Leaders of four Northwest tribes met with top Clinton administration officials yesterday to talk salmon. The tribes, which have treaty fishing rights, requested the meeting to discuss efforts to revive the 13 threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead trout runs in the Columbia River Basin. Participants were tight-lipped after yesterday’s gathering, which was the most important between tribal and federal officials in years, though they said further meetings will be held. The tribal leaders were expected to tell the feds that they might file suit unless significant action is taken to restore salmon, and that avoiding extinction for salmon is not enough — the runs must once again become robust, productive fisheries. The meeting comes as the feds continue to delay a decision on whether to back breaching of four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington as a way to aid the salmon; the tribes support the breaching.
