The cost of federally funded fish and wildlife programs in the Columbia River Basin totaled $450.4 million in fiscal year 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016 – Sept. 30, 2017), according to the annual report released last week by the Northwest Planning and Conservation Council to Northwest governors.
Reviews of projects funded under the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program by the Bonneville Power Administration will begin in November and extend over the next three years, according to a discussion at the Council Fish and Wildlife Committee meeting last week in Missoula.
Looking for a 10 percent cut in Bonneville Power Administration fish and wildlife funding and with an extension of the Columbia Basin Fish Accords still uncertain, one member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week says he would like to see a closer coordination between the Council and Bonneville in determining priorities, especially with the Accords.
The frontline defense against the entry of invasive and damaging quagga and zebra mussels into the Northwest is Montana’s huge program to detect infested boats as they enter the state. It is also the only one of four Northwest states that has detected mussels in water bodies -- Tiber and Canyon Ferry reservoirs east of Continental Divide.
The Northwest power supply is expected to remain adequate through 2020, but after that some actions will have to be taken to keep the power supply adequate.
A proposal to beef up suppression and monitoring of invasive northern pike in Lake Roosevelt was approved this week by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
A NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center report on juvenile salmon released last year found that survival of juvenile sockeye salmon – both hatchery and wild – from Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River to Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River was just 17.6 percent, the fourth lowest survival estimate from 1998 to 2017.
The Columbia River basin fish and wildlife budget funded by the Bonneville Power Administration will likely see as much as a 10 percent cut in fiscal year 2019, according to Bryan Mercier, executive director of BPA’s fish and wildlife division.
Though a federal court is not requiring it, NOAA Fisheries said last week it will complete by the end of the year a 2018 biological opinion for Columbia/Snake river salmon and steelhead.
Negotiations with Canada over a revised Columbia River Treaty got off to a good start this week, said senior U.S. government officials involved, but they were tight-lipped about specific negotiating positions or areas of contention that might arise as talks continue.
A review of the Yakama Nation’s master plan to transition its Klickitat River hatchery program from a segregated to an integrated program in order to rebuild the river’s spring chinook salmon runs found the plan to be “well-conceived and presented,” but it also left the Independent Scientific Review Panel with questions.
A new study by Portland State University researchers finds billions of dollars could be saved if the nation's aging dams are removed rather than repaired, but also suggests that better data and analysis is needed on the factors driving dam-removal efforts.
A draft report to northwest governors on Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program costs in 2017 was released last week for review by the public, with the total program costs coming in at $450.4 million, about 18 percent of the Bonneville Power Administration’s power business line costs of $2.465 billion, and accounting for about one-third of the agency’s wholesale power rate.
If tribes pursue a salmon and steelhead reintroduction program upstream of Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams, some 1,160 miles of tributary habitat would be available for steelhead and 355 miles of tributary habitat would be available for spring chinook salmon, according to an overview of a draft assessment of potential habitat in the blocked areas presented at the Lake Roosevelt Forum, April 24 - 25.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week took the first step in a public process to amend the 2014 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program when it approved the release of a letter soliciting amendment recommendations.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Dam Safety team is conducting a geotechnical investigation at Cottage Grove Dam near Eugene, Ore., which includes drilling borings in the dam embankment.
In its most recent review of the Lake Roosevelt Northern Pike suppression program, the Independent Scientific Review Panel said the project meets scientific review criteria with qualifications, but it also said it has doubts that efforts to suppress northern pike in the Columbia River basin could ever be fully successful, especially given current efforts.
A panel of six people charged with negotiating terms of a modernized Columbia River Treaty on behalf of the United States met with straightforward and sometimes critical comments during a “town hall” meeting in Spokane Wednesday.
The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday approved a bill that would until at least 2022 require congressional authorization for any structural modification or action -- including court-ordered spill for fish -- at Columbia/Snake river federal dams that would restrict power generation or navigation.
Culminating five years of work, Oregon State University has submitted a 1,000-page plan that outlines construction and operation details of a wave energy test site off the Oregon coast, along with measures to avoid, minimize and mitigate any potential environmental effects.
After years of low abundance of legal-sized and adult-sized white sturgeon in the lower Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam, the numbers of fish are beginning to improve, according to a summary of sturgeon abundance throughout the Columbia and Snake rivers presented at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council meeting last week in Portland.
A draft letter calling for the region – tribes, state and federal agencies, and the public – to make recommendations to amend the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia River Basin 2014 Fish and Wildlife Program was revealed by the Fish and Wildlife staff at its meeting last week in Portland.
A review of a program that grew from NOAA Fisheries’ 2008 salmon/steelhead biological opinion of the Columbia River federal power system found a number of limitations that impede efforts to accurately describe tributary habitat conditions and identify limiting factors.
Large wildfires cause increases in stream flow that can last for years or even decades, according to a new analysis of 30 years of data from across the continental United States.
The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee this week passed a bill that would require congressional authorization for any structural modification or action at Columbia/Snake river federal dams that would restrict power generation or navigation.
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