Farmers, ranchers and loggers took turns in Pendleton Jan. 25 bashing the 4(d) Rules proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The Columbia Basin Forum Committee this week met for the first time in
three months, setting for itself an ambitious agenda to begin its policy
level exploration of the region's four Hs -- hydro, harvest, habitat and
hatcheries
The federal caucus will be taking its developing salmon recovery
products on the road next month, spotlighting three Corps of Engineers studies of Lower Snake River hydrosystem configuration options. More follows.
About 13 miles of salmon spawning and rearing habitat in the lower
Columbia River estuary could be recovered if improvements suggested by a
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' environmental assessment are approved.
The beginnings of a Columbia Basin subbasin planning effort were
redirected last week following Northwest Power Planning Council members'
grumblings that the process' grass roots have not branched out to
include land managers and other local entities.
The process of amending the Columbia Basin's $127 million regional fish
and wildlife program began Wednesday with a call for broad rules to live
by, not specific measures for managing fish and wildlife populations.
Despite a stand-offish policy stance reiterated this week by Washington
Gov. Gary Locke, the governors of Oregon, Idaho and Montana decided
Thursday to forge ahead with a plan to bring the region more authority
in fish and wildlife recovery decision-making.
About 30 people offered opinions Tuesday during the National Marine
Fisheries Service's first of 15 scheduled public hearings in the
Northwest to accept comments on its proposed "4(d) rules" for 14 species
of steelhead and salmon listed as threatened under the federal
Endangered Species Act.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has released a draft of a
supplemental biological opinion on operation of the Columbia River
federal power system to federal and state agencies, along with tribes,
for quick review. It hopes to complete the BiOp by the spring 2000
juvenile migration.
The long-term benefits produced by recovering salmon populations
outweigh the short-term economic gains produced by logging the fish's
habitat, according to a new report previewed Wednesday for Oregon's
Board of Forestry.
Basing the region's salmon recovery efforts on "the best available
science," -- a phrase included in nearly every salmon-related state,
federal or tribal document these days -- is easier said than done,
according to a federal researcher.
A supplemental biological opinion completed last month blesses a plan to
continue federal operations which times the release of 427,000 acre feet
of reservoir water in Idaho to coincide, primarily, with the migration
of Snake River fall chinook salmon listed Endangered Species Act.
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