Federal agencies operating dams in the Columbia River Basin released a
December assessment that dams adversely affect six species listed as endangered or threatened in 1999. They recommend a new Federal Columbia River Power System biological opinion.
Second-year Council member Larry Cassidy of Washington was elected
Wednesday as chairman of the Northwest Power Planning Council as it
prepares to reshape its Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program and
establish new procedures for allocating funding of fish and wildlife
restoration projects.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has released a draft of a
supplemental biological opinion on operation of the Columbia River
federal power system to federal and state agencies, along with tribes,
for quick review. It hopes to complete the BiOp by the spring 2000
juvenile migration.
The long-term benefits produced by recovering salmon populations
outweigh the short-term economic gains produced by logging the fish’s
habitat, according to a new report previewed Wednesday for Oregon’s
Board of Forestry.
Washington’s Gov. Gary Locke will not be in lock step with his peers
from Idaho, Montana and Oregon in their efforts to claim more regional
clout in fish and wildlife recovery planning decisions.
Basing the region’s salmon recovery efforts on “the best available
science,” — a phrase included in nearly every salmon-related state,
federal or tribal document these days — is easier said than done,
according to a federal researcher.
Co-ownership of two lower Deschutes River hydroelectric dams will settle
a long-standing dispute between Portland General Electric and the Warm
Springs Tribes about who should be licensed to operate the dams. The
settlement had been in the works since the spring of 1999.
A supplemental biological opinion completed last month blesses a plan to
continue federal operations which times the release of 427,000 acre feet
of reservoir water in Idaho to coincide, primarily, with the migration
of Snake River fall chinook salmon listed Endangered Species Act.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
