The House of Representatives this week passed with unanimous support the Oregon Water Resources Management Act, sponsored by Congressman Greg Walden, R-Ore.
A Friday (July 13) Okanogan County Superior Court decision upholds a Washington state order that has reduced for the second time in five years irrigation withdrawals from the Methow and Twisp rivers.
A pre-emptive strike at the developing federal Columbia/Snake river salmon protection plan was turned back this Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden.
Washington’s U.S. Republican Rep. Doc Hastings says $1 million in federal funds is included in appropriations legislation -- keeping the Yakima Basin water storage study moving forward towards completion at the end of 2008.
Relief is coming for northwestern Montana rivers and reservoirs tapped deeply each summer to, ostensibly, benefit salmon far away in the lower Columbia River.
But it won't come this year, federal officials told representatives of the state Tuesday.
A decision to withdraw a Oregon coast coho Endangered Species Act listing proposal was based on flawed science and needs to be rethought, according to "Findings and Recommendations" issued late last week by a Portland-based federal judge.
Two key, and painstaking, Northwest Power and Conservation Council processes – fish and wildlife program amendments and project selection -- will likely launch in the coming months with questions unanswered regarding Endangered Species Act funding responsibilities.
The Bonneville Power Administration has distributed to the region and federal court a letter describing "the process that BPA will follow if requested to support a neighboring system's load/resource imbalance emergency."
Upriver "spring" chinook salmon are perhaps the most unpredictable of Columbia/Snake River salmon stocks.
But one positive signal of the relative strength of next year's adult run comes from near-record counts of "jack" spring chinook this year.
Despite conditions that are "no longer springlike," the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was asked this week to delay the start of fish collections and transportation at the Columbia River's McNary Dam.
Serving as Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Director for 11 months, Virgil Moore announced his resignation last Friday, to be effective July 12.
Critics say a budding new federal plan to avoid jeopardizing salmon and steelhead impacted by the Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem represents mostly status quo strategies that have previously been declared legally deficient under the Endangered Species Act.
The Oregon House on Thursday night passed the so-called “Oasis” bill, which would draw a total of 495,000 acre-feet of water a year for 25 years from the Columbia River to help farmers in Eastern Oregon increase crop production.
Columbia/Snake River federal dam operators closely toed the line last year, spilling water for juvenile salmon and steelhead passage as prescribed by a court preliminary injunction 98.3 percent of the time over the spring and summer.
A Federal Columbia River Power System draft proposed "action" and accompanying biological analyses previewed last month represents a "positive step forward" in salmon recovery efforts, according to some.
A Seattle-based federal judge today (Wednesday) ordered "endangered" species protections restored for wild Upper Columbia River steelhead stocks and declared NOAA Fisheries Service's (NMFS) new hatchery listing policy contrary to the Endangered Species Act.
Agencies responsible for the operation of 13 federal dams in the Willamette River Basin submitted on May 31 a revised set of proposed actions intended to protect winter steelhead, spring chinook, bull trout, Oregon chub and other species listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Tribes with treaty fishing rights on the mainstem Columbia River want to tap a little deeper this year, and in the future, what has become, virtually, an unlimited resource -- American shad.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday asked the federal government for its opinion in a legal debate regarding a Canadian company's potential liability for lead-zinc processing byproducts that rode the current south across the border into Washington in the upper Columbia River.
Saying his words are "not a product of anger, but frustration," U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden in a May 23 order reminded federal agencies that it is not an option to shift away from Columbia/Snake river hydro system operations designed to benefit fish.
The gist of federal "action" agencies' plan to push Columbia/Snake river basin salmon and steelhead stocks toward recovery, and thus away from extinction, was filed in federal court this week, nearly 20 months after the reigning plan was declared invalid under the Endangered Species Act.
Policy analyst and subbasin planning lead Tony Grover moves south of the border June 1, leaving his post with the Washington state office of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council to become director of the Council’s Fish and Wildlife Division.
Reserving water behind Libby Dam, and releasing it in "pulses" to prompt Kootenai white sturgeon spawning runs, may not be as vital if a developing plan to sculpture the river's "braided reach" above Bonners Ferry proves viable.
Deviations from operations designed to benefit salmon and steelhead are inevitable within the federal Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem, according to documents filed Wednesday in Portland's U.S. District Court.
A request for U.S. Supreme Court consideration of an international dispute over Columbia River heavy metals pollution is flawed and legally unripe, according to documents filed earlier this week by the Colville Tribes and state of Washington.
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