A proposed federal land management
plan for roughly 63 million acres in
Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington
is intended to leave a lighter
footprint both on the land and
on the resource-based economies within
that territory.
The Interior Columbia Basin Supplemental
Draft Environmental Impact
Statement released for public
review last week brings focus to a
"preferred alternative" during
a 90-day public comment period.
"Of the three alternatives presented,
Alternative S2 was ...

Breaching Four Lower Snake River dams is not the only way, but it's
the
best way to start rebuilding threatened and endangered Columbia Basin
salmon and steelhead stocks, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber said last Friday
afternoon (Feb. 18).
In the speech to Oregon's chapter of the American Fisheries Society,
Kitzhaber stressed the need for immediate, aggressive action to stem
the
decline in the region's fish populations.
"Removing the four Lower Snake River dams is, at least for the ...

by
Mark Fritsch, the Council's fish production coordinator. The cost of
implementing the restoration plan is $2.6 million.
The next steps approved by the Council include 2000 research to:
--estimate lamprey abundance before and after outplanting adults in
the
Umatilla River;
--determine reproductive success of adult outplants, and
--estimate adult lamprey abundance in the Columbia River at the John
Day
Dam.
The restoration plan describes the Pacific lamprey as an ...

Opponents of dam breaching, accusing federal officials of threatening
their livelihoods and Indians of overharvesting, came out in force Thursday
at an emotionally charged federal hearing in Pasco.
More than 1,200 people, including sign-waving, anti-breaching picketers
and an Indian drum group, attending the hearing, which was split into afternoon
and evening sessions. About 800 people attended the afternoon session where
dam-breaching opponents who testified outnumbered those who ...