 Hydropower
The program recommends that resources and energy be directed away
from breaching the four federal dams on the lower Snake River,
recognizing that the federal government has decided breaching will
not occur in the next five years (coincidentally, that is the
Council’s statutory planning horizon for the fish and wildlife
program. Instead, the program recommends actions to improve
dam-passage survival that are biologically sound and economically
feasible — actions that benefit the range of species in the river
and fit natural fish behavior patterns. |
|
 Habitat
The program directs significant attention to rebuilding healthy,
naturally producing fish and wildlife populations by protecting and
restoring habitats and the biological systems within them. The
program also recognizes the ocean as habitat and includes strategies
to increase our understanding of its variable nature and, to the
extent feasible, separate the effects of the ocean environment from
those of the freshwater environment. |
 Hatcheries
The program requires that fish hatcheries funded through the program
operate consistent with reforms recommended to Congress by the
Council in 1999,reforms that would shift hatchery production away
from a primary focus on providing fish for harvest to also providing
fish to rebuild naturally spawning populations. |
|
 Harvest
The program promotes increased fish harvest, consistent with sound
biological management practices, recognizing that harvest provides
significant cultural and economic benefits to the region. |
