U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden on Monday put federal agencies on warning that the survival of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead stocks must be the ultimate priority, not water allocation plans, as they devise a new biological opinion related to Idaho irrigation projects.
A $10.7 million deal to protect 1,761 acres of Plum Creek Timber Co. land in Montana's Swan Valley has been completed.
Federal, state and tribal officials last Friday (Sept. 22) celebrated the completion of the Yakima Basin Phase II fish screen project, which over the past 14 years has involved modifying or rebuilding and maintaining 31 diversions that help keep fish from dying in irrigation canals and ditches.
Only three adult sockeye survived the 900-mile trip up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers this year, matching the low since 1999, when hatchery-origin fish used to keep the run alive first began returning.
Attorneys for the U.S. government and the state of Idaho say a request to have the looming Upper Snake biological opinion remand focused on the augmentation of river flows would undercut federal authorities and go contrary to previous judicial direction.
The Northwest Power and Conservation on Wednesday met the Colville Tribe halfway, approving $82,686 of a requested $133,686 within-year funding request to replace two culverts in central Washington's Omak Creek to improve passage and habitat there for steelhead.
For most of the summer, a blue catamaran raft has been plying Montana's Flathead river system, outfitted with an unusual array of high-tech equipment rather than coolers and tackle boxes.
The number of returning summer chinook salmon greatly exceeded the 10-year average, according to the federal agencies responsible for salmon recovery efforts in the federal Columbia River hydropower system.
A federal submittal says agencies will do the work necessary to correct "legal deficiencies" in 2005's biological opinion on the operation of upper Snake River irrigation projects, and offers a brief outline of progress reporting tasks and schedule.
A new book of essays from more than 30 salmon scientists, policy analysts and wild salmon advocates suggesting ways to save runs of wild salmon has been published by the American Fisheries Society – and some of the prescriptions are certain to raise a few eyebrows.
U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden this week gave legal adversaries two weeks to develop a schedule and plan for reworking a biological opinion on federal irrigation projects in the upper Snake River basin that is "coordinated" with an ongoing remand of a BiOp on lower Snake and Columbia river hydro projects.
The Bonneville Power Administration will have the tools to raise power rates in dire times, if need be, to meet Endangered Species Act costs stemming from ongoing litigation in federal court, according to a report filed earlier this month.
About 35 percent -- an estimated $29 million -- of the fiscal year 2007 Columbia River Fish Mitigation program budget will be focused on projects to provide surface bypass for juvenile salmon and steelhead at hydro projects on the Columbia and Snake rivers, according to priorities set by the System Configuration Team.
A number of funding decisions remain in limbo as the Northwest Power and Conservation Council enters the stretch run in deciding which of $1 billion in funding requests will fit into a fish and wildlife program budget that holds about half that amount for fiscal years 2007-2009.
The most severe low-oxygen ocean conditions ever observed on the West Coast of the United States have turned parts of the seafloor off Oregon into a carpet of dead Dungeness crabs and rotting sea worms, a new survey shows.
Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez this week declared a commercial fishery failure has occurred for West Coast salmon fishermen this season from Cape Falcon, Oregon, to Point Sur, California, due to low numbers of fish caused primarily by the drought.
A July 21 letter from the Bonneville Power Administration's CEO Steve Wright reiterates the agency's intent to defer funding for new Nez Perce tribal hatchery facilities while the project’s full biological benefits are weighed in an ongoing court-ordered process.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking public comments on a draft scientific report designed to lay the foundation for a new management plan for Washington steelhead.
A process to rebuild the government's salmon protection strategy for the Columbia River hydrosystem is on track, aiming for recovery of imperiled salmon and steelhead stocks, federal attorneys told U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden July 21.
A hypoxic “dead zone” has formed off the Oregon Coast for the fifth time in five years, according to researchers at Oregon State University.
The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and federal agencies have opened a new chapter in efforts to conserve and recover Kootenai River white sturgeon.
A rapid, late spring snowmelt that caused harm to northwest Montana resident fish could, in a round-about way, also bring those same trout long-sought benefits.
The state of affairs will become clearer in the coming weeks within the federal government's "collaborative" process to reconstruct its Columbia River hydrosystem salmon protection plan.
Montana officials will have to wait another week to find out if their long-sought summer outflow plan from Libby and Hungry Horse dams will be accepted by regional interests and implemented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation.
A near doubling of the projected Upper Columbia summer chinook return from previous predictions has removed fears that the mainstem sport salmon fishing season would have to be ended prior to the weekend and the looming Fourth of July holiday.
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