NOAA Fisheries Service chose to follow the advice of the state of Oregon this week in announcing that it feels the Oregon coast coho "evolutionarily significant unit" -- a collection of wild and hatchery populations -- is robust enough that it does not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act.
The Fiscal Year 2006 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act signed by President Bush includes for the Portland District of the Corps of Engineers about $206 million to fund work in the Rogue, Willamette, Columbia, and Cowlitz river basins.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has in hand more than $1 billion worth of fish and wildlife project funding requests for fiscal years 2007-2009 -- double the amount it will likely have to spend during the period.
The process for revising the federal government's Columbia River hydrosystem salmon protection plan are described in a set of documents filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Portland.
Judge James A. Redden this week drew a fine line between federal and conservation groups’ proposals for managing the federal Columbia River hydrosystem next spring and summer -- approving with modifications a new government plan to provide more spill at dams for juvenile salmon passage but forestalling decisions on requested manipulations of flow regimes.
NWF seeks injunctive relief modifying the Corps' proposed dam operations in
2006 in order to mitigate jeopardy. NWF requests an order increasing spring and summer spill and decreasing the Corps' reliance on transportation in order to provide migrating salmon a safer passage past the dams. In addition, NWF requests that the Corps and other federal defendants take specific actions to augment river flow in order to establish a more natural river hydrograph
The U.S. Department of Justice and the state of Idaho Wednesday have filed a notice of appeal of the decisions made earlier this year by U.S. District Court James A. Redden that declared invalid federal Columbia River hydrosystem salmon protection plans.
The Bonneville Power Administration's 2005 annual report shows the agency earned just over $126 million in modified net revenues, the highest since prior to the West Coast energy crisis of 2000-2001.
Resident rainbow trout populations were out, then potentially brought back in, and ultimately left out of 10 West Coast steelhead listings announced Dec. 23 by NOAA Fisheries Service.
Predators – and not competition within a species – are the primary source of population control and regulation in marine fish, a new study concludes.
The federal agency charged with guarding the health of Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead populations this week noted 2005's returns have been relatively strong despite what appears to be reduced ocean productivity to nourish those fishes to maturity.
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski Thursday sent a letter to members of the Oregon congressional delegation urging them to support his efforts to have the Oregon Coast named a National Marine Sanctuary.
A Seattle-based federal judge last week denied a request from federal attorneys to dismiss a lawsuit that takes to task NOAA Fisheries newly devised strategy for determining the significance of hatchery salmon and steelhead in making Endangered Species Act listing determinations.
The Bonneville Power Administration will issue a request for proposals as early as next week for entities, or an entity, to take over the primary functions of Fish Passage Center.
Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig says he claimed a victory for science and thriftiness Monday when the 2006 Energy and Water appropriations bill cleared Congress containing language he had inserted to cut funding for the Fish Passage Center.
Under an alternative offered for comment last week by NOAA Fisheries, 10 stocks of West Coast steelhead would be listed under the Endangered Species Act without their rainbow trout cousins.
The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Nov. 9 published a proposed rule to designate critical habitat for the federally threatened Canada lynx, including nearly 11,000 acres in the northern Rocky Mountains of Montana and 2,000 acres in Washington's Chelan and Okanogan counties.
New reports from the lower Deschutes River and the Oregon coast show that
the tiny but highly invasive New Zealand mudsnail continues to increase its foothold in Oregon.
A Canadian mining company is proceeding with plans to develop a coal
mine in British Columbia’s Flathead Basin, heightening concerns in
Montana that mining may start before an adequate assessment of the
basin’s water, fisheries and wildlife can take place.
Columbia River hydro and fish managers agreed Wednesday to implement two key winter operations aimed at maintaining steady flows for spawning chum salmon below Bonneville Dam and increase spawning success for kokanee in Lake Pend Oreille.
Actions ranging from the installation of a new fish passage device at Ice Harbor Dam to restoration and protection of habitat are described in federal agencies' fourth annual report on efforts to improve survival of Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead stocks.
PacifiCorp, owner of the Condit Hydroelectric Project near White Salmon, WA, announced this week that it is filing numerous draft county permit applications as a prelude to removal of the Condit Dam in 2008.
A trio of Northwest congressmen exploring options to improve Columbia River adult salmon survival returned again and again to the topic of harvest during discussions with constituents this week in Vancouver, Wash.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council decided this week to move ahead with a fish and wildlife project selection process that will involve a review of proposals from across the Columbia River basin and the development of funding recommendations before the start of fiscal year 2007 next Oct. 1.
Fish and wildlife project sponsors looking to purchase wildlife, and in some cases resident fish, habitat may have a "new tool" available for them if the Bonneville Power Administration implements a proposed shift in its capitalization policy.
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