December 4, 2013 — The state and federal governments’ annual release of hundreds of thousands of hatchery-raised spring chinook salmon into the McKenzie River is jeopardizing the recovery of the river’s dwindling wild salmon runs and must be dramatically curtailed, two flyfishing advocacy groups say in a federal lawsuit filed this week.
McKenzie Flyfishers and the Steamboaters allege in the suit filed Monday that the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are violating the federal Endangered Species Act by not taking measures to prevent the crossbreeding of wild and hatchery spring chinook salmon in the McKenzie River.
The resulting back-and-forth movement of genes between the two groups of fish — a process known as introgression — is spawning salmon less capable of surviving and reproducing in the wild and potentially dooming to extinction the last major stronghold of wild spring chinook salmon in the upper Willamette River basin, the plaintiffs allege.
Only about 1,000 wild adult salmon returned to the river’s natural spawning grounds above Leaburg Dam last year, compared to an average of about 5,000 fish a decade ago, said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene.
“Just look at those gross numbers and you say, ‘We can’t wait any longer to require the agencies to agree and require them to do something to save these fish or they’ll be gone,’ ” said Bruce Anderson, president-elect of McKenzie Flyfishers.
The salmon received federal protection in 1999.
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