Help is slow to arrive for beleaguered fish
While the Timber Wars were being waged in the 1990s, federal and state fishery agencies were applying laws to protect endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead on the North Coast. Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), both coho and Chinook salmon gained federal protection. In the recently published State of the Salmonids II report, the region's Chinook and coho salmon were assessed scores of "High" and "Critical," respectively, indicating their risk of extinction in the next 50 years.
The listing of Northern California (NC) steelhead as a threatened species under the Federal ESA was for years a contentious issue between state and federal regulatory agencies and other stakeholders, including the fishing and timber industries. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) initially proposed the protected status for steelhead, but the timber industry pushed back. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) waffled on the issue, and initially sided with the timber interests. One of the main reasons for the resistance from CalFire and timber lobbyists was the inevitable regulatory burden and threat to timber harvest rates that would result from an ESA listing. Eventually the state was forced to accept the threatened listing status, which became official in 2000.
Salmon and steelhead recovery efforts in the Elk River have progressed slowly since the official listing, though. One example of the challenges is the difficulty in obtaining permits to proceed with a pilot project to remove excess sediment in a small section of the river. In a classic "Catch-22" situation, the permits are being held up by concerns that limited dredging could potentially harm any salmon and steelhead living in the area of the pilot project.
Both NMFS and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) are involved in the Elk River recovery effort, but they have to balance the mandate of protecting the threatened population of salmon and steelhead with long-term recovery efforts such as dredging that are needed to improve the river's flows, water quality, and spawning habitat..