Endangered species listings, jeopardy opinions and related major decisions by federal agencies would be required to undergo scientific peer review under a bill approved Wednesday by the House Resources Committee.
The Bush administration has changed its position and now supports legislation to require fish and wildlife agencies to give greater weight in making endangered species listings and other decisions to peer-reviewed and field-gathered scientific information.
An abundant Methow River Basin spring chinook salmon return has allowed federal, state and tribal fishery officials to again implement a plan that involves the capture of naturally spawning fish to reinvigorate hatchery programs and allows any "surplus" hatchery returns to find spawning grounds in the wild.
The premises underlying three controversial fish passage strategies employed in the Columbia-Snake mainstem hydrosystem have not, in many cases, been scientifically justified.
An envisioned 10-year plan for managing the federal Klamath Project failed to clear its final hurdle this week with the Bureau of Reclamation's regional chief criticizing federal fish agencies' strategies for protecting fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Pressured by Oregon's two senators, a Department of Interior official this week agreed to negotiate with them on their bill to rehabilitate Wallowa Dam and restore salmon in northeastern Oregon.
At a hearing on Thursday before the Senate water and power subcommittee, Bureau of Reclamation official Mark Limbaugh repeated the department's opposition to the bill, which has also been introduced in the House by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.
Biological opinions released by two federal agencies last week said a project that will deepen by three feet the Columbia River shipping channel from Portland, Ore., to Astoria will pose no jeopardy to 13 species of salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout listed, or being considered, under the federal Endangered Species Act.
A draft report now out for technical review likens the impact of predatory Caspian terns on migrating Columbia Basin juvenile salmon and steelhead to those brought by human activities that increase fish mortality.
The federal action agencies say they are "right on track" in implementing measures called for in a December 2000 federal fish recovery plan for the Columbia Basin.
Critics call that assertion a "fairy tale."
A bill by California, Oregon and Idaho senators that would equalize federal funding of Pacific salmon restoration projects in Western states is opposed by Alaska and Washington.
But sponsors and opponents this week agreed to work on a compromise that all five states can support.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, objected strongly to changing the larger shares of funding that Alaska and Washington have received the past three years from Congress in annual spending bills.
A National Marine Fisheries Service draft biological opinion claims that proposed federal Klamath Basin irrigation operations put at risk the existence of coho salmon populations.
But the document released Thursday prescribes actions -- such as the creation of a "water bank" -- that the agency says can keep irrigators and fish afloat while scientists figure out just what Klamath River mainstem flows are needed for fish.
A federal court in the District of Columbia has approved a settlement
agreement submitted by the National Marine Fisheries Service, thereby
ending a lawsuit initiated by the National Association of Home Builders in
exchange for the agency's removal of "critical habitat designations" from
19 West Coast salmon and steelhead populations.
The Idaho Power Company says that water from its Brownlee Reservoir on the
Snake River will be unavailable before August to augment flows in the river
unless the Bonneville Power Administration pays the company for the water.
While waiting for the spring runoff to begin, fisheries managers and dam operators are looking for water to keep river flow up near biological opinion flow targets.
After a week of cool and dry weather across the Northwest, river flows are dropping and threatening to stall the spring juvenile salmon and steelhead migration.
For the second consecutive year, the spring chinook salmon tangle net fishery on the Columbia and Willamette rivers is showing positive results in immediate survival, according to an interim report by Oregon and Washington fisheries agencies. In addition, a recently completed study on long-term survival is showing that adults caught in the tangle net and released are surviving in high numbers.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will suspend about 150 public water projects -- about one-fifth of its projects that already have congressional approval -- while it reviews their economic justifications. The decision follows the Corps' announcement last week that it would suspend a $311 million project to deepen the Delaware River, a project that was widely criticized for its faulty economics.
The Senate on Thursday passed a sweeping energy bill that would allow owners of non-federal hydroelectric dams to change new fishway requirements if they showed they could meet environmental standards in less costly ways or benefit power production.
Columbia River sport fishers' piece of the spring chinook salmon pie is shrinking as the number of adult fish continues to lag -- behind expectations and far, far behind last year's record run.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has provided its Columbia River
Basin salmon recovery partners with a set of numerical targets to help
"size" the task at hand -- building fish populations to the point that
they can be removed from the Endangered Species list, and beyond.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has released an early draft
biological opinion that identifies the Bureau of Reclamation's on-going
irrigation projects, started nearly a century ago, as harmful to
steelhead in the Umatilla River.
Several environmental and taxpayer groups this week said an increase in
federal borrowing by the Bonneville Power Administration should be
eliminated from next year's budget.
Hybridization and genetic purity have become a major issue in the battle
over listing cutthroat trout under the Endangered Species Act.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of Washington, D.C., recently ruled
that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came up short in assessing
extinction risks posed by non-native trout breeding with native
cutthroat.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said Wednesday that additional salmon
recovery efforts in Idaho are moving from concept to reality, thanks in
many respects to the Northwest Power Planning Council's fish and
wildlife program.
A deep plunge into experimental tangle net fishing presented some
logistical nightmares, but the just-ended season was mostly positive for
non-tribal commercial fishers who enjoyed their biggest haul of Columbia
River basin spring chinook salmon since 1991, and found the market was
willing to pay top dollar for the catch.
Federal agencies this week revealed that overall they will spend more in 2003 and 2004 for Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead recovery activities than they did in 2002.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
