The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday rolled out proposed "critical habitat" designations as well as a draft recovery plan for bull trout in the Northwest.

The draft proposals put a premium on habitat that provides "clean, cold, connected" water for bull trout, which were listed as a threatened species in the Columbia and Klamath basins in 1998. A draft recovery plan for the St. Mary-Belly River population east of Glacier National Park in Montana has also been developed.

Preparing for the arrival of spawning salmon downstream from its Hells Canyon Dam, Idaho Power initiated stable and even flows Oct. 14, just in time to ensure salmon redds will not be dewatered.

One week later biologists from the utility and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, while surveying the Snake River below the dam, found 30 redds made by spawning fall chinook salmon.

Flat federal funding for Mitchell Act facilities and the imminent hatch of spring chinook salmon eggs may force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to start destroying some 1.5 million eggs next week at their Carson and Little White Salmon hatcheries.