The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission approved a planning process that allows it to move ahead on a course toward adopting a wolf conservation management plan later this year.
The process includes appointing a citizen advisory committee, as it did when considering its contentious Native Fish Conservation Policy.
Hard work, experimentation and compromise were the words uttered most often Thursday as the Northwest Power and Conservation Council caught its collective breath, and approved unanimously amendments to the Columbia/Snake river mainstem portion of its fish and wildlife program.
Columbia River mainstem fishers, both recreational and commercial, are keeping their fingers crossed that a strong early showing of upriver spring chinook salmon is a portend of a much larger adult return than had been forecast.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council last week approved the work strategy for development of a Yakima fish and wildlife subbasin plan that could cost as much as $336,795.
A steadily growing gray wolf population in the western Great Lakes states and a highly successful reintroduction program in the northern Rocky Mountains have prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to change the status of gray wolves in these areas from "endangered" to the less serious "threatened" designation under the Endangered Species Act.
After listening to potential alternatives for managing wolves in Oregon and public testimony at its meeting in Newport, Ore. this week, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission decided to move ahead on developing a conservation plan for the gray wolf and to include in that plan a proposal on how to compensate livestock owners for losses attributed directly to wolf predation.
The Oregon Legislature is the hotbed among Northwest states where lawmakers are considering 15 bills addressing wolves, predators and/or the Endangered Species Act.
Proponents of wolf reintroduction characterize most of the bills as "anti-wolf" proposals, while others, such as livestock associations, farm bureaus and sports-hunting groups believe the legislation will protect their interests.
Adult coho and chinook salmon from the West Coast now in the ocean and preparing to return to their native streams or hatcheries are showing up in historical numbers, according to early estimates compiled by a group led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service.
Pressured by biological opinion deadlines, the Bonneville Power Administration and its federal partners are pushing for speedy funding and scientific decisions that, to the distress of others involved, go outside the normal process for choosing Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife projects.
The lower Columbia River's commercial fishing fleet was scheduled to return to the water today to salvage what the fishermen can from a fishing season turned gloomy.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined this week to list burbot, a species of freshwater cod located in the Kootenai River in Idaho, as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.
But work by a coalition of parties to develop a conservation agreement for the species will continue and that may result in better circumstances for the species than if it were listed.
The proper mix of fish stocks now exists to enable a lower Columbia River commercial fishery, but fishermen this week turned down an opportunity with the hope that another week will allow more of a tardy Willamette River spring chinook run to return to the river.
Federal agencies this week revealed that overall they will spend more in 2003 and 2004 for Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead recovery activities than they did in 2002.
A final tally of data from last spring's initial test of a "removable spillway weir" at the Snake River's Lower Granite Dam shows that the device attracts young salmon and steelhead better, is more efficient in its use of water and sends the juvenile on their way faster than other means of passage, including spill.
One after another, lower Columbia River commercial fishers trooped to the microphone to describe the effects of state and federal rules they say are preventing their industry from capitalizing on what is expected to be a bumper crop of returning spring chinook salmon.
The author of a new requirement that all hatchery salmon and steelhead be physically marked before release signaled this week he is willing to be flexible in how federal officials carry it out.
Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., met privately with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams and also discussed the issue with him briefly during a congressional hearing on the agency's proposed FY2004 budget.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) has created a new division at the agency's Portland office that will focus on developing plans to recover salmon and steelhead protected under the Endangered Species Act in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday added the Columbia Basin population of the pygmy rabbit to the federal list of endangered species, after determining that the population meets the agency's criteria to be listed as a distinct population segment under the Endangered Species Act.
A draft federal report released this week outlines a good news/bad news scenario for West Coast salmon and steelhead recovery, calling recent years' general increase in the number of returning wild spawners "encouraging," but cautioning that only time will tell if populations are truly rebounding.
The Bush administration's implementation of the 2000 Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan received its second annual failing grade this week from Northwest environmentalists, who predicted it will flunk its mandatory third-year evaluation this September.
Federal, state and tribal officials expect more good news for anglers and fish managers when fall chinook and coho salmon begin forging up the Columbia River late this summer in search of the basin spawning grounds and hatcheries.
The spring chinook salmon returning to the Willamette and Columbia River systems turned conventional wisdom upside down this week and in the process put a damper on a much anticipated gill-net season in the lower Columbia.
A "closed door" policy for gray wolves in Oregon would not be a viable or legal management plan, according to legal advice offered recently to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission by the state Attorney General's office.
Congress has finally passed an annual spending bill to fund most departments of government for this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.
The catchall appropriations bill for FY2003 includes a $700 million increase in the Bonneville Power Administration's borrowing authority as well as funding for numerous salmon recovery programs that were sought by Northwest members of Congress.
After breaching federally prescribed limits last year, Oregon and Washington fishery officials are under the gun this year to keep impacts to steelhead mortality under a 2 percent cap during lower mainstem Columbia River commercial and sport fisheries targeting spring chinook salmon.
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