Despite an ongoing debate about management structure, the Northwest
Power Planning Council went ahead Wednesday with its plan to pursue funding
to develop a comprehensive framework it hopes will guide Columbia Basin
fish and wildlife recovery efforts.

The letter signed by Chairman John N. Etchart asks that the Bonneville
Power Administration allocate $894,500 from the fiscal year 1998 direct
Fish and Wildlife Program budget for phase 1 of the project. Initial costs
would include the ...

A Washington city, a tribal leader and a federal energy official are among those the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission honored Saturday with its annual Spirit of the Salmon Award.

"This year's award recipients represent the best in community activism and public involvement," said Olney Patt Jr., CRITFC executive director, who presented the awards. "They are all truly Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum. They are all salmon people."

Olney Patt Jr., who led the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon for five years as tribal council chairman, has been named the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission's new executive director.

After 10 years of contention, Indians who want more water for fish in the Umatilla River and irrigators who want more water for Hermiston-area crops have reached an agreement designed to satisfy both.

A small public utility that owns a big mid-Columbia River dam was surprised by an invoice of over $950 million from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation charging the utility for the use of tribal lands since the dam first flooded the Columbia and Okanogan river basins.

The public will have its first opportunity of 2002 to purchase fresh salmon along the banks of the Columbia River when the spring chinook catch of tribal commercial fishers is offered.

The Yakama Nation became the sole challenger of Grant County Public
Utility District's license to operate the Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams
on the mid-Columbia River.

The Nation was left as the sole owner of the Yakama Hydroelectric
Project, LLC when PacifiCorp signed a long-term power purchase contract
with Grant PUD. The power contract included a no-compete clause, which
barred PacifiCorp from challenging the Grant PUD license.

A creative way to provide limited spill in order to aid the remainder of
the juvenile salmon migrating through the lower Columbia River got a
serious hearing this week, but no resolution. The proposal made to the
Technical Management Team by the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission suggested that the Bonneville Power Administration should
provide spill without using additional water now held in storage dams
for future power operations.

Although record numbers of spring chinook adults are passing Bonneville
Dam, many native American fisherman who are fishing the spring treaty
fishery for the first time in years, are not catching enough fish.

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission asked this week for
biological opinion-level spill hoping that some salmon would be drawn
towards the river's edge so that platform fishermen could catch them.

A decision by the Clinton Administration not to proceed with breaching
the four lower Snake River dams ignores scientific research that
supports a free-flowing river as the best way to restore dwindling
salmon runs, Donald Sampson, executive director of the Columbia River
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said Thursday.