6. ALASKA

F&G URGES BREACHING RECOMMENDATION
Alaskan fisheries officials,
and the state's governor, say that
breaching four lower Snake River
dams must be "part of the solution" if
the federal government is to
properly meet its Endangered Species Act
obligations to recover listed
fish.
In comments on the Corps of Engineers
draft Lower Snake River Juvenile
Salmon migration feasibility
study and environmental impact statement,
the Alaska Department of Fish
and Game commissioner's ...

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10. PGE DONATION

Preparing for the future when
steelhead and salmon could again spawn
upstream from a series of dams
on the Deschutes River in Central Oregon,
Portland General Electric contributed
$800,000 to protect property it
considers potentially prime summer
steelhead spawning habitat.
The PGE pledge will go to the
Deschutes Basin Land Trust, which will buy
and manage about 145 acres of
property along Squaw Creek, near Sisters,
known as Camp Polk Meadow. Protecting
a little more than a mile ...

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11. REPORT:

If wind turbines, other renewable
energy resources and conservation were
used to replace the lost power
from four hydroelectric dams on the lower
Snake River, the cost to consumers
would be about the same, but spew far
less carbon than building more
fossil fuel power plants, according to a
recent report released by conservation
organizations.
A report by the NW Energy Coalition
and the Natural Resources Defense
Council took issue with a December
1999 report by the U.S. Army ...

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8. FISH, WILDLIFE

The region's fish and wildlife
managers spent Wednesday weighing their
options for influencing a Columbia
Basin fish and wildlife program
amendment process that has begun
to pick up speed and add layers of
complexity.
During a meeting in Portland,
Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority
members worked to fine-tune a
planned recommendation for Phase I of the
Northwest Power Planning Council's
process for amending its regional
fish and wildlife recovery program.
They also pondered

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14. CBB INTERVIEW:

As the federal agency charged
with protecting salmon and steelhead
species listed under the Endangered
Species Act, the National Marine
Fisheries Service is involved
in a number of processes aimed at both
ensuring survival and promoting
recovery of the species.
Many of those efforts are directed
at the Columbia Basin, where the
number of listed species has
swelled to 12. Newly appointed NMFS
Columbia Basin coordinator Ric
Ilgenfritz has as his task coordinating
those efforts, ...

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4. SCIENTISTS STRESS ACTION FOR LOOMING FISH EXTINCTIONS

Federal scientists conclude that drastic action must be taken soon to
head off extinction for Columbia Basin salmon runs in the worst shape,
and decision-makers must take that plunge without the certainty that
those actions will work.
During a March 29 workshop co-sponsored by National Marine Fisheries
Service, scientists stressed that the peril faced by certain salmon
and
steelhead populations demand immediate action -- action that cannot
be
delayed until numerous biological ...

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5. JOHANSEN: UNSPENT $180 MILLION NEEDS REGIONAL

The Bonneville Power Administration's top official admitted Tuesday
that
ESA-spawned mandates may increase immediate Columbia Basin fish and
wildlife program needs, but she showed a reluctance to juggle funds
from
one account to another to answer those needs.
In a discussion with the Northwest Power Planning Council, BPA
administrator Judi Johansen noted a growing debate "about the so-called
$180 million" that was budgeted, but so far has not been spent, to
repay
Treasury loans for ...

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1, 2006, subject to the terms of a settlement agreement reached last

year in negotiations among state and federal agencies, the Yakama Indian
Nation, and several conservation and sportsmen's groups.
The September agreement is intended to allow the power company to
continue operations for the next seven years to generate funds to offset
dam removal costs, which are not to exceed $17.15 million. Condit
provides 14 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve about 13,000
customers, according to PacifiCorp.
As FERC moves toward a decision, numerous local ...

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9. COUNCIL SUPPORTS FEDS FISH APPROPRIATION NEEDS

With federal Columbia Basin salmon recovery decisions looming, the
four-state Northwest Power Planning Council plans to submit testimony
asking for congressional appropriations that are sufficient funding
to
carry out past and potential federal fish and wildlife related mandates.
The Council's funding recommendations for federal fish and wildlife
recovery activities mirror in many instances the Clinton
Administration's budget requests for fiscal year 2001. In other cases
it
says the ...

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10 reform recommendations as well as six strategies for implementing

the
policies.
The requested new $1 million budget line items should be used for
completion of Hatchery Genetic Management Plans and monitoring and
activities consistent with the APR recommendations, according to the
Council testimony.
The Council also asks that the Mitchell Act hatchery program funding
be
increased from the Administration's 2001 request of $15.2 million to
$16.307 million. The administration request targets $11.4 million for
hatchery operations, $3.365 million for ...

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13. TRIBES VOTE TO CO-OWN CENTRAL OREGON DAMS

Members of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs voted last week
by a large margin to pursue joint-ownership of the Pelton-Round Butte
hydroelectric project now owned solely by Portland General Electric.
Tribal members voted 753 to 127 in a referendum vote to spend as much
as
$90 million to gradually buy a percentage of two dams and to share
in
the hydroelectric project operations. The arrangement settles a
long-standing dispute between PGE and the Warm Springs Tribes ...

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14. COUNCILS AMENDMENT PROCESS CONCERNS ADDRESSED

The Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program amendment process took
on a
new turn this week with a Northwest Power Planning Council decision
to
foster calls for "high priority" projects that could win approval as
early as next fall.
The Council shifted gears Wednesday by responding to a "gathering
regional interest in identifying, funding and implementing a package
of
high priority habitat and other fish and wildlife actions on a faster
time scale," according to a draft letter ...

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20 seconds after the fish were released, time for them to sweep through

the turbines and into the tailrace.
The balloons bobbed the fish to the surface so that they could be easily
retrieved by the researchers. Each radio-tagged fish had its own
frequency so researchers could determine when and where they were
released into the turbines.
Video cameras down in the turbines verified that the fish were
delivered, by special pipes, to the three separate points on the
turbine.
Analysis of the results showed that that fish passing through the MGR
turbine had half

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48) standards for listed Snake River fish. “You need a pretty large

survival improvement if you want to meet those standards. You are
starting from a lower point than you were before."
The new PATH work estimates it will take more than a 7.5-fold
improvement in life-cycle survival to boost populations to levels that
meet the 24-year "survival" standard 70 percent of the time. A 2.7-fold
increase would be needed to meeting population "recovery" goals at
least
half the time over the next 48 years.
"Using the hypothesized survival effects of the ...

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2. KITZHABER CALLS FOR AGGRESSIVE ACTION

Breaching Four Lower Snake River dams is not the only way, but it's
the
best way to start rebuilding threatened and endangered Columbia Basin
salmon and steelhead stocks, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber said last Friday
afternoon (Feb. 18).
In the speech to Oregon's chapter of the American Fisheries Society,
Kitzhaber stressed the need for immediate, aggressive action to stem
the
decline in the region's fish populations.
"Removing the four Lower Snake River dams is, at least for the ...

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4. GORTON TAKES AIM AT KITZHABER, McCAIN

U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., criticized two presidential candidates
and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber for supporting or refusing to rule out
the dam breaching option for Columbia-Snake salmon recovery.
Speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, Gorton took issue with
Kitzhaber's surprise endorsement last week of a recovery plan that
includes removal of four federal dams on the lower Snake River in
eastern Washington. Kitzhaber, a Democrat, is the first major elected
official in the ...

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6. LAWSUIT SEEKS INCREASED FISH FLOWS

A coalition of conservation and fishing groups on Tuesday asked
Portland's U.S. District Court to order federal agencies to comply
with
their own directives to provide Columbia Basin water flows to aid
migration of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species
Act.
The lawsuit notes a "failure of the agencies to deal with the issue
of
flows both in the (Columbia-Snake) mainstem and the tributaries," said
Jan Hasselman of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.
The National ...

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7. TRIBES QUESTION COUNCIL’S AMENDMENT PROCESS

A process for revamping the $127 million Columbia Basin direct fish
and
wildlife program forged ahead this week despite questions from both
upriver and downriver tribes about whether immediate goals are
appropriate and the timeline realistic.
The program amendment process was launched in January with a request
for
recommendations from the region's fish and wildlife managers and others
interested in shaping the Northwest Power Planning Council's program
for
protecting, mitigating ...

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1995, have cost $1.2 million to date, according to a memo compiled

by
Mark Fritsch, the Council's fish production coordinator. The cost of
implementing the restoration plan is $2.6 million.
The next steps approved by the Council include 2000 research to:
--estimate lamprey abundance before and after outplanting adults in
the
Umatilla River;
--determine reproductive success of adult outplants, and
--estimate adult lamprey abundance in the Columbia River at the John
Day
Dam.
The restoration plan describes the Pacific lamprey as an ...

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9. COUNCIL LAUNCHES ‘ROLLING REVIEW’ OF PROJECTS

A new approach to evaluating Columbia Basin fish and wildlife
restoration project proposals was triggered Wednesday with approval
of a
new "rolling review" process and companion fiscal year 2001 interim
renewal process.
At the same time the Northwest Power Planning Council approved a boosted
Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority (CBFWA) budget that will
allow its members to feed the evolving processes.
A third process, subbasin plan development, will run in tandem,
according to ...

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1. DAM BREACHING OPPONENTS PACK PASCO HEARING

Opponents of dam breaching, accusing federal officials of threatening
their livelihoods and Indians of overharvesting, came out in force Thursday
at an emotionally charged federal hearing in Pasco.
More than 1,200 people, including sign-waving, anti-breaching picketers
and an Indian drum group, attending the hearing, which was split into afternoon
and evening sessions. About 800 people attended the afternoon session where
dam-breaching opponents who testified outnumbered those who ...

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2. BREACHING ADVOCATES DOMINATE ASTORIA HEARING

Federal officials were bombarded Tuesday with comments from tribal,
sport and commercial fishers who said their communities and cultures had
been plundered by hydrosystem development aimed at benefiting upstream
interests and by salmon recovery plans that ignore the obvious -- the need
to breach dams.
Recovery efforts to date have focused on technical fish passage improvements,
including the barging of juvenile salmon around the dams. Those efforts,
costing about $3 billion, have been ...

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1. SPOKANE CROWD DEBATES BREACHING QUESTION

Federal officials who say decisions will be based on pure science and
economics were met with a flood of emotional pleas Tuesday during a meeting
in Spokane to discuss, among other things, dam breachings potential for
aiding salmon and steelhead recovery.
An estimated 500 people turned out for afternoon and evening sessions
in Spokane, the second in 13 stops scheduled by the nine agencies that
are members of a federal caucus guiding Columbia Basin salmon recovery
planning.
As at the ...

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3. CLINTON PROPOSES SALMON FUNDING INCREASE

The National Marine Fisheries Service would increase spending on Northwest
salmon recovery by $9 million in FY2001, under the final budget of President
Clinton's term.
The increase, which is being sought on top of a $10 million boost this
year, would fund 41 new staff positions for habitat assessment, population
dynamics, risk assessment and risk management, according to NMFS budget
documents released on Monday.
Overall, the Clinton administration proposed a $657 million budget for
NMFS,

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6. FEDS ATTEMPT MARRIAGE OF ESA, CLEAN WATER ACT

When it issues a biological opinion of the federal hydro system, the
National Marine Fisheries Service will attach a work in progress that also
addresses federal Clean Water Act issues in the Columbia River mainstem.
NMFS will release its 2000 BiOp of the Federal Columbia River Power
System in early April for review by other federal agencies. Among other
items, the BiOp will address how operations of the federal hydro system
should be conducted to enhance recovery of 12 endangered ...

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