‘God Squad’ hits out at costs of saving salmon

A GROUP that represents farmers is calling the costs of saving imperiled salmon in the largest river system in the Pacific Northwest unsustainable and is turning to the Trump administration to sidestep endangered species laws

It’s not only hungry grizzly bears that salmon have to worry about, with a group representing farmers calling on the Trump administration to sidestep endangered species laws, citing the costs of saving Pacific Northwest salmon

A GROUP that represents farmers is calling the costs of saving imperiled salmon in the largest river system in the Pacific Northwest unsustainable and is turning to the Trump administration to sidestep endangered species laws.

The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association wants the government to convene a Cabinet-level committee with the power to allow exemptions to the Endangered Species Act.

Known as the “God Squad” because its decisions can lead to extinctions of threatened wildlife, it has only gathered three times – the last 25 years ago during a controversy over spotted owl habitat in the Northwest.

The irrigators association is frustrated with court rulings it says favour fish over people, claiming the committee could end years of legal challenges over US dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and bring stability for irrigators, power generators and other businesses that rely on the water. Environmental groups call the request a publicity stunt and say it could hurt fishing companies and others relying on healthy runs of federally protected salmon and steelhead.

The association sees hope in a series of pro-industry environmental decisions by President Donald Trump.

His administration has rescinded an Obama-era rule that would shield many small streams and other bodies of water from pollution and development, enacted policies to increase coal mining on federal lands and proposed giving Western states greater flexibility to allow development in habitat of sage grouse, a threatened bird.

Darryll Olsen, association board representative, said the irrigators requested the committee during former President Barack Obama’s tenure but got nowhere.