A staff-generated proposal for Fiscal Year 2006 fish and wildlife project funding, and for the treatment of related issues, won favor neither in committee nor before the full Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Recent, relatively bountiful run sizes have helped fuel the West Coast economy to the tune of about $142 million in personal income, according to a study conducted by a panel of eight independent economists at the request of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Commercial and sport fishing continues up and down the Columbia River mainstem even as passing numbers of adult summer chinook and sockeye salmon -- mostly bound for central Washington lakes, river reaches and hatcheries -- start to dwindle.
Salmon managers in Idaho are concerned they might miss brood stock goals at hatcheries in the Clearwater River Basin.
Debate continued this week over the value of summertime spill for Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead, this time with parties filing briefs with a federal appellate court.
A fish species declared officially extinct in Washington's Okanogan River subbasin returned recently to provide table fare for tribal members’ first-salmon ceremony for the first time in four-score years.
Oregon on Tuesday voted with "reluctance" in favor of Washington fishery officials’ proposal to allow sport anglers to keep both marked and unmarked chinook salmon that are forging their way up the Columbia River mainstem during July.
The Columbia River Compact on Thursday gave approval for a tribal commercial gill-net fishery next week in the Columbia River mainstem reservoirs between Bonneville and McNary dams.
NOAA Fisheries on Thursday issued the final policy it will use when considering the status of hatchery produced fish in the agency's determination of whether particular fish stocks will require protection under the Endangered Species Act.
An increasing number of hungry, opportunistic pinnipeds – seals and sea lions – are arriving at Bonneville Dam earlier each year, staying longer, and eating more salmon.
The first non-tribal commercial fisheries in 40 years that specifically target Upper Columbia summer chinook salmon were approved this week by the Columbia River Compact.
Long-familiar personalities moved to the background this week with the appointment of six new members to the Independent Scientific Review Panel -- the largest turnover in the nine-year history of the group that reviews fish and wildlife projects as well as offering advice on other issues to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Members of Congress heard two contrasting views on salmon recovery, dam breaching and the Endangered Species Act Monday ( June 6) but also said they saw and heard room for compromise.
A relatively thin but steady stream of salmon passing the Columbia River's Bonneville Dam has pushed up the overall forecast of the 2005 upriver spring chinook adult return and allowed on June 4 the reopening of a mainstem sport fishery that has been closed since late April.
A federal salmon protection plan thrown recently into legal limbo by a federal judge was ripped again last week, this time in a report released by fishery managers and scientists.
Endangered Species Act listing determinations due next week for 27 West Coast salmon and steelhead stocks will likely be delayed, according to officials for the federal agency carrying out the status reviews.
Tribal interests and hydropower customer representatives were alternately elated and deflated by the news that basic elements of the federal government's Columbia/Snake salmon protection plan had been deemed by a judge as "arbitrary and capricious" and illegal under the Endangered Species Act.
Fishery managers released the first hatchery-reared fall chinook salmon into the Grande Ronde River Monday and Tuesday with the hope they'll both help recover the threatened species and, eventually, contribute to fisheries.
Utility interests and fish advocates used Monday's final Power Function Review meeting to continue to pull the Bonneville Administration either way on the fish and wildlife spending scale.
Libby Dam releases started ramping up late Wednesday under a plan with different aproaches toward helping endangered white sturgeon in the lower Kootenai River.
Higher counts of upriver spring chinook at Bonneville Dam have pushed up estimates of those runs' adult return and allowed Washington and Oregon state fisheries managers to open sport fishing for steelhead and shad on portions of the lower Columbia River beginning Sunday, May 22.
The Bonneville Power Administration's suggested fiscal year 2007-2009 funding level for the Columbia River fish and wildlife program drew a mixed reaction during Northwest Power and Conservation Council discussions this week.
Fisheries experts continue to be confounded about the dismal Columbia/Snake upriver spring chinook salmon return that was predicted to be the fourth largest since 1979 with a total of more than a quarter million adult fish but will likely be about one-third that number.
A draft "closeout" letter and report released this week by the Bonneville Power Administration identifies potential net cost savings of up to $80 million per year for the fiscal year 2007-2009 rate period.
Treaty fishers have pulled in their nets and the state of Idaho has ended prematurely a sport fishing season on the lower Snake River because a projected upriver spring chinook salmon bounty has, at least through midweek, failed to materialize.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
