Federal court rejects U.S. plan for restoring embattled Northwest salmon

[jpak]

http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-court-salmon-idUSL2N1820BO

The U.S. government's latest plan for offsetting the harm to migrating salmon from a series of dams in the Columbia River watershed violates the Endangered Species Act, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

The ruling in a case stretching back 15 years marks a victory for environmental advocates, the Nez Perce Tribe, anglers and others who sued government agencies over their plan for aiding salmon and steelhead that travel between the Pacific Ocean and the upper reaches of the inland Northwest.

The case lays bare a long-simmering fight over competing interests - energy production and the environment - along the fourth largest river on the North American continent.

The battle is centered on how the dams the federal government says generate electric power crucial for the region effects the more than a dozen groups of salmonids that are listed as endangered or threatened under U.S. law that must traverse the barriers along their arduous path to reproduce.

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[floriduck]

1. Bastards! They'll let Idaho put dams on the Snake River and to hell with salmon.

What a wonderful government agency we have.