BPA SAFE (hatchery) Funding

[SculpinSwinger]

I have mixed feelings about this. I hope there can be a respectful and informative discussion about the Bonneville Power Administration’s decision to stop funding Columbia River hatcheries.

BPA abruptly pulls funding from Columbia River fisheries program • Oregon Capital Chronicle

This story was originally published by Columbia Insight, a nonprofit environmental news website covering the Pacific Northwest based in Hood River. The Bonneville Power Administration isn’t going to put any more money into a fisheries program operated by state wildlife management agencies of...

oregoncapitalchronicle.com

 

[G_Smolt]

Ooof.
Better sell the spraypoles and buy more walleye and smallmouth rigs.
If there's any money left over, we can say a few nice words over the carcass of the Snake.

 

[_WW_]

Does this mean our power bill will go down?

 

[Salmo_g]

BPA is the money conduit for the Federal Columbia River Hydropower System (FCRHS). BPA sells the power generated by the dams, and BPA pays the bills owed by FCRHS, including hatchery funding under the Mitchell Act that specifically provides hatchery funding to mitigate (partially) the fishery impacts of the FCRHS.

"Although the off-channel fisheries supported by the SAFE program have clearly increased commercial and recreational harvest opportunities in those areas, there is no direct evidence that such increased off-channel harvest has resulted in reduced harvest impacts on weak and ESA-listed stocks in the mixed-stock fisheries on the mainstem,” wrote Sweet.

If the SAFE program isn't achieving, or substantially achieving, its goals, then I've got to agree, what's the point? I think it comes down to the argument of whether creating alternative recreational and commercial fishing options equals FCRHS mitigation or not. The argument that the SAFE program does protect weak and ESA native fish stocks because without SAFE, WDFW & ODFW would otherwise authorize overfishing of those stocks in the mainstem Columbia River seems a bit duplicitous.

 

[Westfly Refugee]

The argument that the SAFE program does protect weak and ESA native fish stocks because without SAFE, WDFW & ODFW would otherwise authorize overfishing of those stocks in the mainstem Columbia River seems a bit duplicitous.

By restricting the gillnetters to the SAFE areas for Spring Chinook, it does free up ESA impacts for the Tribes and recreational fishers and allow more hatchery fish to be taken. Even if the SAFE areas aren't ideal, giving just THREE months notice to the partner agencies who operate on 2-year budgets is completely irresponsible. This immediate withdrawal of funding - and a modest amount it is by Federal standards - strikes me as just another instance of the current administration trying to punish blue states.