Northwest tribal members eat six to 11 times more fish than the national average and that could have a detrimental effect on their health, according to a report released last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that found higher than acceptable levels of pollutants in migratory and resident fish caught in areas of the Columbia River Basin where tribal members fish.
Already behind schedule, implementation of the Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan would slip further under an annual federal funding bill recently approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Plans and actions taken by key federal agencies to implement a 10-year Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead recovery program are — for the most part — on schedule to meet the first major benchmark in the plan — a major 2003 evaluation, the National Marine Fisheries Services announced Tuesday.
There was no middle ground this week as members of the public got their first chance to express their opinion about an updated $156.2 million proposal to deepen the lower Columbia River’s shipping channel to accommodate the deeper draft vessels that are becoming more common in maritime trade.
There was no middle ground this week as members of the public got their first chance to express their opinion about an updated $156.2 million proposal to deepen the lower Columbia River’s shipping channel to accommodate the deeper draft vessels that are becoming more common in maritime trade.
A Senate committee has approved $5 million in federal construction funding for the controversial Columbia River shipping channel deepening project, even as it undergoes a new round of public hearings.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced the $5 million was included in the FY2003 energy and water development appropriations bill, which was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 24.
Oregon Northwest Power Planning Council member John Brogoitti lashed out this week — saying agriculture and other natural resource industries in the state are suffering as a result of Gov. John Kitzhaber’s agenda.
The outburst — delivered in a Monday press release — earned Brogoitti more than a censure from the man that appointed him to the Council. The governor’s top natural resource adviser, Louise Solliday, on Tuesday asked Brogoitti to deliver his resignation by the end of the day.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday approved a bill by Oregon’s senators to authorize up to $32 million in federal funding for repair of the privately owned Wallowa Lake Dam and for water conservation and fish restoration in the watershed.
The bill, S. 1883, by Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., both members of the committee, is opposed by the Bush administration because the northeastern Oregon dam is owned by local irrigators.
The National Marine Fisheries Service on Wednesday released a preliminary draft hatchery policy that reaffirms the agency’s emphasis on building self-sustaining salmon and steelhead populations in their natural ecosystem with careful consideration of the risks and benefits that hatchery fish might bring to the recovery process.
A surprisingly high “bycatch” of steelhead this past spring during Columbia River mainstem commercial fisheries targeting spring chinook salmon has sport anglers concerned, and angered.
Anglers awaiting the Buoy 10 fishery, which opens Aug. 1, are likely to encounter a near-record return of fall chinook salmon in numbers that will continue to build through August.
The National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday announced it would officially consider petitions asking that the agency define and list only the “wild” fish for 15 separate Pacific salmon and steelhead stocks, forgoing ESA protection for hatchery fish in the same waters.
Senate appropriators have agreed to increase the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget for the Columbia River salmon mitigation by $6 million next year, to $87 million.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this week the makeup of two panels of economists who will evaluate the Corps’ economic conclusions of a project to deepen the Columbia River shipping channel by three feet.
Market and natural forces, and an overextended power load commitment, have thrown the Bonneville Power Administration into a tenuous financial situation — one that has the federal power marketing agency’s chief out looking for help to make ends meet.
A six-month lobbying effort produced no converts Wednesday when an Oregon proposal to rotate Northwest Power Planning Council leadership positions on a fixed schedule among the member states was voted down 6-2.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Wednesday recommended the expenditure of $462,000 to have its artificial production review process complete draft documents that are necessary for Columbia Basin salmon hatcheries to gain “coverage” under the Endangered Species Act.
A panel of independent economists this week outlined its conclusions and recommendations based on an analysis of the costs of rearing and releasing fish at eight Columbia Basin hatcheries.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved $95 million for Pacific Salmon Fund grants to West Coast states and tribes for endangered salmon restoration projects, but for the third year did not include Idaho in the program.
Minimum size limits on chinook salmon caught by anglers off the Washington coast will be raised in an effort to prevent an early closure of fast-paced fisheries from Ilwaco to Neah Bay, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Thursday.
Six lamprey species were added last week to the Oregon list of endangered species by the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission, bringing the total number of lamprey species protected by the state to seven.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released this week a revision to its 1999 economic analysis of the costs and benefits of deepening the Columbia River shipping channel by three feet. While the Corps calculated lower shipping benefits than in its 1999 report, it also revised downwards the cost of dredging the channel.
A federal judge in Seattle ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service regarding the effects of 55 pesticides on Northwest salmon and steelhead.
The Bureau of Reclamation said that it can deliver this summer to Snake River dam reservoirs owned by Idaho Power Company only about two-thirds of the water required to augment river flows in the lower Snake River.
Some called the process rigged. Others — including attorneys hired by two Washington counties — said any approval of a water quality certification application related to the removal of Condit Dam would almost certainly be illegal.
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