When disputes over timber and water arise, fish are often at the center of concern.
They are sensitive to changes in streams and the forests that give birth to the streams. Now a pair of environmental groups are taking the the federal government to court over fish. McKenzie Flyfishers and the Western Environmental Law Center are suing the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service over its operation of the Mckenzie Fish Hatchery.
The groups claim the hatchery's continued production of relatively tame fish puts pressure on the continued existence of wild Chinook salmon in the Mckenzie/Willamette river system.