The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it could make hydroelectric dams on Oregon’s Willamette River safe for endangered salmon by building gigantic mechanical traps and hauling baby fish downstream in tanker trucks. The Corps started pressing forward over objections from fish advocates and power users who said the plan was costly and untested.
There is a new mouth to feed in the coastal waters of the Northwest where juvenile salmon first enter the ocean, and it’s a hungry one.
Although the snowpack in the western and southern portions of the Columbia River basin are higher than normal, other areas to the north and to the east are near- to lower-than-normal, and, as a result, January water supplies at key dams are being reported as below or slightly below normal.
A federal agency and a state agency have jointly completed a study on the impacts that breaching the four lower Snake River dams would have on water supplies and irrigation.
A December, 2023 agreement among six Northwest sovereigns and the U.S. government to restore Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead runs to “healthy and abundant levels” and touted by advocates as a collaborative effort to restore salmon runs in the basin, was questioned this week at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council meeting in Portland.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has released a letter requesting recommendations from the region on how to amend its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, with submissions due by April 17.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has denied petitions to remove Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears, finding that the imperiled animals still need federal protection.
