09/10/07 New salmon recovery plan

Wildlife advocates didn't waste must time in dismissing a new plan that federal agencies say is going to help improve salmon and steelhead recovery in the Snake and Columbia River basins. Bonneville Power, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers gave the scientific and technical documents to NOAA Fisheries which will now analyze it. Federal courts have rejected previous plans and some environmental groups say this latest effort is nothing more than an old plan with a new label attached. BPA Administrator Steven Wright says their assessment involved thousands of hours of work and involved collaboration with the states and tribes in the Pacific Northwest. He calls the plan the most thorough analysis ever conducted and outlines a ten year plan of action. WRIGHT "And then we had to make decisions about what actions we were going to include and we've included a robust set of actions we think will make a substantial contribution to the recovery of these fish NOAA Fisheries will use the new plan to develop a new BiOp, a biological opinion for the operation of Snake and Columbia River dams. Federal judge John Redden has rejected several BiOps in the past and critics are certain to complain to him about the operation of the hydro dams on the Columbia and Upper Snake. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott