The thought was firmly implanted, long before Monday's release of the
Independent Scientific Review Panel's analysis of projects to be funded
in 1999 under the Northwest Power Planning Council's Fish and Wildlife
Program.

Things need to be done to streamline the project review process, and
while at the same time improving its overall effectiveness. One step seemingly
destined for implementation is a multi-year funding process.

"There's head nods all around" when the ...

The Northwest Power Planning Council put out a call for help in redefining
its role. It got an earful Wednesday with panelists alternately questioning
the need for the Council's existence and challenging it to take a more
forceful role on energy-related and fish and wildlife recovery issues.

In a discussion paper, "The Role of the Northwest Power Planning
Council," released last month, the Council reflects on its past and
contemplates its future. The Council was created ...

Welcome to the first edition of The Columbia Basin
Bulletin: Weekly Fish and Wildlife News.

This electronic news service is produced by Intermountain Communications
of Pendleton, Oregon, and supported with Bonneville Power Administration
fish and wildlife funds through the Northwest Power Planning Council's
Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.

You are already signed up to receive the bulletin every week. To keep
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. Ruff [email protected],
senior hydrologist with Northwest Power Planning Council:
There are just a couple of clarifications I would like to make. First,
in article 3 on page 5, "Bi-national Discussions Begin on Dissolved
Gas," I would like to add a clarification to my quote in the sixth
paragraph of the article. A more accurate version of what I said is, "The
Bureau of Reclamation is currently evaluating the feasibility of several
costly structural alternatives to ...

The development of a new "framework" for
the Northwest Power Planning Council's Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife
recovery plan will go on the fast track this summer in anticipation of
1999 deadlines.

"By July we would like to have begun work," general counsel
John Volkman told the Council May 20.

A tentative schedule for gathering a work team has been set. Volkman
said Council staff hope to present a work plan and recommendations for
the management ...

Washington State on July 1 will have a new representative
on the Northwest Power Planning Council.

Gov. Gary Locke appointed Tom Karier,41, of Spokane to replace Ken Casavant,
who earlier this year announced that he wanted to leave the Council as
soon as Locke could find a replacement. Casavant, an agriculture economics
professor at Washington State University, has served since 1994.

Locke also announced that later this year Larry Cassidy of Vancouver
will replace Mike Kreidler, who

Northwest Indian leaders, outraged over toxic contaminants poisoning the fish tribal members eat, are demanding the federal government cleanup the mess and reduce further pollution in the Columbia River Basin.

A major electricity blackout like the one that hit the East Coast and parts of the Midwest on Aug. 14 is unlikely in the Pacific Northwest, thanks to actions that were taken in response to a similar blackout that hit much of the West Coast in August 1996.