Four Northwest tribes with treaty fishing rights will be at the "heart"
of plans to re-evaluate the hatchery policies of the National Marine
Fisheries Service following a September federal court ruling, said
Donald Sampson, executive director for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission.
Instead of appealing a federal court order that tossed out the Oregon
coastal coho Endangered Species Act listing, the National Marine
Fisheries Service has opted to use that decision as a springboard toward
the re-evaluation of as many as 23 other West Coast listings and its own
artificial production strategy.
Fishing and conservation groups and two Columbia Basin tribes this week
announced the filing of lawsuits claiming that the Bonneville Power
Administration has violated the Northwest Power Act by failing to manage
the federal hydrosystem "equitably" to produce energy and to restore
salmon.
The Northwest Power Planning Council marched ahead Thursday with a plan
that allots nearly $35 million in fiscal year 2002 spending on new and
ongoing fish and wildlife projects in the Columbia Plateau Province.
"This is an example of the Council approving on-the-ground projects that
will benefit fish and wildlife, and doing so within the budget
established by Bonneville," Council Chairman Larry Cassidy of Vancouver,
Wash., said.
U.S. District Circuit Judge Michael Hogan on Tuesday turned aside
arguments that federal protection for Oregon coastal coho and their
habitat be continued while the federal government rethinks the status of
the salmon's wild and hatchery produced populations.
A shower of petitions asking the National Marine Fisheries Service to
drop numerous Pacific fish species from the federal endangered species
list has been followed by flurry of letters to the agency calling the
requests "spurious," "facially deficient" and "frivolous."
A shower of petitions asking the National Marine Fisheries Service to
drop numerous Pacific fish species from the federal endangered species
list has been followed by flurry of letters to the agency calling the
requests "spurious," "facially deficient" and "frivolous."
If higher river flow is provided for chum salmon spawning downstream
from Bonneville Dam beginning Monday, as Oregon and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service want, the Bonneville Power Administration doubts it
could sustain the flow through January without jeopardizing juvenile
salmon operations next spring and summer.
No less than five administrative "de-listing" petitions -- targeting
fish stocks from the Puget Sound to northern California and Oregon's
Klamath Basin -- have landed on federal fish managers' desks in recent
week.
3. $7.5 MILLION SUBBASIN PLANNING 'PLACEHOLDER' ESTABLISHED
A number of undefined variables remained this week as the Northwest
Power Planning Council searched for an equitable means of spreading
available fish and wildlife project funding across the basin.
This week, Congress passed a final interior spending bill with $26
million toward removal of two dams in Olympic National Park and at least
$14 million for Columbia Basin fish habitat and salmon enhancement in
the Northwest.
Seven environmental and fishing groups on Tuesday filed a series of
legal measures they hope will lead to an appeal of U.S. District Court
Judge Michael Hogan's Sept. 10 decision that has resulted in the
delisting of the Oregon coastal coho.
The Northwest Power Planning Council is pondering a "freeze" on funding
for new fish and wildlife projects until it can judge the full weight of
growing demands stemming from its newly instituted provincial review
process and from federal hydrosystem biological opinions.
The year 2001 marks the 100-year milestone for the Spring Creek National
Fish Hatchery in Underwood, Wash., an event formally celebrated on Sept.
8., with educational activities, a formal ceremony and the viewing of
adult tule fall chinook salmon return that is next to none in recent
history.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans on Thursday announced the
appointment of Dr. William T. Hogarth to head the department's National
Marine Fisheries Service and Robert Lohn as chief of NMFS' Northwest
region.
Hogarth, a veteran with 16 years of experience in fisheries and natural
resources management, has since January been NMFS acting assistant
administrator.
The origin of toxins found in juvenile salmon in the lower Columbia
River estuary and at some Oregon salmon hatcheries has Northwest
scientists mystified.
However, the finding by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is
the result of three years of testing, will likely not stop the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers and lower Columbia River ports from deepening the
river's shipping channel by three feet.
Columbia Basin fish and wildlife managers have been asked to more
precisely outline their project priorities midway through a new process
that has identified fish and wildlife project needs likely to surpass
the projected budget ceiling for fiscal year 2002 and beyond.
It is time to regroup, say participants in a multi-agency effort to
relocate a Columbia River estuary Caspian tern colony, and thus reduce
the birds' predation on listed salmon and steelhead.
State, federal and tribal officials involved for the past three years
say the project has been a success, without causing harm to the
migratory birds.
Substantial concurrence between fish and wildlife managers and a
scientific panel on fish and wildlife project proposals in the "Columbia
Plateau" province figures to complicate decisions as the Northwest Power
Planning Council and Bonneville Power Administration launch into a new
post "MOA" era.
More than 1,200 adult spring chinook salmon, surplus from the Ringold
Hatchery near Priest Rapids, Wash., have been released into the Walla
Walla River in the second year of an effort to restore the extirpated
run.
Citing better than expected stream flows, but an uncertain financial
position, the Bonneville Power Administration proposed this week to
increase spill at two federal dams.
As a result of the proposal, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased
spill Wednesday at The Dalles Dam to 40 percent of river flow for 24
hours and to 24-hour spill of 50,000 cubic feet per second at Bonneville
Dam beginning Thursday evening.
The agency caught in the middle -- the Bonneville Power Administration
-- fielded questions Wednesday about how it might mete out "off-site
mitigation" fish and wildlife recovery funding as the lines blur between
federal Endangered Species Act mandates and those under the Northwest
Power Act.
Three federal hydroelectric operating agencies released for public
comment their long-anticipated plan on how they will operate the hydro
system and what they will do in the other "H's" -- hatcheries, harvest
and habitat -- to aid salmon recovery.
Columbia Basin state and tribal representatives gathered Wednesday to
discuss how they fit into salmon recovery plans that profess federal
responsibility but stress that success hinges in part on actions taken
outside federal agencies' direct authorities.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
