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.
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.
Endangered species listings, jeopardy opinions and related major decisions by federal agencies would be required to undergo scientific peer review under a bill approved Wednesday by the House Resources Committee.
Rod Sando, the new executive director of the Portland-based Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority, has stepped into his new position amid a world of change -- for the organization, and for the basin's recovery and enhancement effort as a whole.
A final supplemental environmental impact statement issued this week recommends that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allow the surrender of the federal hydroelectric license for southwest Washington's Condit Dam and a one-year dismantling of the structure that would begin late in 2006.
The Bush administration has changed its position and now supports legislation to require fish and wildlife agencies to give greater weight in making endangered species listings and other decisions to peer-reviewed and field-gathered scientific information.
An abundant Methow River Basin spring chinook salmon return has allowed federal, state and tribal fishery officials to again implement a plan that involves the capture of naturally spawning fish to reinvigorate hatchery programs and allows any "surplus" hatchery returns to find spawning grounds in the wild.
An envisioned 10-year plan for managing the federal Klamath Project failed to clear its final hurdle this week with the Bureau of Reclamation's regional chief criticizing federal fish agencies' strategies for protecting fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Oregon's seven-member Fish and Wildlife Commission asked for, and got, an earful Thursday in what is the second in a series of sessions planned to gather insight on gray wolf management.
Biological opinions released by two federal agencies last week said a project that will deepen by three feet the Columbia River shipping channel from Portland, Ore., to Astoria will pose no jeopardy to 13 species of salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout listed, or being considered, under the federal Endangered Species Act.
A recently released draft Methow River Basin spring chinook genetic analysis says that it is too late to segregate an Upper Columbia salmon melting pot by phasing out the so-called "Carson" bloodlines in favor of "Methow composite" stock in hatchery operations.
A draft report now out for technical review likens the impact of predatory Caspian terns on migrating Columbia Basin juvenile salmon and steelhead to those brought by human activities that increase fish mortality.
The Independent Scientific Review Panel says that as many as 17 "innovative" project proposals met criteria for funding under the Northwest Power Planning Council fish and wildlife program, with five of the projects standing above the rest.
The federal action agencies say they are "right on track" in implementing measures called for in a December 2000 federal fish recovery plan for the Columbia Basin.
Critics call that assertion a "fairy tale."
A National Marine Fisheries Service draft biological opinion claims that proposed federal Klamath Basin irrigation operations put at risk the existence of coho salmon populations.
But the document released Thursday prescribes actions -- such as the creation of a "water bank" -- that the agency says can keep irrigators and fish afloat while scientists figure out just what Klamath River mainstem flows are needed for fish.
The National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday had not yet determined a
course of action for 68,000 sockeye salmon smolts infected with an
untreatable kidney virus, but it's clear that Idaho does not want the fish
in three Sawtooth Valley lakes.
A federal court in the District of Columbia has approved a settlement
agreement submitted by the National Marine Fisheries Service, thereby
ending a lawsuit initiated by the National Association of Home Builders in
exchange for the agency's removal of "critical habitat designations" from
19 West Coast salmon and steelhead populations.
Oregon's governor on Tuesday again challenged the Northwest and country as a whole to attack the salmon recovery issue at full power or be turned down a road of social, economic and legal chaos that leads ultimately to dam breaching.
Only the "wild, naturally producing" fish among 15 West Coast salmon and steelhead stocks should be listed under the Endangered Species Act, according to petitions sent Thursday to the National Marine Fisheries Service by a group of 17 national, regional and local conservation groups.
The Senate on Thursday passed a sweeping energy bill that would allow owners of non-federal hydroelectric dams to change new fishway requirements if they showed they could meet environmental standards in less costly ways or benefit power production.
Washington Gov. Locke announced Wednesday that the Salmon Recovery Funding Board has approved $36.7 million in grants to fund salmon recovery projects across the state.
Combined with local matching funds, the total value of the approved project list is more than $57.6 million.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has released an early draft
biological opinion that identifies the Bureau of Reclamation's on-going
irrigation projects, started nearly a century ago, as harmful to
steelhead in the Umatilla River.
Two Idaho landowners have agreed to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to restore habitat for the threatened bull trout and other
aquatic and riparian species in the Pahsimeroi River Basin, the federal
agency announced last week.
An 11th-hour settlement has been reached between bird conservation
groups and fish management entities that would guide fast-arriving
Caspian terns toward Columbia River estuary nesting grounds where the
predatory birds are believed to be less of a threat to migrating
juvenile salmon.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said Wednesday that additional salmon
recovery efforts in Idaho are moving from concept to reality, thanks in
many respects to the Northwest Power Planning Council's fish and
wildlife program.
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