After years of needless legal battles over whether Maine’s wild Atlantic salmon are an endangered species, Gov. John Baldacci wisely ended the dispute this week. It took last-minute filings and assurances from Cabinet officials, but the state has now finally dropped its appeal of the 2000 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to list salmon in eight Maine rivers as an endangered species. This means that state and federal officials can truly work together to try to help salmon return to the state’s waterways. Salmon returns in some Maine rivers have dwindled to single digits.

Shortly after the listing was announced, former Gov. Angus King initiated a lawsuit, claiming that years of stocking had turned salmon in Maine into “mongrels” and that is was preposterous to say that historic remnants of wild fish remained in the rivers. In a study requested by the state’s U.S. senators, the National Academy of Sciences debunked this thinking, but Gov. King continued to predict economic ruin for Washington County, home to five of the rivers, if the endangered species listing were allowed to stand.

Washington County certainly has many economic problems, but wild salmon are not to blame. Although they joined the lawsuit, the timber and blueberry industry have come to live with the listing. Blueberry growers and state officials developed a water-withdrawal process to ensure that berry crops are irrigated but that salmon streams are not depleted. Major resistance to the listing has continued to come from the aquaculture industry, which has been the target of lawsuits by environmental groups for polluting the oceans, with salmon with European genes, among other things.

Therefore, a major piece of the agreement to drop the lawsuit includes a voluntary dispute resolution system that aims to avert litigation. Rather than creating a new system, natural resource experts will be sought in the existing state court mediation service to hear disputes. This approach has been applauded by both environmental groups, those most likely to sue, and business groups, those likely to be sued.

There was also concern that other, larger, rivers, namely the Penobscot, could be added to the listing by the federal government. State officials wisely got agreement from the federal agencies that they would not add new rivers to the existing listing. If the services decide that salmon in the Penobscot, Kennebec or other rivers need protection under the Endangered Species Act, they will have to initiate a new administrative process, complete with public comment periods and public hearings.

The agreement also formalizes the state’s role as a consulting, not adversary, party in the creation of a recovery plan and other documents relating to salmon recovery and the operation of industries that affect their habitat. This will give the plan a much higher chance of success.

Rather than pursue a lawsuit that legal advisers warned was nearly frivolous, Gov. Baldacci correctly chose to address the concerns of the industries most affected by the listing in a productive way.