Obama Follows Bush on Salmon Recovery

By WILLIAM YARDLEY
NYT

SEATTLE — In its first major effort to address the plight of endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest, the Obama administration on Tuesday affirmed basic elements of a recovery plan set forth last year by the Bush administration.

The announcement angered critics of federal conservation policies, who said the Bush plan did not go far enough in improving fish habitats in the Columbia River basin or water levels in rivers for migrating fish and did not take immediate action to explore whether to remove four dams on the lower Snake River.

Thirteen species of salmon are listed as endangered or threatened, and critics say the new Obama plan, like the Bush one, is too ready to accept only slight gains in their populations, a potential violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Obama administration officials said that while the plan affirmed the scientific and legal basis of the Bush approach, it included revisions that would hasten and expand efforts to improve habitats, monitor any effects of climate change and put in place contingency plans should fish populations “decline significantly.”

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