With another plan for restoring Atlantic salmon in Maine and another call for a lot of money to do it, policy-makers are at a critical juncture. A draft salmon recovery plan, released by the federal government last week, calls for a variety of steps to be taken to boost the numbers of wild Atlantic salmon in eight Maine rivers. None of the steps, however, are new and the National Marine Fisheries Service estimates they would cost at least $33 million in the next three years.

At the same time, a different branch of the federal government but one that also has jurisdiction over wild Atlantic salmon, the Department of the Interior, has praised a major project on the Penobscot River as the best hope for restoring Atlantic salmon. That project, however, deals with a different population of the fish, one that has not been declared endangered by the federal government.

Almost four years after the fish were declared an endangered species, Maine now has an official blueprint for restoring populations of wild Atlantic salmon in the eight rivers, five of which are in Washington County. According to the Draft Atlantic Salmon Recovery Plan, released Friday by NMFS, strategies to build Atlantic salmon populations include reducing acid rain, restoring habitat, minimizing the mixture of wild and farmed fish, limiting water withdrawals from the eight rivers and reducing predation.

None of these suggestions is new. Most were included in the state’s conservation plan, drafted more than seven years ago, to stave off an ESA listing. Still, after removing dams, spending millions of dollars to acquire riverside land to protect salmon habitat, drafting strict rules for the withdrawal of water from salmon rivers and their tributaries and toughening the rules for fish farms, salmon still aren’t returning to Maine’s waters. This year’s returns are expected to remain “dismal,” according to George LaPointe, commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources.

Some point to the high death rate in the ocean as the problem. Some point to global climate change, noting that Atlantic salmon were already at the southern end of their range in Maine before land and water temperatures began to rise.

Without defined goals and costs, especially given the history of recovery efforts so far, an alternative may be needed. The Penobscot River Restoration Project, which is currently seeking $50 million, may be that alternative. The project, championed by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, entails the removal of two dams and modification of five others on the river to reopen 500 miles of habitat for salmon and other fish. It is supported by environmental groups, the Penobscot Nation, the energy company that owns the dams and salmon enthusiasts.

The Penobscot River, which has salmon runs in the hundreds, not the single digits like the ESA rivers, represents the best hope for salmon restoration in New England. The caveat is that the fish that return there may not meet the federal government’s definition of wild salmon because of its genetic makeup. Over more than a century, millions of salmon have been stocked in the Penobscot. The eight listed rivers have seen less stocking and are thought to have more genetically pure populations.

Millions more dollars will be spent trying to bring Atlantic salmon back to Maine. The money should be spent on the projects with the best chance for success.