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.
A self-described "five-year blueprint for fish recovery actions by the
three (action) agencies" was released this week in draft form --
detailing how Federal Columbia River Power System operators aim to meet
survival goals for salmon, steelhead and resident fish species listed
under the Endangered Species Act.
The number of endangered sockeye salmon swimming toward central Idaho's
Stanley Basin is a trickle compared to the relative gusher of adults
that made the trip up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers last year.
But researchers involved in the captive broodstock program -- attempting
to revive a population that counted zero returning adults in 1997 and
one in 1998 -- remain optimistic.
A "first-cut" review of proposed fiscal 2002 hydrosystem fish passage
and research projects Wednesday served to shoehorn $100 million in
originally estimated needs into what is expected to be about an $80
million Columbia River Fish Mitigation Project budget.
The Columbia Basin's four governors received assurances last week that
the Bush administration is committed to implementing federal salmon
recovery strategies completed last year, and that it will do it
hand-in-hand with the states.
The Senate on Thursday passed a spending bill that would authorize $2
billion in new borrowing by the Bonneville Power Administration.
The energy and water development appropriation bill for fiscal 2002 also
provides funds for ecosystem restoration, riparian protection, and fish mitigation on the Columbia River.
A recently published research paper concludes that young steelhead are
the favored targets of avian predators circling the Columbia River
estuary, a phenomenon the authors say could have dire implications for
some of the basin's most imperiled stocks.
The Bonneville Power Administration announced Thursday that it will fund
approximately $10 million worth of projects aimed at helping fish
affected by this year's power emergency operations at federal
hydroelectric projects in the Columbia Basin.
A long-running difference of opinion about how, when or even if
supplementation should be used in Columbia Basin salmon recovery efforts
continues to simmer this summer, with an independent scientific report
on the practice again the focus.
In a June 29 letter, the heads of the two entities that sponsor the
11-member Independent Scientific Advisory Board defended the panel and
the conclusions made in a recently published review of "surplus"
hatchery salmon issues.
The clock began ticking today (June 22) on a process that will allow the
Bonneville Power Administration and its administrator better take a
"comprehensive, consistent and unified approach" toward its
responsibility to fund the multiple Columbia Basin fish and wildlife
recovery efforts.
A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order has cleared the way for a
proposed Columbia Basin "spill exchange" the agency says will both
assure flexibility and reliability" in the regional power grid and
protect fish species listed under the Endangered Species Act.
A research project on Caspian terns in Commencement Bay has been cut
short due to concerns raised by tribal fisheries co-managers about the
birds' consumption of area salmon, according to the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that federal
"biological opinions" sanctioning certain federal timber sales in the
Pacific Northwest did not adequately protect habitat for salmon stocks
listed under the Endangered Species Act.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
