Wild B-run Steelhead Plummeting, Labrador’s Bill to Keep Current Fish Plans Gets Hearing

Under 500 wild B-run steelhead will pass the last dam in Washington before making their way into Idaho waters this year.

B-run steelhead are ocean migrating fish that spend two years in the ocean before returning to where they were born. They grow bigger. They fight harder. They are a prized catch. And this year less than 250 breeding pairs will return to over 2,600 miles of spawning streams. The recovery plans call for a goal of 90,000 wild steelhead returning to Idaho per year.

Something isn’t working. That is why a District Court ordered that the federal government has failed its obligation to recover Columbia River anadromous fish species, and therefore must consider new plans to fulfill fish recovery. Those plans could be anything. There are many possible fixes as we’ve mentioned before, and probably many more we haven’t thought of. But one thing is for sure – current plans need to change.

Yet, Representative Raul Labrador is still co-sponsoring H.R. 3144, which will interject political bureaucracy into a judicial process and immediately cease the current process of exploring possible new salmon management plans, keeping the status quo in place. And it gets a hearing tomorrow. Why? Universally, people want more of these fish. Why create legislation backing the federal plans that are absolutely failing Idaho’s fish, Idaho’s fishermen, and Idaho’s communities that rely on healthy fish returns?

So, what should be done? The debate is still out on that and we hope to see what shakes out of this re-evalutation, but it certainly isn’t nothing. Idaho deserves better than nothing.

Below you can email Rep. Labrador and Rep. Simpson and tell them “Nothing” isn’t an answer to fix this problem.  Consider calling Raul Labrador’s DC office and ask him to drop his support for the bill at (202) 225 – 6611.

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