The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week endorsed expansion of the hatchery captive broodstock program that is the sole barrier between Snake River sockeye salmon and extinction.
A Snake River sockeye salmon captive broodstock hatchery program that continues the genetic line of "Lonesome Larry" earned a groundswell of support this week after receiving a critical scientific review.
The near edge of that "black box" called the Pacific Ocean has been pried open by NOAA Fisheries scientists who say they can gauge how well juvenile salmon and steelhead survive during that crucial time when they move from Columbia River freshwater to saltwater.
A hoped-for June start to construction on a $16.4 million Northeast Oregon Hatchery complex has been deferred as the project's funding source, the Bonneville Power Administration, awaits assurances that it will bring desired Endangered Species Act "credit."
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council is seeking public comments on its fifth annual report to the Northwest governors on Bonneville Power Administration expenditures to implement the Council’s program to protect and rebuild fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin.
The Independent Scientific Review Panel last Friday (June 2) issued its preliminary review of projects proposed for inclusion in the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Columbia River basin fish and wildlife program during the 2007-2009 funding cycle.
A 2005 document giving Endangered Species Act clearance to federal dam operations on the upper Snake River is illegal, U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden said in a Tuesday opinion and order.
A significant gap in assessments of salmon survival through the federal Columbia River basin hydrosystem has seemingly been closed with the installation this spring of a fish detection device at Bonneville Dam.
Nature has played right into the hands of federal agencies this week who began implementation of a "flow pulse" from Montana's Libby Dam intended to trigger Kootenai River white sturgeon's spawning movements.
Critical habitat designations established for 19 protected West Coast salmon and steelhead stocks late last summer have flawed legal, biological and economic foundations, according to a legal warning fired early this month by agriculture, water user and homebuilder groups.
Local, state and federal entities across the Columbia River basin have made fish passage restoration a key tool in helping boost salmon and steelhead populations.
Fish and wildlife project contracts expiring this fall will be judged on a case-by-case basis and either renewed or brought to "smart closure" ahead of other projects submitted for funding during the fiscal 2007-2009 period, according to a staff plan endorsed by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Fish and Wildlife Committee Tuesday.
An initial review of mainstem/systemwide fish and wildlife proposals puts 28 projects in a "Core Program" category and another 32 in "High Priority," marking another step in selecting projects for Bonneville Power Administration funding during fiscal years 2007-2009.
A $16.4 million Nez Perce hatchery construction project was given a conditional green light by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council Tuesday, though state water permitting and Endangered Species Act hurdles remain before the first shovel of dirt is turned.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week recommended more that $6 million in "within-year" fish and wildlife project funding adjustments with the vast majority coming its capital expense account.
Fish and wildlife project contracts expiring this fall will be judged on a case-by-case basis and either renewed or brought to "smart closure" ahead of other projects submitted for funding during the fiscal 2007-2009 period, according to a staff plan endorsed by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Fish and Wildlife Committee Tuesday.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released this week the assessments and recommendations report for the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery (Warm Springs NFH) review.
A federal analysis that compares select hydrosystem operational effects on salmon with a hypothetical "reference" operation strays far from Congress' and the Endangered Species Act's intent, attorneys for four Columbia Basin tribes, the state of Oregon and a coalition of fishing and environmental groups told a federal appellate court last week.
One of Montana’s representatives on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council says the state will pursue a lawsuit if the federal government attempts to use “spill” at Libby Dam to help the endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon.
The Bonneville Power Administration announced this week that it has extended its existing funding agreement for the Fish Passage Center through Nov. 30 in order to assure compliance with a recent court order.
The federal government's opinion that planned Columbia River basin hydrosystem operations pose no jeopardy to 13 protected salmon and steelhead stocks is legally valid, and a court ordered restructuring of that opinion is not, according to arguments presented in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by the Justice Department.
Documents filed in federal court this week detail how Federal Columbia River Power System agencies plan to implement court-ordered spill for fish passage this spring and summer and how a "collaborative" effort to rework the hydrosystem salmon protection plan is progressing.
White sturgeon populations in the Columbia River may be declining due to the presence of elevated amounts of foreign chemicals including DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls in their bodies, according to new studies by researchers at Oregon State University.
A plan to relocate much of the world's largest Caspian tern colony from their Columbia River estuary nesting site will not jeopardize the survival of protected salmon and steelhead in areas where biologists envision the birds will make new homes.
Work goes on at Portland's Fish Passage Center following a March 17 court order that requires funding be continued for the entity that collects, stores and analyzes data related to fish passage up and down the federal Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem.
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