Changes to the Aquatic Conservation Strategy Stopped
In 2003, the Aquatic Conservation Strategy (ACS) was amended in an effort to decrease the protection the ACS provides to sensitive aquatic species. Although the Bush administration characterized the changes as "clarifications," in fact the changes were significant and damaging.
As lead proponents of the ACS, Pacific Rivers Council took a principal role in coordinating efforts to defend the Plan. In early 2003, we submitted scoping comments, but our recommendations were unheeded and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement subsequently revealed an unprincipled lack of justification for the proposed changes. Our thorough analysis of the DEIS led to the submission of extensive comments in conjunction with several other conservation groups. In our comments, we outlined the reasons why the proposed changes would fundamentally weaken aquatic protections, and exposed the true implications of the Bush administration's shameless attempt to tip the scales away from conservation toward resource extraction.
Aside from submitting hard-hitting comments to the project team, Pacific Rivers Council once again pushed for the application of sound science to environmental policy. According to the original authors of the NWFP, even full implementation of all aspects of the current ACS gives only an 80% guarantee that adequate habitat for imperiled salmon will be maintained. Yet the changes essentially removed all watershed protections except riparian protections. As part of our comments, we produced a scientific paper that demonstrated why riparian protection is not enough to achieve ACS objectives. We also formulated a legal/ policy analysis that outlined how the proposed changes to the ACS would have hindered attainment of other environmental law requirements for aquatic and terrestrial species protection.
Pacific Rivers Council, in conjunction with several of our conservation colleagues, also released a report, On the Backs of Salmon: New Threats to Salmon and Clean Water in the Pacific Northwest, that outlined threats to the Aquatic Conservation Strategy posed by the changes and provided real life examples of places that have been protected and restored because of its faithful implementation. To learn more about the report or download an electronic copy, click here.
The Bush Administration removed most of the "teeth" of the ACS by
eliminating important standards and guidelines and essentially only
retaining protections in riparian areas. But riparian standards alone
would not protect important aquatic values and salmon habitat, as is
detailed in a scientific paper commissioned by the Pacific Rivers
Council (click here to download).
Adding
insult to injury, the Bush Administration's changes only required the rest
of the ACS goals and weakened standards to be assessed at the
fifth-field watershed scale over the long term. A fifth-field watershed
is anywhere from 20 to 200 square miles in size. What this would have
meant is that the impacts of any proposed project (e.g., logging or
building a new road) probably would have appeared miniscule within a
watershed of this size, particularly when viewed over the long term
(i.e., 5-15 years) -- but one really bad project can spell disaster for
the salmon that happen to spawn in the stream right next to it.
Essentially, the core requirement to meet the nine objectives was taken
away from the individual projects, leaving an enormous amount of leeway
for degradation.
To read about the lawsuit filed by several conservation groups to challenge these changes, click here.
To read the legal complaint, click here.
For responses to the ACS changes by the original scientific authors, click here.
For information on the legal and political maneuvering that prompted the Administration's changes, click here.
PRC helped stop the damaging amendments!
We worked to stop the Bush Administration from undermining this cornerstone of watershed protection by successfully litigating a challenge to these changes of the ACS. Click here to read Earthjustice’s press release on our victory that stopped these changes.
Read Earthjustice's press release and press coverage on the ACS, November 20, 2007 -- Seattle PI -- Bush administration drops effort to ease salmon protections.
