River watershed are affected by the diversions and impoundments. The first, Emigrant/Bear Creek, essentially drains the southern watershed of the Upper Rogue River.  The second, Little Butte Creek, essentially drains the middle watershed of the Upper Rogue River.

Continued, detailed monitoring of BOR operations along these Rogue River tributaries demonstrates that the agency is failing to meet the minimum required flows that NMFS had previously recommended as critical for the survival of threatened salmon. In the lawsuit filed today, Oregon Wild is not only demanding that BOR and NMFS complete the biological opinion, but also review the physical evidence, supported by fisheries biologists, demonstrating that threatened salmon are presently being harmed.

For most of this decade (see timeline), Oregon Wild has actively urged the two federal agencies to produce a sustainable irrigation plan that is compatible with wild fish and threatened salmon stream flow needs.

“After a decade of delay and continued broken promises, Oregon Wild must now seek a specific court order. Time has shown us once again that when the law is not fully enforced, the law is often ignored, and this time, unfortunately, to the further impairment of the Rogue River’s iconic salmon,” Pedery concluded.

The failure of the agencies to produce a biological opinion for the Rogue River Basin Project has also stymied prior attempts by conservation and irrigation interests to reach a resolution to benefit both salmon and sustainable irrigation needs in southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley.

Oregon Wild is represented in the case by William C. Carpenter, Attorney-At-Law. The filing today is technically the re-opening of litigation previously filed in the Eugene District Court.

Additional Resources:

• Official court filing.
  
• Detailed timeline of Coho salmon status in the Rogue River Basin and missed deadlines by BOR and NMFS.
• Further information on stream flow in Emigrant/Bear Creek and Little Butte Creek where low flows are endangering salmon.
• Key references in the recently released Coho salmon draft recovery plan.

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