His tenure could, potentially, be brief, but acting Bonneville Power
Administration administrator Steve Wright sees the need to keep the
momentum rolling on a number of related fronts -- among them finding
agreement on a "unified" Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery plan
demanded by his predecessor.
The Bonneville Power Administration witnessed a changing of the guard
today (Nov. 17) with Administrator Judi Johansen leaving to become
executive vice president for government affairs and regulation at
PacifiCorp.
The governors of Montana and Oregon on Monday aim to trigger discussions
they hope will eventually give the Columbia Basin states and tribes more
clout in fish and wildlife restoration decisions.
Montana Gov. Marc Racicot and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber have called a
public hearing take input on a "discussion draft" of proposed
legislation that would amend the Pacific Northwest Electric Power
Planning and Conservation Act.
A successful British Columbia watershed restoration project that
improves stream structure and habitat, adds nutrient pellets and
increases smolt survival could provide a lesson in how similar streams
in the Northwest can be restored to help increase runs of salmon now
listed as endangered.
The Senate has given final approval to an annual spending bill that
would provide some $170 million for West Coast salmon recovery,
primarily in the Northwest.
President Clinton is expected to veto the measure over unrelated
provisions, however. With the Senate having recessed this week, Congress
won't take up a modified version until after Tuesday's election. A lame
duck session is scheduled to begin on Nov. 14.
A suddenly volatile, and high, energy market has heightened Lower
Columbia River tribes' fears that basin salmon recovery efforts --
intended at least in part of restore treaty protected resources -- will
get short-changed.
A spring 2000 strategy to reduce the number of migrating salmon consumed
by Caspian terns in the Columbia River estuary produced some
eye-catching results, though researchers say a few shifts in political
will, and tern nesting locales, could have made an even greater
salmon-saving impact.
Improved ocean and in-river migrating conditions in the past year or two
have added momentum to efforts intended to boost natural production of
Snake River fall chinook above Lower Granite Dam.
A test of hatchery supplementation using the only Snake River basin fall
chinook stock in the Northwest reaped benefits last year and this.
More than 130 redds have been counted two months after 364 mature adult
spring chinook salmon were released in the Walla Walla River, where they
had been absent for most of the last century.
The spawning of those adults, surplus from the Ringold Hatchery near
Priest Rapids, Wash., bolsters what biologists from the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have been saying for the last
10 years.
Idaho water users, and the state itself, have challenged proposed
federal salmon recovery plans, saying the strategy has the potential to
bleed the Upper Snake River's farming economy with no proven benefit to
fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
More than five times as many fall chinook salmon and more than three
times as many coho salmon have returned to the Umatilla River this year
than in any other previous year by this time.
Furthermore, more steelhead have returned to the river than ever before,
as of a mid-October benchmark.
Research aimed at capturing, "reconditioning" and re-releasing
once-spawned wild steelhead so that they spawn again received a
financial boost from the Northwest Power Planning Council Wednesday
"because the success during the first year has been dramatically better
than anticipated."
Lower river brights are arriving at spawning areas between Ives and
Pierce islands below Bonneville Dam, but water levels and river fluctuations are not optimum
for spawning, according to fish and wildlife officials.
Columbia Basin states, tribes and others have all pointed out what they
see as major flaws in two draft federal salmon recovery documents
designed to ensure survive of 12 salmon and steelhead species listed
under the federal Endangered Species Act.
A draft Northwest Power Planning Council program amendment pays too
little attention to looming Endangered Species Act mandates and aims to
delve inappropriately into state and local watershed and land use
arenas, according to comments submitted last week by Washington state
agencies.
Three days of hearings before two Senate subcommittees this week
provided the first public forum for a direct exchange of views on the
Clinton administration's salmon recovery plan between top federal
officials and their strongest critics in the Northwest congressional
delegation.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and representatives of other Northwest
governors and the Northwest Power Council this week went to Washington,
D.C., to seek a greater role for states in salmon recovery.
They testified at a Senate hearing, and Kempthorne met with two Cabinet
members about the issue -- Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta and
Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. Kempthorne was accompanied by Idaho
Attorney General Al Lance.
The federal government's top regional salmon recovery official has opted
for the private life, leaving his job little more than a month after his
and other federal agencies unveiled their sweeping plan for restoring 12
Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead runs listed under the Endangered
Species Act.
A summer-long battle by tribes and a local citizens group to find a home
for surplus hatchery spring chinook salmon and their progeny entered a
new phase this week with Washington Sen. Slade Gorton promising funds to
avert "destruction" of those fishes' eggs and challenging ESA guardians
to rethink genetic rules.
Conservation groups and individuals on Wednesday asked the Northwest
Power Planning Council to take up the pro-dam breaching cause as part of
its amended Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program.
Breaching of four Lower Snake River hydroelectric dams "is the most
viable solution" to give impetus to salmon recovery efforts, Karie
Korporaal said during a public hearing on the Council's draft amendment
to its fish and wildlife program. "You need to take a stand."
Federal agencies intend to keep a closer eye on how available Columbia
Basin fish and wildlife funds are spent to ensure decisions are made
with Endangered Species Act recovery goals in mind.
A proposal to ban road building, but not logging, on 43 million acres of
National Forest System land is a step is a step in the right direction,
but does not go quite far enough, according to the agency burdened with
the task of recovering Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead stocks.
The Northwest Power Planning Council approved for public comment
Thursday a draft regional fish and wildlife program that aims to use
habitat restoration and protection as a first tool for undergirding the
Columbia Basin's fish and wildlife populations.
Preliminary counts indicate that naturally spawned Stanley Basin sockeye
are out-returning their hatchery-reared brood mates as unprecedented
numbers of the endangered fish make a late-summer return through the
9-year old Redfish Lake captive broodstock program.
Recent research on the effects of toxic substances on salmon suggests
that even low levels of toxins impair salmon survival instincts.
The study by the National Marine Fisheries Service Science Center in
Seattle, Wash., will be published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries
and Aquatic Sciences in September. It says that contaminants can cause
impaired growth, suppression of the immune system and increased
mortality in salmon following exposure.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
