Nearly 1,000 acres of forest lands near the North Fork of the Lewis River in Washington have now been protected from potential development and will be managed to enhance wildlife habitat.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council recommended Wednesday that funding be continued for research aimed at identifying through genetics particular fish traits that might allow them to survive better in the wild.
Northwest Power and Conservation Council members on Wednesday elected Bruce Measure, a Montana member, chair of the Council for 2011, and Dick Wallace, a Washington member, vice chair. It is the second consecutive year for both as chair and vice chair, respectively.
An extension this week was granted in the long-running legal debate over the adequacy of the government’s plan for improving conditions for salmon and steelhead that negotiate the Federal Columbia River Power System.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved California’s water quality improvement plan for restoring salmon fisheries and water quality in the Klamath River.
The federal government and a host of other parties filed court documents today (Dec. 23) in support of a retooled “biological opinion” that they say puts the Columbia River basin on the proper legal and biological paths toward boosting imperiled wild steelhead and salmon stocks.
Federal agencies Wednesday released a new report describing the second year of progress in implementing a NOAA Fisheries’ 2008 biological opinion that outlines protections for salmon and steelhead affected by the Federal Columbia River Power System.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week asked for public comment on a petition submitted Sept. 16 by a coalition of agricultural entities that asks the agency to allow more stakeholder participation during federal consultations on salmon-related Endangered Species Act issues.
As promised last summer, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is inviting comments in January and February on proposed rulemaking to Oregon’s New and Revised Human Health Water Quality for Toxics, which would make the state’s “Fish Consumption Rate” the highest in the country.
The Bonneville Power Administration and its transmission customers have reached a partial settlement to avoid a rate increase for transmission as customers manage through a difficult economy.
NOAA Fisheries Service continues to mull over its options for responding to a Nov. 23 appellate court’s decision that struck down the federal agency’s decision to authorize the lethal removal of California sea lions that prey each spring on Columbia and Snake River salmon spawners.
The wild vs. hatchery public debate was amplified this week with the closing of NOAA Fisheries’ comment period on a draft environmental impact statement on the use of federal funding for artificial propagation to fuel Columbia River basin fisheries.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has awarded a Partners in Conservation Award to the Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board Implementation Team for its contributions to salmon recovery in Washington state.
Dan Ashe has been nominated by President Obama to be the next director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Ashe currently serves as the agency's deputy director.
A newly completed $51 million wall constructed in the Columbia River below The Dalles Dam significantly boosted survival of juvenile salmon and steelhead migrating downstream past the dam this year, according to research presented Tuesday at a major gathering of fish scientists in Portland.
Conservation and fishing groups on Monday filed a lawsuit asking the U.S. District Court in Seattle to rescind, at least temporarily, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to allow the use of pesticides that cause harm to imperiled West Coast salmon and steelhead.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has posted for public review the maps and descriptions of proposed marine reserves and protected areas on its marine reserves website at www.oregonocean.info/marinereserves
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday ruled that the federal government in a March 2008 decision failed to explain how the killing of sea lions that prey on salmon below the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam is consistent with the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
A new adult fish collection facility was in operation this summer at Cougar Dam on the South Fork McKenzie River and construction is set to begin this winter to create a new and improved Minto Fish Facility on the North Santiam River as the strategy for improving the lot of threatened upper Willamette River chinook salmon and steelhead starts to unfold.
The Bonneville Power Administration this week proposed an 8.5 percent average wholesale power rate increase primarily to support maintenance and refurbishment of Northwest hydroelectric and nuclear generating facilities.
RE: “ Rebuilding Snake River Sockeye Run A Multi-Lake Recovery Strategy; 176 Natural-Born Return This Year” https://www.www.www.columbiabasinbulletin.org/399491.aspx
A May 2010 Columbia-Snake river “biological opinion” is illegal in its own right, and does nothing to cure the ills of a 2008 federal strategy for assuring the hydro system avoids jeopardizing the survival of salmon and steelhead protected under the Endangered Species Act.
That’s the contention of the Nez Perce and Spokane tribes, the state of Oregon and a coalition of fishing and conservation groups.
NOAA this week released a national policy encouraging the consideration and use of catch shares, a new fishery management tool aimed at rebuilding fisheries.
The Center for Environmental Law & Policy and Columbia Riverkeeper last week filed a challenge to a district court's ruling that upholds a U.S. Bureau of Reclamations decision to drawdown the mid-Columbia River's Lake Roosevelt more deeply in summer.
Federal biologists feel they might have found the right combination of actions at John Day Dam to lift juvenile salmon survival to standards targeted in a Columbia-Snake hydro system biological opinion that prescribes actions believed necessary to avoid jeopardizing protected fish.
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