Columbia Basin salmon managers -- unused to dealing with bounty -- are
smiling at preseason forecasts of a 2001 upriver spring chinook run that
would be 30 percent greater than the best run recorded since counts
began in 1938.
His tenure could, potentially, be brief, but acting Bonneville Power
Administration administrator Steve Wright sees the need to keep the
momentum rolling on a number of related fronts -- among them finding
agreement on a "unified" Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery plan
demanded by his predecessor.
The Bonneville Power Administration witnessed a changing of the guard
today (Nov. 17) with Administrator Judi Johansen leaving to become
executive vice president for government affairs and regulation at
PacifiCorp.
A gathering last week celebrated the just-won congressional
authorization that $30 million be spent to restore habitat in the
Columbia River and Tillamook Bay estuaries.
Shepherding the Northwest estuary legislation through as part of the
Water Resources Development Act was U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.
The governors of Montana and Oregon on Monday aim to trigger discussions
they hope will eventually give the Columbia Basin states and tribes more
clout in fish and wildlife restoration decisions.
Montana Gov. Marc Racicot and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber have called a
public hearing take input on a "discussion draft" of proposed
legislation that would amend the Pacific Northwest Electric Power
Planning and Conservation Act.
The Northwest Power Planning Council and Bonneville Power Administration
issued a solicitation this week for "high priority" fish and wildlife
project proposals expected to bring immediate, on-the-ground benefits
for listed salmon and steelhead.
The two major party candidates for president have staked out sharply
differing positions on the environment, including specifically the proposal to tear down four dams on the lower Snake River to save salmon.
But Green Party standard-bearer Ralph Nader has drawn some environmental support away from Gore in the Northwest by taking a harder line against commercial logging and suggesting he would consider dam breaching ...
A successful British Columbia watershed restoration project that
improves stream structure and habitat, adds nutrient pellets and
increases smolt survival could provide a lesson in how similar streams
in the Northwest can be restored to help increase runs of salmon now
listed as endangered.
The Senate has given final approval to an annual spending bill that
would provide some $170 million for West Coast salmon recovery,
primarily in the Northwest.
President Clinton is expected to veto the measure over unrelated
provisions, however. With the Senate having recessed this week, Congress
won't take up a modified version until after Tuesday's election. A lame
duck session is scheduled to begin on Nov. 14.
At the request of fish and wildlife managers and hydropower customers,
the Northwest Power Planning Council has delayed putting into writing
its desires for a fish and wildlife program budget expansion for the
current fiscal year.
Improved ocean and in-river migrating conditions in the past year or two
have added momentum to efforts intended to boost natural production of
Snake River fall chinook above Lower Granite Dam.
A test of hatchery supplementation using the only Snake River basin fall
chinook stock in the Northwest reaped benefits last year and this.
More than 130 redds have been counted two months after 364 mature adult
spring chinook salmon were released in the Walla Walla River, where they
had been absent for most of the last century.
The spawning of those adults, surplus from the Ringold Hatchery near
Priest Rapids, Wash., bolsters what biologists from the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have been saying for the last
10 years.
Idaho water users, and the state itself, have challenged proposed
federal salmon recovery plans, saying the strategy has the potential to
bleed the Upper Snake River's farming economy with no proven benefit to
fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The Senate gave final approval Monday to a $23.6 billion energy and
water spending bill, which includes $5.5 million for the Columbia River
channel deepening project.
The vote was 57-37, short of the 67 needed to override the veto that
White House officials have vowed because the bill would block the Army
Corps of Engineers from implementing a plan to alter the flow of the
Missouri River. The House passed the FY01 energy and water
appropriations measure last week, 301-118.
Columbia Basin states, tribes and others have all pointed out what they
see as major flaws in two draft federal salmon recovery documents
designed to ensure survive of 12 salmon and steelhead species listed
under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a final FY01 spending
bill that includes $4.5 million to improve fish habitat and water
quality in the lower Columbia River.
The restoration of 1,550 acres of wetland and riparian habitat at
Shillapoo Lake, Wash., and elsewhere would mitigate for the impacts of
the Army Corps of Engineers' project to lower the Columbia River
shipping channel by three feet, to 43 feet.
Much of this week's Northwest Power Planning Council program budget
discussion focused not on what was on the table, but on expected "new"
demands for fish and wildlife resources during fiscal year 2001.
The Council on Wednesday recommended that the Bonneville Power
Administration fund $135 million worth of fish and wildlife project
renewals.
Three days of hearings before two Senate subcommittees this week
provided the first public forum for a direct exchange of views on the
Clinton administration's salmon recovery plan between top federal
officials and their strongest critics in the Northwest congressional
delegation.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and representatives of other Northwest
governors and the Northwest Power Council this week went to Washington,
D.C., to seek a greater role for states in salmon recovery.
They testified at a Senate hearing, and Kempthorne met with two Cabinet
members about the issue -- Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta and
Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. Kempthorne was accompanied by Idaho
Attorney General Al Lance.
The federal government's top regional salmon recovery official has opted
for the private life, leaving his job little more than a month after his
and other federal agencies unveiled their sweeping plan for restoring 12
Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead runs listed under the Endangered
Species Act.
A summer-long battle by tribes and a local citizens group to find a home
for surplus hatchery spring chinook salmon and their progeny entered a
new phase this week with Washington Sen. Slade Gorton promising funds to
avert "destruction" of those fishes' eggs and challenging ESA guardians
to rethink genetic rules.
A plan to deepen the Columbia River channel from Portland to the ocean
was put on hold last week when the National Marine Fisheries Service
reversed its "not likely to jeopardize" biological opinion on the
project in order to reopen a consultation process with the Army Corps of
Engineers.
Some hope NMFS' reversal dooms the $196 million channel dredging
project, while others believe the decision will, at most, delay it.
A draft federal hydrosystem biological opinion released last month
ventures into new territory and leaves, at least at this point, blurry
lines of funding responsibility, according to Northwest Power Planning
Council staff members.
Conservation groups and individuals on Wednesday asked the Northwest
Power Planning Council to take up the pro-dam breaching cause as part of
its amended Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program.
Breaching of four Lower Snake River hydroelectric dams "is the most
viable solution" to give impetus to salmon recovery efforts, Karie
Korporaal said during a public hearing on the Council's draft amendment
to its fish and wildlife program. "You need to take a stand."
Federal agencies intend to keep a closer eye on how available Columbia
Basin fish and wildlife funds are spent to ensure decisions are made
with Endangered Species Act recovery goals in mind.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
