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.
The Umatilla Tribes on Thursday asked the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission to revise upward fish consumption rates that dictate the amount of toxic pollutants allowed to be discharged directly into Oregon rivers under the federal Clean Water Act.
Washington Gov. Gary Locke, Colville Tribal Chairman Joe Pakootas and state Fish and Wildlife Director Jeff Koenings this week signed an agreement that will allow the state to obtain intermittent releases of water from Lake Roosevelt, when needed, from April to August each year.
After several years of talk and negotiations, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is preparing to transfer the operations responsibility for its Klickitat River hatchery to the Yakama Indian Nation.
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation and Douglas County Public Utility District have settled a longstanding dispute over tribal lands flooded by Wells Dam.
Four Columbia River treaty tribes, with the aid of a federal grant, will explore the potential for siting a commercial fish processing center along the Columbia River with the goal of enhancing their share in the market place.
Columbia River tribes gave the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers a passing grade on its ability this year to keep pool fluctuations to a minimum during its five periods of summer treaty fishing.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have negotiated a Draft Annual Funding Agreement for the National Bison Range Complex in Moeise, Montana.
Steady counts of summer chinook salmon at Bonneville Dam have given fishery officials the confidence to approve tribal commercial gill net fisheries in the mainstem Columbia River targeting the so-called "June hogs" for only the second summer since 1965.
Cattle have been removed, thousands of trees planted and the stream channel replaced so that 50 years after it was straightened, Bear Creak, located in the Upper Grand Ronde River subbasin, once again meanders through Longley Meadow.
Tribal gill net fishers targeted the tail end of the 2004 upriver spring chinook salmon run this week in a mainstem fishery approved Tuesday by the Columbia River Compact.
Washington and Oregon officials this week OK'd tribal commercial fishery that will target a dwindling stream of "upriver" spring chinook salmon in Columbia River mainstem reservoirs above Bonneville Dam.
For the second time this spring, tribes are fishing for spring chinook salmon in the lower Columbia River.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, on behalf of Northwest tribes, this week asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for special operations at lower Columbia River dams to aid tribal gillnetters while they fish.
As it has done in each of the past five years, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission offered up at this week's Technical Management Team meeting its version of how the Federal Columbia River Power System should be operated.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said Wednesday that tribal fishermen caught almost 126,000 fall chinook in nets and from platforms this fall, accounting for about one quarter of the fall chinook run this year that made it to Bonneville Dam.
Two players in the Columbia Basin's salmon recovery effort have delivered
unsolicited, and unkind, reviews of the draft Anadromous Fish Appendix
prepared by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Comments offered by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Columbia
River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission criticize the document's contents and
many of its conclusions, as well as the process used to compile the information.
The document is intended as the biological appendix to the U.S. ...
Northwest tribal leaders visited five fishing access sites currently
under construction and discussed design plans for several others Thursday
and today (April 23) during a conference with officials from the Army Corps
of Engineers.
The sites, authorized by Congress in 1988, are located along the Columbia
River between Bonneville and McNary dams.
The sites are solely for use by Native Americans who are members of
the four Columbia River treaty tribes - The Confederated Tribes of ...
In a tersely-worded letter to Northwest policymakers, the Columbia River
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission disagreed with a power operators' plan to
reduce stranding of emerging fall chinook fry at Hanford Reach on the Columbia
River and offered a plan of its own that it says will further reduce stranding
of the fish. The letter from Ted Strong, CRITFC executive director as of
March 31, to executives of federal, state and public utility agencies asked
for an "expedited policy ...
At the end of this month, Ted Strong will step down as executive director
of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. He will have served
in that position for 10 years, or nearly half of the organization's existence.
The following are excerpts from an interview published in the Yakama
Nation Review in which Strong discusses key issues related to salmon restoration.
(For the views for incoming CRITFC director Don Sampson, see CBB, March
1-5)
On Restoration and Declining ...
Donald Sampson, the new executive director for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission, says it will be his job to build consensus among tribes
and other entities gridlocked over salmon recovery.
"Restoring salmon means now more than ever that we will have to
find ways to work together rather than against each other," Sampson
said in a lengthy interview published in the March edition of the Confederated
Umatilla Journal. "We need to be willing to make honest ...
Representatives of the Lower Columbia River treaty tribes picked one
from their own ranks Thursday afternoon to follow Ted Strong as executive
director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
Don Sampson, now CRITFC's watershed department manager, was selected
to CRITFC's top post during the commission's February meeting. Strong decided
late last year to step down after nearly 10 years on the job.
Sampson sees his new role as helping to push salmon recovery off ...
A protracted legal battle came to a close earlier this month when Avista
Corp. (formerly Washington Water Power) agreed to pay the Nez Perce Tribe
more than $39 million over the next 44 years as compensation for lost fishing
opportunities.
A mediator determined that a potential harvest of 1.5 million fish was
lost during the years the Grangeville and Lewiston dams blocked access
of salmon and steelhead to their historic Clearwater River spawning grounds
in central Idaho.
The ...
Ted Strong, executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission for 10 years, will leave office in March 1999.
Strong said he has decided to move back to the Yakama Reservation. "When
I came to the Commission, I expected to stay for about three years,"
he said. "The tribal members who encouraged me to accept this position
gave me all the reason in the world to want to succeed. My board, the commissioners,
gave me the greatest support and highest ...
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have asked
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber to clarify the state's position regarding treaty
rights.
The request comes in the wake of this year's contentious negotiations
over the fall fishery for Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead.
"Reports from our policy representatives and legal counsel involved
in the process paint what can only be described as an alarming and distressing
picture," say Antone Minthorn, chairman
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs are working on a draft Deschutes
River basin fish management plan that it will incorporate into its relicensing
bid for three Deschutes River dams.
The plan encompasses the Deschutes River basin in its entirety, including
80 of the river's main reaches and tributaries, and is much broader than
what is needed for relicensing.
Jack Donaldson, consultant for the Warm Springs tribes, says management
of the river will focus on a scientific ...
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