"We believe that a serious look at the science and the options we have for bringing the fish back will lead to the conclusion that removing dams on the lower Snake River is a critical step that we should stop dancing around and start dealing with."
Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle, said the agency could not comment on the judge's letter before reviewing it. But he said government scientists believe they can bring salmon populations back without breaching the dams.
"I don't think anyone argues that conditions in there for fish would be improved if there were no dams," he said, "but what we have argued in this biological opinion is that we can get to where we need to go without breaching the dams, given the fact that breaching the dams would be enormously disruptive politically and socially and economically."
The Justice Department this month requested a delay of up to two months in the court case to "more fully understand all aspects" of the plan. Redden said his letter was intended as a guide to what issues he thinks need looking at.
Government scientists "improperly rely on speculative, uncertain and unidentified tributary and estuary habitat improvement actions to find that threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead are, in fact, trending toward recovery," he said.
"All of us know that aggressive action is necessary to save this vital resource," the judge said, "and now is the time to make that happen."
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kim.murphy@latimes.com
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