Irrigators in eastern Washington will not get a court hearing to show how the choice of spill over transportation in 2015 resulted in a loss of adult fish returning to the Snake River.
NOAA Fisheries completed an environmental review of potential options that will guide the final agreement for managing salmon and steelhead fisheries in the Columbia River Basin for the next ten years.
A winter upgrade to Foster Dam’s fish weir is expected to provide a safer passage over the dam for juvenile salmon and steelhead.
A huge oil terminal along the Columbia River that would increase train traffic through the Columbia River Gorge and transfer oil to barges and ships at the Port of Vancouver was denied a permit by the council tasked with evaluating the project’s impacts.
The Wild Fish Conservancy followed up on its 60-day intent letter to sue Cooke Aquaculture Pacific, LLC November 13, taking the company to U.S. District Court in Seattle under section 505 of the Clean Water Act.
With unanimous support, the U.S. Senate Thursday passed the Columbia River In-Lieu and Treaty Fishing Access Sites Improvement Act that would enable the Bureau of Indian Affairs to make safety and sanitation improvements at the tribal treaty fishing access sites along the Columbia River, which are on lands held by the United States for the benefit of the four Columbia River Treaty tribes.
The Western Governors Association is requesting clarification on the Department of Interior’s efforts to prevent the spread of invasive quagga and zebra mussels, including questions about Interior’s timeline, states’ resources and authority issues.
The Montana Supreme Court has ruled that a water rights compact for the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes is in compliance with the state Constitution, after a contentious period of resistance to the compact that has carried on for much of the last decade.
Saying that the five-year timeline to complete a National Environmental Policy Act process for the federal Columbia River power system’s impact on salmon and steelhead is aggressive, federal agencies this week also said they would continue to target completion of the process -- which includes an environmental impact statement -- with a record of decision by September 24, 2021.
A coalition of conservation groups Thursday sent the Army Corps of Engineers a notice of its intent to sue over efforts to protect Willamette River chinook and steelhead.
Fishery managers in Washington and Oregon are seeking candidates to fill positions on advisory committees that provide guidance on sport and commercial fishing issues on the Columbia and Snake rivers.
The U.S. State Department last week announced that Jill Smail will be the new Columbia River Treaty negotiator for the department, replacing Brian Doherty.
Irrigators in eastern Washington denied wanting to re-litigate a federal court’s April 2017 decision calling for more spill for fish at Columbia/Snake river federal dams. Instead, they said in a reply brief filed last week that they want to present to the court new information about barging juvenile fish in low-flow and high temperature conditions.
Since white sturgeon in Montana’s Kootenai River was listed as endangered in 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed several iterations of biological opinions and critical habitat designations for the freshwater fish.
Plaintiffs in the challenge to the biological opinion for Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead -- the state of Oregon and National Wildlife Federation – along with federal defendants last week filed briefs in U.S. district court opposing a petition by eastern Washington irrigators to convene an evidentiary hearing on spill and transportation for juvenile fish.
Two bills that are in a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee, if enacted, would change the way the federal Endangered Species Act is governed.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke this week announced the selection of Bryan Rice, a veteran federal administrator and citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, as the new Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the federal agency that coordinates government-to-government relations with 567 federally recognized tribes in the United States.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is awarding $32 million in Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (GAP) grants to tribes and tribal consortia in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week announced the appointment of Chris Hladick of Alaska to become regional administrator for Region 10, which includes Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
The state of Washington, joined by other Columbia Basin states, farm bureaus and business groups, is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to consider an appeal of a lower court ruling that compelled Washington to remove or replace fish-blocking culverts to comply with treaty rights of Native American tribes.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in a draft proposal that could be final within a week, may delay the cleanup of the Portland Harbor Superfund site by as much as a decade, according to letters of concern sent to the EPA by the State of Oregon, the City of Portland and the Yakama Nation.
The Department of the Interior has announced the hiring of Jason Larrabee as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.
Last week, the House Committee on Natural Resources passed five bills to reform the Endangered Species Act.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to withdraw its July 2014 Clean Water Act Proposed Determination that would, if finalized, have imposed restrictions on the discharge of dredged or fill material associated with the potential “Pebble Mine” in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed.
An annual study that looks at salmonid survival through Snake and Columbia river dams for the first time evaluated juvenile fish survival in the Snake River with and without the presence of the four lower dams on the river, as well as the impact on survival if spill is increased, as it may beginning next year.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
