Salmon and gold played key roles in a judgment issued late last week in which a split federal appeals court said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service must take input from other federal agencies before making decisions on small-scale mining in fish critical habitat.
An Oregon election initiative aimed at banning the use of gill nets in “inland” waters such as the Columbia River has gained considerable steam over the past month and a half with the collection of more than 105,000 signatures, well over the 87,213 needed to get the measure on the Nov. 6 ballot.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week announced that it intends to revise its stormwater regulations to specify that a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit is not required for stormwater discharge from logging roads.
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s amendment to require comprehensive analysis before genetically-engineered salmon enters the American marketplace was narrowly defeated by the U.S. Senate Thursday with 46 yes votes and 50 votes against it.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed environmental compliance for the Dworshak Nutrient Supplementation Project, an “ecosystem improvement project” at Dworshak Reservoir in Idaho.
U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Mark Begich (D-AK) have issued statements following recent reports from Alaska pilots that large amounts of debris are accumulating along the central Gulf of Alaska coast from Kayak Island to Montague Island.
With salmon counts lagging at the Bonneville Dam, fish and hydro system managers have ventured into relatively new territory by holding back a share of the incoming for a four-hour period Thursday from a surging Columbia River in an attempt to entice movement of what was expected to be a bumper upriver run.
The Washington Department of Ecology will hold public workshops on possible changes to the state’s fish consumption rates in May in Ellensburg, Tacoma and Spokane Valley.
In a retrospective interview with Idaho Public Television previewed this week, the long-time presiding federal judge in the Columbia River basin’s salmon recovery debate said efforts may to this point have fallen short by assuming dam breaching is not an option.
NOAA Fisheries “provided reasoned interpretations” of Marine Mammal Protection Act provisions earlier this year in granting the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington authority to kill California sea lions that are known to be preying on wild salmon stocks in the lower Columbia River, according to recent federal court filings.
The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking comments by April 30 on measures proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect threatened and endangered pacific salmon from potential effects from three pesticides -- oryzalin, pendimethalin, and trifluralin.
The Independent Scientific Review Panel’s recently completed final review of 71 “Resident Fish, Data Management, and Regional Coordination” proposals includes a thumbs up for 14 projects submitted for funding through the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia River Fish and Wildlife Program.
U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, and Mark Begich, D-AK, have called for a clear federal action plan to address the tsunami debris off the Pacific Coast, following the discovery in March of a tsunami-swept Japanese fishing vessel off the coast of Canada.
The legal debate over whether salmon-eating California sea lions can be lethally removed from lower Columbia River waters should be moved to an Oregon-based court, according to a “joint stipulation and proposed order” filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
A federal judge on Thursday denied a request that sea lion trapping below the lower Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam be forestalled while newly filed litigation plays out.
The Oregon Supreme Court on Monday issued opinions certifying wording for ballot titles for a trio of initiatives aimed at banning commercial non-Indian gill-net fishing on the mainstem Columbia River.
State officials are hoping that the third time is the charm as regards to their desire to remove salmon-munching California sea lions from the lower Columbia River.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has launched a process aimed at determining what management actions might be undertaken to reduce avian predators’ impacts on protected Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead in the mid-Columbia plateau region.
The Bonneville Power Administration on Tuesday announced a proposed new approach to addressing situations when too much energy is available for delivery to power customers through a Pacific Northwest transmission system that the federal power marketing agency largely controls.
The Bonneville Power Administration aims to clamp down in some regards on Integrated Fish and Wildlife Program spending that so far in fiscal year 2012 is “running hot.”
The 2011 Interagency Annual Report for the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Population, compiled by federal, state and tribal agencies, estimates that the population increased to 1,774 wolves and 109 breeding pairs.
A federal court in Portland this week sent three federal agencies back to the drawing board on their review of how Oregon regulates the temperatures of its rivers and streams to protect salmon, steelhead, and bull trout.
Four Columbia River basin tribes’ right to police themselves at congressionally designated treaty fishing access areas was upheld Thursday in a decision released by the state of Washington’s Supreme Court.
A return to old ways could well “make a contribution to recovery” of a Willamette spring chinook stock that was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999.
The Columbia Land Trust, Bonneville Power Administration and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday announced what they say is the largest purchase of fish and wildlife riverside habitat in the Columbia River estuary in nearly 40 years.
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