The ZeaChem biorefinery under development along the Columbia River in Boardman, Oregon got a boost Thursday from a $232.5 million USDA conditional loan guarantee announced by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Projects aimed at satisfying the goals of the Willamette Project biological opinion will take a large share, about $40 million, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 2012 Columbia River Fish Mitigation budget, which is expected to total about $125.8 million.
Following a “qualified” endorsement from its Independent Scientific Review Panel, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Tuesday recommended that $10 million be earmarked for a plan to provide permanent protection for core salmon habitat in the “ceded” territory of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
The Bonneville Power Administration, and a host of organizations representing utility interests, late last week asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reconsider a Dec. 7 decision that declared a new BPA “redispatch and negative pricing” policy contrary to the law.
Concerned about the impact of debris from the Japanese tsunami on Oregon’s fishing, crabbing, shipping and tourism industries, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, said this week it is time for federal, state and local agencies to develop a response plan and start communicating with the public.
Recent data from the federal Toxics Release Inventory, which includes a section on the Columbia River basin, shows that toxic chemical releases rose in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, says the Environmental Protection Agency.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released its draft environmental assessment of a request from West Butte Wind Power, LLC, for a permit that would allow for the "take" of golden eagles at the company's proposed wind project in central Oregon.
A recently completed draft “Research, Monitoring and Evaluation” plan represents a “significant step” toward the development of a framework to guide efforts to revive salmon populations and other fish stocks in Oregon’s Willamette River valley, according to a report issued by the Independent Scientific Review Panel.
A proposed Oregon ballot initiative that would ban the use of non-Indian gillnets in the Columbia River mainstem reached a new stage this week with the issuing of a “modified” title and summary in answer to directions from the state Supreme Court.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed this week that another cow was killed by wolves from the Imnaha pack over the weekend. The yearling heifer was found dead on private land in Wallowa County.
The Oregon Elections Division on Thursday released two “certified” initiative titles for proposals that would, if added to the Nov. 6 ballot and approved by voters, restrict and/or eliminate commercial fishing by non-tribal Oregon fishermen in the Columbia River and other “inland waters.”
Plaintiffs have asked for another shot at convincing a new presiding judge to add two new processes to a court-ordered remand intended to rebuild the federal government’s Columbia/Snake river salmon protection plan.
A new federal policy proposed this week is intended to clarify which species or populations of species are eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The Washington Department of Ecology will hold a public workshop in Seattle as part of an effort intended to update statewide environmental standards “that will better safeguard people who eat fish and shellfish from Washington’s waters.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week released a new scientific integrity policy.
Banning non-tribal commercial gill-net fishing on the mainstem Columbia River remains a hot topic with comments flooding in regarding two additional draft ballot titles based on Oregon voter initiative proposals submitted early in November.
Perhaps the most recognizable name in Columbia River basin salmon recovery circles, U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden, has decided to step to the sidelines.
In a letter sent this week, 52 members of the U.S. House of Representatives called on President Obama to convene a “solutions table” regarding efforts to protect and restore endangered wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake River basins of the Pacific Northwest.
Judge James A. Redden in a recent e-mail invited the federal government to respond to an Oct. 25 request that a court-appointed panel of independent scientist and a settlement judge be added to an ongoing process aimed at shoring up the strategy for protecting Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act.
He got more than he asked for.
The federal government on Wednesday reiterated its intent to work with the region’s tribes and states to respond to U.S. District Court Judge James Redden’s Aug. 2 order requiring a bolstering of habitat actions in the federal plan to restore Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.
After 30 years of Montana resistance against mining and drilling in the Canadian Flathead, the British Columbia provincial government has formally and finally approved a law protecting the drainage from development.
With a fish and wildlife spending ramp up expected to continue in 2012 and beyond, the Bonneville Power Administration has said it must go slow in deciding whether to fund a $575,000 irrigation diversion improvement project in central Washington that is intended to benefit threatened Mid-Columbia River steelhead.
A Maryland-based U.S. District Court judge on Monday upheld a 2008 NOAA Fisheries Service “biological opinion” that says the federal registration of the three pesticides without recently imposed restrictions would jeopardize 27 West Coast salmon and steelhead species that are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Legal foes this week filed comments that say the federal government’s Columbia River basin salmon protection effort “fails to actually provide a meaningful or transparent” report on progress to-date and asks the judge presiding in the case to appoint a panel of independent scientific experts to ride herd on the process.
The Forest Service has identified a preferred approach for continuing the aerial application of fire retardant on national forest lands.
As described in the final environmental impact statement it issued, the preferred approach would map land and water areas to avoid endangered, threatened, and sensitive species.
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