Two bills aimed at ratifying a water rights compact for the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes have been stalled in Republican-controlled committees in the Montana Legislature.
A request to stop hatchery salmon and steelhead releases this year into northwest Oregon’s Sandy River basin was denied March 21 by U.S. District Court Judge Ancer L. Haggerty.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, at least on one front this week, shifted its focus from the world’s oceans to the Columbia River where the animal protection group hopes to bring public attention to what it believes are illegal acts being carried out against marine mammals.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this week agreed to expedite consideration of an appeal filed earlier this month requesting that a federal decision authorizing lethal sea lion removals from the Columbia River be declared illegal.
U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Washington, last week reintroduced bipartisan legislation aimed at allowing Northwest states and tribes to obtain permits for lethal removal of the most aggressive California sea lions in order to deter predation on salmon as they return to the Columbia River to spawn.
The Court of Appeals for the state of Oregon, amidst a swirl of participation requests and other filings, this week reaffirmed its “order of abeyance,” which allows the state of Oregon to respond to specific criticisms of newly approved fishing rules that would over the next few years largely phase out commercial gill-netting for salmon on the mainstem Columbia River.
NOAA chief Kathryn D. Sullivan in a March 18 letter provides assurances to Washington Congressman Doc Hastings that one path towards rebuilding populations of imperiled Columbia River salmon and steelhead stocks will not block, or sidetrack, another.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking comments on a draft environmental assessment for the John Day Mitigation Project. The Corps proposes to construct hatchery facilities to increase the production of fall chinook salmon, as required by the Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion.
A notice of appeal filed Tuesday aims to start once again legal arguments over Northwest states’ right to remove California sea lions that prey on salmon and steelhead that head up the Columbia River each spring.
The state of Oregon and NOAA Fisheries, joined by three sport fishing organizations, say that the operation of northwest Oregon’s Sandy Hatchery under newly approved federal guidelines is legal and does not jeopardize wild salmon and steelhead protected under the Endangered Act.
Fish conservation groups seeking a permanent end to hatchery produced salmon and steelhead in northwest Oregon’s Sandy River basin have asked a federal judge, in the near term, to preempt the planned release of several hundred fish later this month.
Citing a lack “reasoned decision making,” a federal appeals court panel last week vacated a 2008 National Marine Fisheries Service decision which judged that the use of three specific pesticides, as now allowed, would jeopardize the viability of Pacific salmon stocks protected under the Endangered Species Act.
A water rights compact for the Confederated Salish-Kootenai tribes is now in the hands of Montana legislators, and it’s not clear what kind of reception it will get in the weeks to come.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated the debris from the Japanese tsunami a “severe marine debris event,” which requires the agency to develop a federal tsunami debris cleanup plan.
An Oregon Court of Appeals order issued Feb. 11 says the implementation of new Oregon rules aimed at phasing out the use of gill nets on the lower Columbia River mainstem, and giving recreational anglers a larger share of salmon catch allocations, must be forestalled while legal arguments on the issue play out.
A Montana District Court judge has delivered a major blow to a pending water rights compact for the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes, ruling that one of the compact’s three major parts is fundamentally and constitutionally flawed.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and members of the Columbia River Umatilla Solutions Taskforce last week signed a “Declaration of Cooperation” on Columbia River-Umatilla Basin water projects.
Congressman Doc Hastings in a Feb. 4 letter to the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jane Lubchenco, expresses concerns over a contract the agency has signed with entities to conduct “closed interviews” with individuals about their opinions of ongoing salmon recovery activities in the Columbia River basin.
Montana’s new governor, Democrat Steve Bullock, has completed his two appointments to represent the state on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has two assigned tasks under the Northwest Power Act, and they must be completed in synchrony, not as independent products, according to petitioners asking a federal appeals court to order a reconsideration of the NPCC’s “Sixth Power Plan” and Columbia River basin fish and wildlife restoration goals encased in it.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today, in response to a court-ordered deadline, that it is seeking information from the scientific community and the public on a proposal to protect the North American wolverine as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
The Walla Walla District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this week that it has extended the public comment period for the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Lower Snake River Programmatic Sediment Management Plan to March 26.
Teck Metals Ltd., notified U.S. federal courts late last week that it would appeal a Dec. 14 ruling that says the Canadian mining and smelting company is liable under U.S. environmental law for contaminating the Columbia River with millions of tons of processing waste.
Members of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council have elected Bill Bradbury, one of Oregon’s two members, to chair the regional energy planning agency in 2013. Bradbury was vice chair in 2012; the Council elects officers annually.
Attorneys representing commercial fishing interests on Jan. 4 filed a “petition for judicial review” asking the Oregon Court of Appeals to rule as invalid a “radical reallocation plan” adopted Dec. 7 by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission that would boost anglers’ share of the salmon harvest in the lower Columbia River and ban commercial gill-net use.
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