Work to satisfy the requirements of the Willamette River biological opinion to protect fish is progressing on at least two fronts, according to information given this week at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s meeting in Corvallis, June 14.
After resuming culling of double-crested cormorants in the lower Columbia River estuary on April 11 for the first time this year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s contractor abruptly stopped the boat-based shooting of the birds April 27 after evidence the birds weren’t nesting on East Sand Island.
Two environmental organizations that threatened in March to sue federal fisheries managers over releases of hatchery produced summer run steelhead in the upper Willamette River made good on their intent in late May.
Defendants gave notice in the U.S. District Court of Oregon that they are appealing to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals an April 3rd order to provide earlier spill for juvenile fish passage beginning next spring at lower Snake and Columbia river dams.
The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association announced this week their intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its failure to complete an environmental study that would remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in the lower 48 states.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke this week announced the appointment of Greg Sheehan to the newly-created position of Deputy Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
A May 19 ruling from a Ninth Circuit Court panel once again upheld a ruling and injunction issued in 2013 by a Washington district judge that requires Washington to remove state-owned culverts that block salmon passage.
The dispute over alleged clean water violations in the lower 100 miles of the Deschutes River downriver of a complex of two dams is now in two courts.
Advocates of more spill at Columbia/Snake river dams for juvenile fish passage and federal dam operating agencies have agreed to a schedule for periodic status conferences and a protocol in a federal court case.
Anglers who fish for steelhead in five tributaries of the lower Columbia River can expect to see some changes in those fisheries as a result of new federal requirements for state hatchery production recently issued by NOAA-Fisheries.
NOAA has appointed Kevin Werner, Ph.D., as the new Science and Research Director for NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.
Washington State officials say they are taking swift legal action against the U.S. government after a tunnel full of mixed radioactive and chemical waste collapsed Tuesday at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
A juvenile bypass system orifice at Little Goose Lock and Dam became plugged early Wednesday because of abnormally high seasonal debris from the lower Snake River, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials.
A recently released report from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, in consultation with the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes, states that further adjustments are needed for discharge and refill protocols at Libby and Hungry Horse dams in Northwest Montana.
A May 3 federal court injunction will result in an upgraded hatchery and less pollution in Icicle Creek by late summer 2019.
In another attempt to convince U.S. District Court of Oregon Judge Michael H. Simon to allow Portland General Electric to appeal his last decision in a Deschutes River clean water case, the utility submitted another reply brief in support of a motion for certifying his ruling.
Washington Department of Ecology and Cowlitz County have completed their environmental review for the largest proposed coal export terminal in North America.
The third year of culling double-breasted cormorants on and near East Sand Island resumed two weeks ago.
Seven Idaho conservation groups asked NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a letter last week to end transporting endangered Snake River sockeye salmon juveniles beginning this spring.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision to allow hatchery salmon and steelhead in the Elwha River as part of a recovery effort following the removal of two dams in 2014.
The Deschutes River Alliance is asking an Oregon federal court to deny Portland General Electric’s request to take its clean water case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
A settlement last week of a 2015 clean water case in a Tri-City federal court will fund projects by three conservation groups.
A federal court decision denying Portland General Electric’s motion to dismiss a water quality suit against the company for the effects of its dam operations on the Deschutes River in Central Oregon may end up in appeals court as PGE seeks a second opinion at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Two members of the Northwest’s congressional delegation, one a Republican, the other a Democrat, introduced a bill this week that would make it easier for tribes and states to obtain permits to remove sea lions from the Bonneville Dam tailrace.
A federal court sided with an Oregon environmental organization this week in a ruling that said the Environmental Protection Agency must comply with the Endangered Species Act in approving water pollution clean-up plans.
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