The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers submitted to the National Marine
Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Jan. 3 a
biological assessment of impacts to salmon and wildlife if it were to
deepen the Columbia River shipping channel from Portland to Astoria by
three feet.
A Montana-based federal court judge on Monday stalled a proposal to
harvest 176 million board feet of charred timber on the Bitterroot
National Forest until the U.S. Forest Service complies with the federal
Appeals Reform Act.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking comments on a proposal to
construct and operate a juvenile surface collection and bypass system at
the Bonneville Dam's Second Powerhouse to improve salmon passage.
Oregon's senators have agreed on a $175 million federal spending plan to alleviate conflicts between agriculture and endangered species over water in the Klamath Basin.
Representatives of electric utilities and ratepayers and those charged
with recovering Columbia Basin fish and wildlife pulled at either end of
the budget rope this week during a roundtable discussion organized by
the Northwest Power Planning Council.
Representatives of irrigation groups from the four Columbia Basin states
joined the Northwest Power Planning Council this week to pitch their
vision of how to better manage the river system for power production,
irrigation and fish.
After more than five years of research conducted at a cost of $25
million, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this week that major
systems improvements -- not dam breaching -- will be the preferred path
for trying to improve salmon and steelhead survival through four lower
Snake River federal hydroelectric projects.
The "federal executives," along with representatives of states and
tribes, met this week to consider the potential of transitioning from an
informal organization to a more formal, regional decision-making forum.
Federal, state and tribal representatives raised issues this week with
the federal "implementation plan" released by the federal action
agencies in mid-November.
The plan describes the specific measures the agencies will implement
between Oct. 1, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2002, to comply with the National
Marine Fisheries Service' 2000 biological opinion.
An October discovery that a section of north-central Washington's Methow
River had run dry has caused funding entities to rethink a March
decision to spend $2.5 million to protect the reach's riparian habitat.
Maintenance dredging in the lower Snake River -- stalled last year in
large part because of feared impacts on migrating salmon and steelhead
-- will have to wait another year while the Corps of Engineers puts
final touches on a plan expected to guide the process for the next 20
years.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it expects to release in
mid-December an assessment of the biological effects that deepening the
Columbia River shipping channel by three feet from Portland to Astoria
may have on 13 listed species of salmon, steelhead and trout.
A federal decision to revisit Endangered Species Act listing decisions
for 23 of 25 West Coast salmon and steelhead stocks has provoked a
variety of opinions about the future of the region's fish recovery
efforts.
Fishing and conservation groups and two Columbia Basin tribes this week
announced the filing of lawsuits claiming that the Bonneville Power
Administration has violated the Northwest Power Act by failing to manage
the federal hydrosystem "equitably" to produce energy and to restore
salmon.
Flows to protect threatened lower Columbia River chum salmon likely
won't start until at least Nov. 19, after restrictions on flows in
Hanford Reach are lifted. The federal hydroelectric system operating
agencies told fisheries managers at this week's Technical Management
Team meeting that the Vernita Bar Agreement restricts the amount of water they can get to Bonneville Dam through Feb. 18.
The Northwest Power Planning Council marched ahead Thursday with a plan
that allots nearly $35 million in fiscal year 2002 spending on new and
ongoing fish and wildlife projects in the Columbia Plateau Province.
"This is an example of the Council approving on-the-ground projects that
will benefit fish and wildlife, and doing so within the budget
established by Bonneville," Council Chairman Larry Cassidy of Vancouver,
Wash., said.
U.S. District Circuit Judge Michael Hogan on Tuesday turned aside
arguments that federal protection for Oregon coastal coho and their
habitat be continued while the federal government rethinks the status of
the salmon's wild and hatchery produced populations.
If higher river flow is provided for chum salmon spawning downstream
from Bonneville Dam beginning Monday, as Oregon and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service want, the Bonneville Power Administration doubts it
could sustain the flow through January without jeopardizing juvenile
salmon operations next spring and summer.
No less than five administrative "de-listing" petitions -- targeting
fish stocks from the Puget Sound to northern California and Oregon's
Klamath Basin -- have landed on federal fish managers' desks in recent
week.
The Fish Passage Center released a report this week that shows a marked
difference in the survival of juvenile that remained in the river
between McNary and John Day dams once the Bonneville Power
Administration decided to provide a limited amount of spill this spring.
A depressing power reliability outlook released in May by the Northwest
Power Planning Council turned rosy this week when Council staff released
a new study that predicts a loss of load probability through the coming
winter of less than 1 percent, far lower than the prediction for the
same measurement in May.
This week, Congress passed a final interior spending bill with $26
million toward removal of two dams in Olympic National Park and at least
$14 million for Columbia Basin fish habitat and salmon enhancement in
the Northwest.
Some of the lowest river flows on record, coupled with no spill, or
reduced spill provided too late at Columbia Basin dams to move the main
body of juvenile migrants downstream, resulted this spring and summer in
lower than ever in-river survival for juvenile salmon and steelhead.
By anyone's spin, it was a bad year for salmon and steelhead juveniles.
Seven environmental and fishing groups on Tuesday filed a series of
legal measures they hope will lead to an appeal of U.S. District Court
Judge Michael Hogan's Sept. 10 decision that has resulted in the
delisting of the Oregon coastal coho.
Gov. Gary Locke on Monday launched a "sweeping new Columbia River Regional Initiative" he says is aimed at improving Columbia and Snake river water management for the benefit of fish and humans.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
