The Northwest Power Planning Council is pondering a "freeze" on funding
for new fish and wildlife projects until it can judge the full weight of
growing demands stemming from its newly instituted provincial review
process and from federal hydrosystem biological opinions.
Chum flows last season cost the Northwest hydroelectric system a
significant amount of valuable water and partially depleted headwater
storage reservoirs. Despite this effort, when regional fisheries and
operations managers shut off chum flows in mid-March, only 20 percent of
Columbia River chum had emerged from mainstem redds and even fewer had
emerged from Hardy Creek and Hamilton Springs spawning areas.
The Northwest Power Planning Council Thursday adopted a fiscal year 2002
fish and wildlife program "provisional start of year" budget that sets a
wavy line at $152.7 million.
A recent U.S. District Court judgment that the federal government erred
in its listing of Oregon coho could open a can of legal worms across the
Columbia River basin and Pacific Coast, according to an assessment
provided by the Northwest Power Planning Council's legal staff.
An administrative petition calling for the delisting of seven Columbia
Basin salmon and steelhead stocks is, perhaps, the first legal broadside
delivered in response to a recent federal court decision declaring
illegal the Oregon coast coho's listing under the Endangered Species
Act.
The Senate has approved an additional $4 million for Pacific salmon
restoration projects in Washington state, raising total funding next
year to $74 million for four West Coast states.
The Pacific Salmon Fund is part of the $42 billion FY02 appropriation
bill for the Department of Commerce and other departments. The Senate
total is $26 million less than the House approved in July but $18
million above the current fiscal year.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans on Thursday announced the
appointment of Dr. William T. Hogarth to head the department's National
Marine Fisheries Service and Robert Lohn as chief of NMFS' Northwest
region.
Hogarth, a veteran with 16 years of experience in fisheries and natural
resources management, has since January been NMFS acting assistant
administrator.
The origin of toxins found in juvenile salmon in the lower Columbia
River estuary and at some Oregon salmon hatcheries has Northwest
scientists mystified.
However, the finding by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is
the result of three years of testing, will likely not stop the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers and lower Columbia River ports from deepening the
river's shipping channel by three feet.
Volumes of materials offered over the past year by states and federal
agencies show an improved scientific approach but lack the detail to
judge whether the plans will work, in combination, to recover
beleaguered Columbia Basin salmon populations.
Columbia Basin fish and wildlife managers have been asked to more
precisely outline their project priorities midway through a new process
that has identified fish and wildlife project needs likely to surpass
the projected budget ceiling for fiscal year 2002 and beyond.
At the request of the Federal Caucus (federal dam operators, regulators
and fish and wildlife agencies), the multi-agency Implementation Team
(IT) is reviewing what it may have learned this spring and summer from
operating the Federal Columbia River Power System under a system power
emergency.
It is time to regroup, say participants in a multi-agency effort to
relocate a Columbia River estuary Caspian tern colony, and thus reduce
the birds' predation on listed salmon and steelhead.
State, federal and tribal officials involved for the past three years
say the project has been a success, without causing harm to the
migratory birds.
The agency caught in the middle -- the Bonneville Power Administration
-- fielded questions Wednesday about how it might mete out "off-site
mitigation" fish and wildlife recovery funding as the lines blur between
federal Endangered Species Act mandates and those under the Northwest
Power Act.
Three federal hydroelectric operating agencies released for public
comment their long-anticipated plan on how they will operate the hydro
system and what they will do in the other "H's" -- hatcheries, harvest
and habitat -- to aid salmon recovery.
Columbia Basin state and tribal representatives gathered Wednesday to
discuss how they fit into salmon recovery plans that profess federal
responsibility but stress that success hinges in part on actions taken
outside federal agencies' direct authorities.
A self-described "five-year blueprint for fish recovery actions by the
three (action) agencies" was released this week in draft form --
detailing how Federal Columbia River Power System operators aim to meet
survival goals for salmon, steelhead and resident fish species listed
under the Endangered Species Act.
Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton on Wednesday announced that she
had authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to release water from southern
Oregon's Upper Klamath Lake to irrigate area crops that have been left
parched in order to preserve the precious liquid for endangered sucker
fish that inhabit the lake.
Oregon's Fish and Wildlife commissioners named Lindsay Ball the new
director of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife department July 20 in La Grande
at its monthly meeting. Ball, on loan from Oregon State Police, took
over the helm at ODFW temporarily Feb. 16 after the Oregon Legislature
forced James Greer to resign.
A "first-cut" review of proposed fiscal 2002 hydrosystem fish passage
and research projects Wednesday served to shoehorn $100 million in
originally estimated needs into what is expected to be about an $80
million Columbia River Fish Mitigation Project budget.
The Columbia Basin's four governors received assurances last week that
the Bush administration is committed to implementing federal salmon
recovery strategies completed last year, and that it will do it
hand-in-hand with the states.
Citing the failure of the Bush administration to increase funding for
recovery of endangered Columbia Basin salmon, Rep. Jim McDermott, D
Wash., on Thursday introduced legislation to develop contingency plans
for breaching four dams on the lower Snake River.
The Senate on Thursday passed a spending bill that would authorize $2
billion in new borrowing by the Bonneville Power Administration.
The energy and water development appropriation bill for fiscal 2002 also
provides funds for ecosystem restoration, riparian protection, and fish mitigation on the Columbia River.
Columbia Basin fish and wildlife managers and others watching this
year's mainstem and tributary flows fear the worst for migrating
juvenile and adult salmon as the summer warms.
The forecast for January-July runoff as measured at The Dalles Dam fell
to 54.7 million acre feet or 52 percent of normal ...
Fisheries managers asked hydroelectric operators this week to begin
drafting Lake Roosevelt water now to help raise river flows at McNary
Dam.
However, the Bonneville Power Administration said the change in river
operations may not be possible because it would force BPA to sell
surplus power now and buy power back later, something it may not be able
to do.
A surprisingly low July water supply forecast and the delayed startup of
the Northwest's only nuclear power plant caused the Bonneville Power
Administration to say no to summer spill at today's (June 29) combined
meeting of federal executives with states and tribes.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
