Blm Extends Stream Protection Measures

The Bureau of Land Management has extended measures aimed at protecting habitat for endangered salmon stocks in Idaho, eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington.

The measures known as PACFISH apply to 2.6 million acres of salmon habitat on BLM land in the upper Columbia River Basin. It also will be continued on 13.2 million acres of Forest Service land in the Northwest.

PACFISH was put in place about two years ago as a temporary step until an extensive scientific and environmental review called the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project was completed.

A draft report on that project was issued last month, and it is expected to be finished late this year.

The PACFISH strategy established buffer zones around key rivers and streams, some stretching the length of a football field away from the water, where such activities as logging and livestock grazing are restricted.

The BLM manages 17,300 miles of anadromous streams and 109,000 miles of perennial fish and non-fish bearing streams.

Snake River chinook and sockeye salmon are listed as endangered species.

“PACFISH is a success story. The health of many streams is improved without harming local economies,” Ervin Cowley, BLM’s Endangered Species Act coordinator, said Friday.