Contact:
Jeff Curtis, TU Western Conservation Director: 503.827.5700 x.11
12/13/2001 -- PORTLAND, ORE. -- Officials with Trout Unlimited, the nation’s leading trout and salmon conservation organization, today applauded the introduction by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) of legislation intended to fund salmon recovery along the Pacific coast and inland to Idaho.
The “Pacific Salmon Recovery Act,” co-sponsored by Sens. Craig (R-Idaho), Crapo (R-Idaho), Feinstein (D-Calif.), Smith (R-Ore.) and Wyden (D-Ore.) would fund a truer representation of the Pacific salmon’s historical habitat by including river drainages in Idaho – excluded from previous Pacific salmon funding bills. Only the coastal states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California had been eligible for Pacific salmon recovery funding bills in the past. The Pacific salmon’s historical range takes them well into the Snake River basin into central Idaho.
“Senator Boxer and her colleagues are showing the type of leadership at the federal level that real, lasting recovery of the irreplaceable salmon and steelhead stocks will require,” said Jeff Curtis of Trout Unlimited. “We’re pleased to see other western senators from either side of the aisle following her lead.”
Once passed, the Pacific Salmon Recovery Act could authorize $350 million in funding.
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Date: 12/13/2001