Pacific Legal Foundation Announces New Fish Fight -
Will Sue to Delist Salmon at Center of Klamath
Pacific Legal Foundation, Thursday January 10,
Press Release
BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 10, 2002--Pacific Legal Foundation today announced a new legal challenge that seeks to overturn the federal government's listing of the Southern Oregon/Northern California coho salmon (Klamath Basin salmon) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
ESA protection of Northern California/Southern Oregon coho living in the Klamath River was a significant factor in the government's decision to shut down water deliveries to Basin farmers in the Spring of 2001.
``The Fisheries Service is guilty of using junk science to advance a political agenda. Our rivers and streams are teeming with salmon, yet farmers have been pushed into bankruptcy, businesses are closing, and a way of life is being destroyed while government officials explain away listing fish that really aren't endangered at all,'' said Russ Brooks of Pacific Legal Foundation.
The lawsuit announced today, Oregon Grange v. National Marine Fisheries Service, marks the second time that PLF has challenged salmon listings brought under the ESA. In September 2001, PLF won a major victory in Alsea Valley Alliance v. Daley, which challenged the Oregon Coast coho listing. In that case, a federal judge affirmed that hatchery-spawned salmon are biologically indistinguishable from so-called ``wild'' salmon and ruled that listing the Oregon Coast coho as endangered was ``arbitrary.'' Judge Hogan's conclusions in the Alsea case -- that the government had created the unusual circumstance of two genetically identical coho salmon swimming side-by-side in the same stream, while one receives ESA protection and the other does not -- is the basis for the new case that will be filed next week in Oregon federal court. PLF sent a 60-day notice of intent to sue to the Secretary of Commerce and NFMS in mid-November.
``We are within days of fulfilling the 60-day notice requirement,'' said Brooks.
``Unless the government takes immediate action to remove the fish from protected status -- and we have no indication that they will -- PLF will be banging on the courthouse door to challenge this listing. It is time to end the nonsense and return some common sense to species listings,'' he said.
The case announced today will be the focus of much attention during a water forum and coho salmon barbecue scheduled for this weekend in the Klamath Basin that is expected to draw 4,000 people. Ironically, the coho salmon to be served at the barbecue was donated to Oregon food banks by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to feed bankrupt farmers and their families affected by regulatory action under the ESA.
Founded in 1973, Pacific Legal Foundation is, in the words of the Washington Post, the ``oldest, largest and perhaps most influential'' public interest law firm dedicated to limited government and individual rights.