Feds release plan for recovering Northwest fish species



BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal authorities have released their final recovery plan for a fish species that teetered on the brink of extinction in the early 1990s in one of the Pacific Northwest's major rivers.

Authorities say the plan released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will create a self-sustaining population of Snake River sockeye salmon over the next 50 to 100 years.

The run was listed as endangered in 1991, kicking off a hatchery program that at first had only a handful of returning fish to propagate the species.

But last fall more sockeye made the 900-mile journey from the Pacific Ocean to central Idaho's Redfish Lake than in any year going back nearly six decades.

The high-elevation basin is where the last Snake River sockeye salmon spawn. The plan includes recolonizing two more central Idaho lakes.