The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission this year will increase
direct contacts with members of Congress and federal officials in
Washington, D.C., on salmon recovery funding and other issues, members
and staff said this week.
Columbia River Compact members balked Thursday at putting the financial
onus on commercial fishers for an experimental fishery intended to test
live capture methods that might increase harvest opportunities without
further imperiling ESA listed stocks.
The Compact, delegates representing the Oregon and Washington fish and
wildlife commissions and departments, is charged with setting mainstem
commercial fishing seasons.
A federal plan to build the grizzly bear population in western Montana's
and central Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains from zero to 280 has drawn
legal fire from Idaho and its governor, Dirk Kempthorne, via a lawsuit
challenging federal authority to import bears and claiming such a
decision usurps state sovereignty.
The Bonneville Power Administration announced Thursday that it began
this week predicting a power shortage of nearly 1,000 megawatts in the
Northwest and would have to run the Columbia River hydropower system
extra hard simply to meet Northwest electricity demand.
The agency increased flows at Bonneville Dam from 130,000 cubic feet per
second to 160 kcfs Thursday to generate more kilowatts and help make up
for the power deficit ...
Steve Wright, acting Bonneville Power Administration chief, told the
Northwest Power Planning Council Wednesday he expected the process of
appointing a new administrator could take up to six months. The
appointment would be made by president-elect George W. Bush's Energy
secretary.
Speakers this week at a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hearing in
Portland supported the agency's proposal to streamline its hydroelectric
dam licensing process, but worried the shortened process would harm
either the environment or the bottom line.
FERC is required by legislation to look for efficiencies in that process
and is holding six hearings around the country to listen to comments on
its proposal.
The size of the budget for programs that support Oregon's Plan for
Salmon and Watersheds may rise by $8 million over the next two years if
the state's Legislature approves Gov. John Kitzhaber's budget proposal.
The proposed budget increase comes after a decade of economic growth in
the state, but at a time when the rise in tax revenue is expected to
slow ...
With the major task of revamping of the Columbia Basin fish and wildlife
program well under way, and his 65th birthday fast approaching, Idaho's
Todd Maddock in early December decided the time was right to step down
from his position as a member of the Northwest Power Planning Council.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne recently named Idaho State Rep. Jim Kempton
(R-Albion) to the Northwest Power Planning Council. Kempton replaces
Todd Maddock of Lewiston, who is retiring.
A Northwest Power Planning Council "high priority project" solicitation
intended to "identify immediate actions that will assist Endangered
Species Act-listed anadromous fish" in the Columbia Basin has drawn a
considerable response.
Federal agencies said Thursday that they have put themselves on notice:
If their latest Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan doesn't play out as
envisioned, the National Marine Fisheries Service could play trump cards
as soon as 2003 that might include seeking authorization to breach four
Lower Snake River dams.
The Columbia River treaty tribes have greeted the latest federal salmon
recovery plan with disdain, saying it ignores science and the federal
government's treaty responsibilities to the tribes.
The reaction to the biological opinion of the Columbia River hydro
system released this week by the National Marine Fisheries Service
focused mostly on breaching four lower Snake River dams.
But not all looking at the breaching language in the same way.
Federal officials plan to release the final Columbia Basin salmon
restoration plan and biological opinion on the federal hydropower system
as required under the Endangered Species Act next week.
One of the major changes the region will see when the National Marine
Fisheries Service releases its final 2000 biological opinion governing
operations of the Columbia River federal hydro system is the exclusion
from the BiOp of Bureau of Reclamation dams in the upper Snake River
basin due to ongoing water adjudication.
Critical of both the science supporting draft federal salmon recovery
plans and the process used to produce it, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo has
asked the National Marine Fisheries Service to slow its timetable for
implementing the strategies.
Panels made up of regional scientists, researchers and representatives
of economic interests were asked last week to offer their views on the
federal salmon recovery planning "process, science basis and prospects
for success."
The setting was a Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on
Fisheries, Wildlife and Water hearing in Boise chaired by Idaho
Republican Sen. Mike Crapo.
Columbia Basin salmon managers -- unused to dealing with bounty -- are
smiling at preseason forecasts of a 2001 upriver spring chinook run that
would be 30 percent greater than the best run recorded since counts
began in 1938.
His tenure could, potentially, be brief, but acting Bonneville Power
Administration administrator Steve Wright sees the need to keep the
momentum rolling on a number of related fronts -- among them finding
agreement on a "unified" Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery plan
demanded by his predecessor.
The Bonneville Power Administration witnessed a changing of the guard
today (Nov. 17) with Administrator Judi Johansen leaving to become
executive vice president for government affairs and regulation at
PacifiCorp.
Saying that rivers already have too little water to meet flow targets
for salmon migration, environmental groups petitioned the Washington
Department of Ecology to renew a moratorium on issuing water rights
permits on the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries.
A gathering last week celebrated the just-won congressional
authorization that $30 million be spent to restore habitat in the
Columbia River and Tillamook Bay estuaries.
Shepherding the Northwest estuary legislation through as part of the
Water Resources Development Act was U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.
The Northwest Power Planning Council and Bonneville Power Administration
issued a solicitation this week for "high priority" fish and wildlife
project proposals expected to bring immediate, on-the-ground benefits
for listed salmon and steelhead.
A $40 million federal program to improve salmon habitat the Columbia
River estuary and Tillamook Bay has won final congressional approval.
Legislation to authorize $7 billion in Army Corps of Engineers water
projects passed the House today (Friday), 312-2. The Senate gave its
approval on Tuesday by unanimous consent, and President Clinton is
expected to sign the bill ...
The Senate has given final approval to an annual spending bill that
would provide some $170 million for West Coast salmon recovery,
primarily in the Northwest.
President Clinton is expected to veto the measure over unrelated
provisions, however. With the Senate having recessed this week, Congress
won't take up a modified version until after Tuesday's election. A lame
duck session is scheduled to begin on Nov. 14.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
