A federal judge this week suggested that a legal strategy might soon be in place to protect salmon and steelhead impacted by the Federal Columbia River Power System.
"I really believe that with a little more work we'll have a BiOp," U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden told two crowded courtrooms Monday.
A pair of missives issued over the past week by U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden note progress in the attempt to produce a legal strategy that avoids jeopardizing the survival of salmon and steelhead stock that negotiate the Columbia-Snake river hydro system.
The eternal quest to determine how, and if, habitat restoration actions affect the status of imperiled Columbia River basin salmon is taking wings in three intensively monitored watersheds.
At a change of command ceremony today, Brig. Gen. John R. McMahon assumed command of the Northwestern Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
An appellate panel on Nov. 6 focused almost exclusively on the contention that the federal government illegally scapegoated salmon-eating California sea lions by allowing their lethal removal from the Columbia River even while endorsing activities that cause greater fish mortality.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Thursday recommended funding three "within-year" fish and wildlife project budget requests, including $243,059 to build on restored momentum for habitat restoration work in Idaho's Lemhi River subbasin.
A new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study shows concentrations of toxic chemicals in fish tissue from lakes and reservoirs in nearly all 50 states.
The Independent Scientific Review Panel has given a thumbs-up to a research plan aimed at evaluating whether, and by how much, salmon survival at Columbia-Snake river dams is improved by actions called for in NOAA Fisheries' Federal Columbia River Power System biological opinion.
Upon further review, the plan of action for protecting imperiled Columbia-Snake river salmon and steelhead that migrate through the federal hydro system is the most robust ever developed and built on the best available science, according to legal briefs filed Oct. 23 by the government and supportive "sovereigns."
A Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Action Plan was released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Thursday in Pendleton, Oregon.
The Action Plan is touted as the "next step in the multi-partner/multi-jurisdiction initiative" to reduce the volume of toxic chemicals and metals and emerging contaminants entering the Columbia River Basin. It addresses a variety of pollution sources, from agricultural runoff to personal care products, and from pesticides to pharmaceuticals.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Wednesday recommended more than $21 million in spending over the next four years to protect fish habitat, improve flows and reconnect tributary streams to eastern Idaho's Lemhi River.
Sometimes Mother Nature doesn't cooperate with government biological opinions, and that was the case this week with heavy rains in the Kootenai River basin.
Growers for ESA Transparency ("GET") filed a petition Thursday requesting that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency take immediate action to establish clear procedures for making pesticide effects determinations and subsequent actions consistent with Section 1010 of the 1988 amendments to the Endangered Species Act.
Richard Hannan, an 18-year veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has been named the Pacific Region's deputy regional director, Regional Director Robyn Thorson announced this week.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' program for improving fish survival through the Columbia River basin's federal hydro system has a smaller fiscal year 2010 budget than expected but the gap will be narrowed with an infusion of "stimulus" funding.
To reduce harm to salmon, the Washington Department of Ecology this week placed new limits on pollution in stormwater runoff from industrial facilities, affecting approximately 1,200 permitted facilities across the state.
Expectations for this year's Columbia River upriver fall chinook salmon and summer steelhead runs were lowered this week, though not by much, based on fish counts thus far at Bonneville Dam.
U.S. District Court James A. Redden on Tuesday granted permission for the state of Oregon and a coalition of fishing and conservation groups to file amended complaints in a long-running lawsuit that has brought legal challenges to a series of federal strategies for protecting salmon that swim up and down the Columbia-Snake river hydro system.
A federal judge on Aug. 30 granted a preliminary injunction to "maintain the status quo" while litigants argue over whether Honolulu's solid waste can be transported to the Northwest and put to rest in a south-central Washington landfill in the Columbia River gorge.
A coalition of fishing and conservation groups and the state of Oregon late last week asked that they be allowed to refresh their legal arguments for the withdrawal of the federal government's plan for assuring protected salmon and steelhead aren't jeopardized by Columbia-Snake river hydro projects.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed a fish collection and sorting facility on the South Fork McKenzie River just below Cougar Dam to support the recovery of endangered salmon and bull trout populations in the Willamette River basin.
The Yakama Nation and conservation groups continue to press legal action to prevent the import of Hawaiian garbage for storage at a Columbia River gorge landfill even though the waste transfer plan has been stalled for now.
Montana's top wildlife official said his agency will appeal the recent district court ruling that returned the region's wolves to the federal endangered species list.
A new "Adaptive Management Implementation Plan" -- produced by federal agencies with guidance from high-level Obama Administration officials -- could make matters worse, not better, for imperiled Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead, according to briefs filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
Parties to the lawsuit challenging the validity of the 2008 Biological Opinion for Columbia/Snake River salmon and steelhead are debating whether more background information regarding the formation of the Obama Administration's new "Adaptive Management Implementation Plan" should be produced for the court.
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