The Inspector Generals Office has been
interviewing regional decision makers and staff as part of a performance
audit looking at the National Marine Fisheries Services role in Columbia
Basin salmon recovery.
A spokesperson for the Office of Inspector
General at the Dept. of Commerce in Washington D.C. said the audit had
been previously scheduled in the IGs "annual audit plan."
Stressing that the effort was not an "investigation,"
the spokesperson said the audit will evaluate salmon ...

A "new" Tucannon captive propagation project
could get fiscal year 2000 funding through the Northwest Power Planning
Council if its master plan passes muster and the proposal makes it through
the agency's three-step review process.
The Council on Wednesday abided by its
fish and wildlife committee's recommendation that $134,000 be reserved
to expand and help operate eastern Washington broodstock rearing facilities.
Despite getting positive funding recommendations
from the Independent ...

Northwest Power Planning Council members spent much
of the week in
Washington D.C. shopping around a nearly completed
document they hope
will be the blueprint for reform of the Columbia
Basin's costly
artificial production system.
The group that includes Council members Eric Bloch
of Oregon, Larry
Cassidy of Washington and Stan Grace of Montana is
seeking congressional
support for an evolving reform implementation recipe
that will require,
eventually, a large infusion of federal ...

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife issued Tuesday incidental
take permits for wild lower Columbia River coho salmon, listed as endangered
under Oregons Endangered Species Act, but not until after gillnet fishing
for coho opened Monday.
A letter sent Saturday by Oregon Trout to Jim Greer, director of ODFW,
warned the agency that opening fishing for coho salmon before issuing the
permit would be a violation of the state ESA, a state law ODFW is responsible
to enforce.
"Oregon Trout

The National Marine Fisheries Service is just about ready to publish
its draft 4(d) Rules for Puget Sound Chinook, says Robert A. Turner, Washington
Area director for NMFS.
Turner told a salmon conference in Seattle last week that the rules
likely would be published in the Federal Register for public review and
comment in six weeks.
The 4(d) Rules for Puget Sound Chinook are part of a rule package that
NMFS is developing for the three evolutionary significant units (ESUs)
of coastal ...