The team of independent scientists advising Washington's Puget Sound and
coastal Hatchery Reform Project this week released the first in what
will be a series of reports on how existing hatcheries should be changed
to better support sustainable fisheries and help restore threatened
stocks.
The National Marine Fisheries Service this week officially concluded
that five of six delisting petitions it received last year contain
"substantial scientific and commercial information to suggest" that 14
of the 15 Pacific salmon and steelhead stocks addressed in the petitions
could warrant removal from the Endangered Species list
One of the most notable hot seats for federal officials in the Pacific
Northwest has only gotten hotter since Bob Lohn took over in September
as regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The first gray wolf confirmed in Washington state in decades is feasting
on local wildlife and still playing the lone wolf as the traditional
mating period, which ironically begins around Valentine's Day,
approaches.
There is little doubt among federal and tribal experts, as well as
environmentalists, that gray wolves have roamed west into Oregon, where
they say a plan is needed to manage inevitable depredation.
Public comment at the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting last
Friday (Feb. 8) made it clear that the department's proposed Native Fish
Conservation and Hatchery Management policies are not yet ready for
prime time.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to shoot 250 adult deer
and 100 adult elk from a helicopter in late February and March to
determine if tuberculosis from a single female captive elk that died at
an eastern Oregon ranch in November has spread to the wild population.
Migrating juvenile spring chinook salmon and steelhead faced a gauntlet
last year with low, clear, and often warmer, Columbia-Snake river flows
retarding their downstream progress and leaving them more readily
accessible to fish and avian predators, according to National Marine
Fisheries Service officials.
The total forecast for a return of 677,900 Columbia River fall chinook
salmon to the river mouth this summer would be the third largest adult
return since 1948.
The projections this week from the U.S. v Oregon Technical Advisory
Committee continue a trend of rosy forecasts for 2002, after a 2001
season that saw modern-day records fall for spring chinook salmon and
for summer steelhead.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Wednesday recommended a $659,368
"within-year funding allocation" to allow further evaluation of live
capture selective harvesting techniques by the Oregon and Washington
departments of fish and wildlife.
The Bureau of Reclamation released this week for review a draft
biological assessment of its Klamath projects in southern Oregon and
northern California that assumes irrigators will get nearly all the
water they need.
A commercial fishing method tested on 20 boats last year will be
employed later this month on a much grander scale -- potentially 200 or
more fishing boats -- on the mainstem Columbia River as spring chinook
salmon begin to appear on their way to hatcheries and spawning grounds.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has made minor changes to its
December draft Native Fish Conservation Policy and intends to present
the policy, along with initial draft rules, February 8 to the Oregon
Fish and Wildlife Commission and to push for initial rulemaking by
April.
Former U.S. Attorney for Oregon, Sid Lezak, has agreed to lead a
mediation effort among the parties involved in a lawsuit that claims a
2000 National Marine Fisheries Service Federal Columbia River Power
System biological opinion is doomed to failure and should be rewritten.
Plum Creek Timber Co. proposes to piggy-back grizzly bears onto a
conservation plan for native fish on its corporate lands in northwest
Montana.
The gap between threatened bull trout and threatened grizzly bears may
not be as wide as it seems, said Tim Bodurtha, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service's habitat conservation plan coordinator in Montana.
The draft Native Fish Conservation Policy and Guidelines and the
Hatchery Management Policy and Guidelines released for review by the
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is proving to be unpopular.
Montana has unveiled a draft plan outlining how the state would manage
wolves if they were removed from federal protection.
While it carries a theme of "encouraging wolves where the potential for
conflict is the lowest," the draft plan also recognizes wolves as a
native wildlife species that are part of Montana's "natural environment
and heritage."
The National Marine Fisheries Service is recommending a cautious
approach to dam operations that support threatened lower Columbia River
chum spawning and emergence that begin in November each year and must be
maintained into the spring. That is a philosophy reflected in this
year's chum operations at Bonneville Dam, which adopted a lower
tailwater elevation than first proposed by fisheries managers.
The aluminum boat cuts through night fog and the Flathead River, gliding
toward a specific bull trout that will be in a predictable place.
But its location only recently became predictable.
Extensive research, all conducted during daylight hours, generally shows
that bull trout prefer the cover of rocks and debris in deep water.
Fisheries experts expect most spring and summer salmon and steelhead
returns to the Columbia River to be strong, though perhaps not in the
record numbers experienced this past year.
A Montana-based federal court judge on Monday stalled a proposal to
harvest 176 million board feet of charred timber on the Bitterroot
National Forest until the U.S. Forest Service complies with the federal
Appeals Reform Act.
As many as 200 domesticated elk and 200 cattle on a farm between
Monument and Kimberly in Eastern Oregon may have to be slaughtered
following the confirmation of one dead elk that tested positive for
tuberculosis.
Further, some wild elk likely will have to be killed and tested.
The Columbia Basin experienced during 2001 what could be called the
"year of the salmon," at least in modern times, with record upriver
spring chinook and steelhead runs, and high counts for most other stocks
as well.
After more than five years of research conducted at a cost of $25
million, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this week that major
systems improvements -- not dam breaching -- will be the preferred path
for trying to improve salmon and steelhead survival through four lower
Snake River federal hydroelectric projects.
The "federal executives," along with representatives of states and
tribes, met this week to consider the potential of transitioning from an
informal organization to a more formal, regional decision-making forum.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
