Trout Unlimited v. Lohn (National Marine Fisheries Service)

Mar 16: In the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, Case No. 07-35623 & 07-35750. According to the Appeals Court, in this case involving many competing parties, "We must decide whether the National Marine Fisheries Service [NMFS] may distinguish between natural and hatchery-spawned salmon and steelhead when determining the level of protection the fish should be afforded under the Endangered Species Act [ESA]."

By way of background, the Appeals Court explains that Pacific Coast salmon are anadromous fish, meaning that they can survive both in saltwater and in freshwater. The salmon hatch out of eggs laid in freshwater rivers and streams, then migrate often hundreds of miles to the ocean, where they live for years before returning to their natal streams to spawn and to die. Steelhead, a closely related species, perform the same migration but are able to spawn multiple times. In the Pacific Northwest, anadromous salmon and steelhead populate the Columbia River and its tributaries, including the Willamette River, the Snake River, the Okanogan River, and the Yakima River.

The appeals primarily involve NMFS’s decision, in accordance with the 2005 Hatchery Listing Policy, to downlist a population of Upper Columbia River steelhead from endangered to threatened. Trout Unlimited and other environmental conservation organizations brought the action challenging: (1) NMFS’s rejection of Trout Unlimited’s petitions to separate natural fish and hatchery fish into different ESUs [evolutionarily significant units], and (2) the downlisting of the Upper Columbia River steelhead ESU from “endangered” to “threatened.” As part of its second claim, Trout Unlimited argues that the 2005 Hatchery Listing Policy impermissibly requires NMFS to consider the status of the entire ESU rather than just the natural components of the ESU when making listing determinations. Trout Unlimited maintains that both NMFS decisions are arbitrary and capricious and thus unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act and that both fail to employ “the best scientific and commercial data available” in violation of the ESA.

In the end, the Appeals Court concludes explaining, "In the same way that pruning involves the destruction of some branches of a tree to allow the remaining portions to grow, the § 4(d) regulations at issue here represent the agency’s reasonable judgment
that permitting the destruction of some members of an ESU to enable the remaining portions to flourish. Given the agency’s finding that conservation and recovery efforts may be affected by the yearly variation in size and composition of the ESUs, we cannot conclude that regulatory changes giving the agency the flexibility to manage these variations are arbitrary and capricious. . .Based on the foregoing, the opinion of the district court is affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded with instructions."

Access the complete opinion (click here).