Regional tribes, environmental groups, water quality advocates and fishing organizations filed a lawsuit this week challenging what they say is the Trump administration’s “latest effort to dismantle laws that protect Washington State’s clean water and public health.”
America’s marine economy, including goods and services, contributed about $373 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product in 2018 and grew faster than the nation’s economy as a whole, according to the marine economy statistics released this week by two Department of Commerce agencies.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that point source discharges to navigable waters through groundwater are regulated under the federal Clean Water Act.
COVID-19 is requiring new solutions for fish and wildlife managers. One such solution is being implemented to help Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks continue providing recreation opportunities across the state.
After its request for a rehearing was rejected by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday (April 10) agreed to develop Columbia and Snake river temperature limits, known as Total Maximum Daily Load, by May 18.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt signed a final decision to construct and maintain a system of up to 11,000 miles of strategically placed fuel breaks to control wildfires within a 223 million- acre area in portions of California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
One of the most recognizable names in Columbia River basin salmon recovery circles, retired U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden, died last week (March 31) at age 92.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s challenge that asked the court to rethink and rehear its decision that calls on the agency to move ahead in setting temperature limits for the Columbia and Snake rivers to protect salmon and steelhead.
Thirteen members of the Northwest congressional delegation, all Democrats from Washington and Oregon, asked the federal government this week to extend the comment period on the draft environmental impact statement on Columbia/Snake River dams until 30 days after the Covid-19 public health emergency is over.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced the initiation of five-year status reviews for 129 species in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Hawaii, Montana, California, and Nevada under the Endangered Species Act, including threatened Columbia River basin bull trout.
Conservation groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week for what they say is a failure to protect wolverines as required by the Endangered Species Act.
Conservation groups filed suit in federal court Thursday to stop a process by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to allocate the water in its Willamette River basin reservoirs among irrigators, cities and fish, saying such an order is necessary to protect imperiled spring chinook salmon and winter steelhead.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration, that agencies which operate the Columbia and Snake River dams, sent out this notice by email this morning, March 12:
Both a U.S. District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have recently ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must set temperature limits for the Columbia and Snake rivers to protect salmon and steelhead, but the agency is returning to the Appeals Court to challenge the latest decision.
NOAA last week announced the appointment of Carrie Selberg Robinson as the new Director of NOAA Fisheries' Office of Habitat Conservation.
Dam operating agencies released for public review this morning a long-awaited draft environmental impact statement that describes the impacts of 14 federal Columbia and Snake river dams on salmon, steelhead and lamprey.
A diverse group of river users, utilities and environmentalists is calling on Northwest governors to lead the way to find collaborative solutions to recover Columbia/Snake River Basin salmon and steelhead populations listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court to block a permit that would allow Cooke Aquaculture to transition from rearing non-native Atlantic salmon to rearing native steelhead at its net pen facilities in Puget Sound.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has appointed Patty O’Toole to the position of Fish and Wildlife Division Director. She had been the division’s acting director since August 15, 2019.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife this week approved an application from Cooke Aquaculture to farm all-female, sterile (triploid) rainbow trout/steelhead in Puget Sound.
As it does every year at its January meeting, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council elected a new chair and vice-chair to serve in 2020. It elected Richard Devlin of Oregon as Chair, replacing outgoing chair Jennifer Anders of Montana at its Portland meeting, Tuesday, Jan. 14. Devlin had served as the Council’s Vice Chair since Jan. 16, 2019.
NOAA Fisheries has issued a final biological opinion on construction and operation of the Jordan Cove terminal in Coos Bay, Oregon, and the associated 229-mile long Pacific Connector Liquid Natural Gas pipeline that determines the proposed action does not jeopardize protected species or adversely modify their critical habitat.
Conservation groups sent a notice this week of their intent to sue the Trump administration for failing to prot
With a December 20 court order to develop Columbia and Snake River temperature limits, known as a Total Maximum Daily Load, it is still uncertain what the federal Environmental Protection Agency will do.
Idaho Power filed a petition in December in Multnomah County that asks the court to dismiss a lawsuit filed in July 2019 by Pacific Rivers and Idaho Rivers United that had challenged the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s water quality certification for the utility’s Hells Canyon Complex of Dams – Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon dams.
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