03. HABITAT - Columbia Basin Bulletin - Page 111

11. COUNCIL’S FRAMEWORK

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

The 1 1/2-year-old Multi-Species Framework
process has "cranked up the
engine" on a Battelle Laboratories' megacomputer
and staffers now await
the opportunity to interpret data that
predicts potential biological
impacts of seven proposed fish and wildlife
strategies.
The Framework's management committee heard
an update of the process
during a recent meeting in Spokane. The
seven strategies were distilled
from nearly 30 submitted by tribes, state
and federal agencies, ...

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4. NWPPC GIVES NOD TO $68 MILLION IN PROJECTS

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER

Most of the tough decisions still remain despite the fact that the Northwest
Power Planning Council on Wednesday allocated more than half of its $127
million direct fish and wildlife budget for fiscal year 2000.
The Council mulls project proposals and recommends which should receive
Bonneville Power Administration hydrosystem mitigation funds. In choosing
projects, the Council considers advice from the public, staff, the Columbia
Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority's fish and wildlife ...

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5. HANFORD REACH STRANDING PLAN CALLED SUCCESS

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 07. POWER

This past spring's attempt to maintain hydroelectric "load following"
capabilities while still keeping emerging Hanford Reach fall chinook fry
afloat has been proclaimed a success by utility and fishery officials.
"It looks like the operations, at least in my opinion, were successful,"
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Paul Wagner told the
Northwest Power Planning Council Tuesday.
The Grant Public Utility's 1999 Hanford Reach Juvenile Fall Chinook
Protection Program was

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11. TEAM RECOMMENDS TIMBER HARVEST CHANGES

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE

Oregons Independent Multidisciplinary Science Team unveiled at a meeting
in Salem this week a report with 19 recommendations to improve Oregon forest
practices.
Seventeen of the recommendations could be put into practice almost immediately,
while two are fraught with difficulties that will require policy changes
in Oregons Forest Practices Rules as well as the Oregon Plan for Salmon
and Watersheds.
The recommendations are specifically for western Oregon forests and
the Siskiyou ...

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3. What strategies are needed in the management of forest resources

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT

to achieve the mission of the Oregon Plan?
Their answers lie in the 19 recommendations.
For example, Recommendation 1 incorporates the policy objectives of
the Oregon Plan into Oregons Forest Practices Act. While the OFPA includes
protection of water quality and habitat, it doesnt address recovery of
salmon, as the Oregon Plan does. "We believe there is a scientific disconnect
if we dont have an OFPA policy that fits with the Oregon Plan," Norris
said.
Recommendation 2, the most ...

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4. ADULT SOCKEYE RELEASED IN REDFISH LAKE

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER

The governor of Idaho was among those on hand Wednesday to celebrate
the release of 21 adult sockeye salmon into Redfish Lake -- a signal of
success for a captive breeding program intended to revive a species listed
in 1991 as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
The release witnessed by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne was the fifth into the
lake from the broodstock program.
But this year's release was different in that three of the 21 fish released
had made the 900-mile journey to the ocean

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5. FOREST PRACTICES REPORT ON SALMON RELEASED

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT

A 90-page independent science report released this week offers 19 suggestions
for how Oregon forest practices on state and private lands could be improved
to facilitate the recovery of salmon species.
The report prepared by the seven member Independent Multidisciplinary
Science Team will be presented Sept. 23 to the Oregon Board of Forestry's
Ad Hoc Forest Practices Advisory Committee on Salmon and Watersheds.
The citizens' committee was formed to review protections contained in
the ...

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9. IF DAMS BREACHED, CORPS RETAINS EXPOSED LAND

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 07. POWER

If the four lower Snake River dams are breached, drawing down the four
reservoirs would expose about 14,000 acres of land and create a new 140-mile
long river corridor. For now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says in
a real estate study, it will retain most of that land.
The Corps purchased the land between 1955 and 1979 while constructing
Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite Dams. However,
in anticipation of building the dams, the purchase was authorized ten ...

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1. CORPS DELAYS SNAKE EIS, NMFS DELAYS BIOPS

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week announced a delay in
releasing its draft environmental impact statement that will recommend
the fate of four lower Snake River dams.
In a related announcement, the National Marine Fisheries Service says
it
will delay its biological opinion on how the federal Columbia River
power system should be operated to restore endangered fish runs.
The Corps had intended to release the Lower Snake River Juvenile Salmon
Migration Feasibility Study and EIS in

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1998 at a fish trap on the property. While PGE did not purchase the

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 07. POWER

upstream spawning habitat, it did purchase much of the mid-section
of
the creek where smolts rear.
"We are protecting the corridor the fish have to pass through," said
John Esler, project manager in PGE's Hydro Licensing department. "Most
of the spawning is further up in the tributaries."
He said the purchase will allow PGE, or whoever manages the land in
the
future, to effect temperature, water quality and flow in the creek's
rearing area.
"This is prime rearing habitat on what ...

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31, 1999. The license expires in December 2001.

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 07. POWER

However, the license has been contested by the Warm Springs Tribes,
which is expected to also file with FERC in December.
PGE purchased the land with money from a $10 million fund promised by
PGE and Enron when they merged in 1997.
"We were looking for merger support and worked with some environmental
groups to determine what we should do to improve the rivers where we
have hydro projects," Esler said. "We agreed that it wouldn't be for
science, nor for hydro relicensing."
The fund ...

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6. BPA LAUNCHES RATE PROPOSAL

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER

The Aug. 13 publication of the Bonneville Power Administration's 2002-2006
rate proposal intensifies the debate over what the federal agency can do
for its power customers, and what it can do to fuel Columbia River Basin
fish and wildlife recovery.
Average rates would remain at the current level under the proposal,
according a BPA press release.
"By reducing the costs and by avoiding large purchases of new power
supplies, BPA plans to hold the line on wholesale power rates," said ...

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10. LYNX LISTING COMMENT PERIOD REOPENED

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT

A hoped-for report on the status of Canada lynx, and the threats to
their survival, is yet to arrive in toto, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service has decided to forge ahead with its process for proposing the shy
animal for listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The USFWS announced July 8 that that it would delay for six months its
decision on whether to list the forest-dwelling cat. The federal ESA allows
a delay in making listing determinations when there is ...

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11. LEADERS CALL FOR UNIFIED FISH PLAN

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

Two high-profile regional leaders, one elected and the other appointed,
took the podium Aug. 11 in Helena, Mont., to urge the Northwest Power Planning
Council to take a leadership role to ensure that region retains the benefits
it now derives from the Columbia River.
Montana Gov. Marc Racicot said the four Northwest governors whose representatives
sit on the NWPPC want to "ensure the equitable distribution of the Basin's
benefits" and a "fair and balanced sharing of the burden" of fish and

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1. CORPS DETAILS BREACHING PROCEDURES

October 1, 2003/in 02. RIVER, 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE

?Bryant
It will take nine years and $1 billion to breach four lower Snake River
dams if Congress decides that?s the best way to recover wild salmon
and
steelhead stocks in the Snake River basin.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released an engineering fact sheet
this
week that describes the steps and costs of breaching Lower Granite,
Little Goose, Ice Harbor and Lower Monumental dams on the Snake River
in
Washington. The Corps said the time frame for breaching the dams ...

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3. NMFS? MATRIX NEW ANALYTICAL TOOL

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

The National Marine Fisheries Service has decided to take matters into
its own hands with a modeling effort aimed at identifying the extinction
risks faced by salmon populations and evaluating which actions have
the
most potential to ward off extinction in the short term, and promote
full recovery for the long term.
NMFS has launched the in-house effort with the goal of providing salmon
recovery planners with an analytical tool to examine the threats to
salmon, including harvest, ...

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8. WASHINGTON COMMITS SALMON RECOVERY MONEY

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT

Washington will spend $6.7 million and gain another $4.4 million in
matching funds to improve stream conditions across the state for wild
salmon. Nearly one-third of the state money and one-quarter of the
matching money will be used to repair habitat and provide fish passage
in the Columbia River and Snake River basins.
A state-appointed Interagency Review Team awarded the funding to over

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100 projects last week. The salmon recovery funding package, which

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT

was
appropriated by the Washington Legislature during its 1999 session,
includes $4.1 million to restore stream habitat and $2.6 million for
fish passage improvements. Project sponsors ponied-up the additional
matching money for a total effort of $11.l million.
Sponsors included irrigation districts, cities, counties, tribes, the
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, advocate groups like
Washington Trout, South Puget Sound Salmon, Skagit and Nooksack fish
enhancement groups, ...

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12. BASIN FORUM MEMBERS AGREE ON GOAL

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

A Columbia Basin Forum effort to "reach common
understanding" on fish and wildlife recovery last
week culminated in a broad goal statement that
attempts to address the concerns of everyone
sitting around the table.
Now, say Forum committee participants, comes the
hard part -- establishing standards or benchmarks
that measure whether regional strategies being
developed can achieve that goal. Those strategies
range from dam breaching to a variety of other
hydrosystem, habitat, ...

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14. NEW IDFG COMMISSIONERS NAMED

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT

Four new members of the Idaho Fish and Game
Commission attended their first Commission meeting
July 21 in Boise. Gov. Dirk Kempthorne announced
the appointment of the new members July 16.
The four commission posts became available when
terms of commissioners from the Clearwater,
Southwest and Southeast regions expired June 30.
In addition, the commissioner representing the
Upper Snake Region resigned in March.
Kempthorne made his selections after an interview
process that was ...

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2. TROUT UNLIMITED STUDY PREDICTS EXTINCTIONS

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

Sponsors of a study that predicts Snake River wild spring and summer
chinook extinction by 2017 say the new information serves as a call for
policy makers to immediately pursue an aggressive restoration plan.
"This is only going in one direction," Dr. Phil Mundy said of spawning
ground population "trend lines" that have, particularly since 1981, been
plummeting downward.
Mundy prepared the report, "Status and Expected Time to Extinction for
Snake River Spring and Summer Chinook ...

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5. HATCHERY REVIEW SCHEDULE SLIPS

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER

Completion of a comprehensive review of Columbia Basin hatchery practices
may be pushed back to October while "holes" in the report to Congress are
filled.
Those holes include the development of "performance standards" by which
individual hatcheries can be judged and the refinement of proposed policy
implementation measures, according to John Shurts, general counsel for
the Northwest Power Planning Council. Those performance standards will
be included in the "implementation" section ...

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7. LYNX LISTING DECISION DELAYED

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT

Hoping to settle disagreements about the Canada lynx' status, the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week that it will delay for six
months its decision on whether to list the forest-dwelling cat as threatened
under the Endangered Species Act.
The federal ESA allows a delay in making listing determinations when
there is substantial disagreement regarding the sufficiency or accuracy
of the available data, according to the agency.
"The Fish and Wildlife Service is aware there ...

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9. LOCKE APPOINTS SALMON FUNDING BOARD

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT

The newly created Washington Salmon Recovery Fund Board will be led
by Bill Ruckelshaus, former chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and a key figure in the recent resolution of the U.S.-Canada Pacific
Salmon Treaty.
Gov. Gary Locke on Thursday announced Ruckelshaus will chair the salmon
funding board. It was created by the 1999 Washington Legislature to guide
the spending of funds targeted for recovery activities and projects.
The 1999 Washington Legislature earmarked ...

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1. PROJECT FUNDING

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER

A stepped up schedule of "site reviews"
has been suggested as an attempt
to settle major differences of opinion
between Columbia Basin fish and
wildlife managers and the group
of scientists charged with reviewing
Columbia Basin project funding proposals
for fiscal year 2000.
But it is uncertain whether such
reviews could be completed in time to
answer questions the 11-member Independent
Scientific Review Panel has
about the artificial production
practice known as ...

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