A major step toward getting Columbia River basin salmon researchers all on the same page was taken this month with the publication of the first work ever to collect, standardize, and recommend a scientifically rigorous set of field protocols for monitoring and assessing salmon and trout populations.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council in a letter this week expressed “serious concerns about the FY 2007-09 (project funding) decision process, the number of changes Bonneville (Power Administration) made to Council funding recommendations, and several policy issues.”
The so-called “select area” fisheries project in the lower Columbia River seems to perform as advertised, though additional information is needed to truly gauge its biological and economic impacts and decide whether its expansion is warranted, according to a report prepared for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Wednesday approved a schedule for amending its Columbia River basin fish and wildlife program that begins in October and, potentially conclude late in 2008.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council agreed Wednesday to reconstitute the oversight board for the Fish Passage Center, a data collection and analysis entity that has drawn both fire and praise over the years regarding the veracity of its analyses.
Sea lions camped out below Bonneville Dam continue to show a persistent and adaptive nature, perhaps shifting more of their salmon eating to the dark hours to avoid daytime human harassment.
And a trap-and-haul effort appears to be, at least at the start, ineffective in reducing predation.
Putting hard numbers to the phenomenon called “latent mortality” – the delayed effect of downstream fish passage through the Columbia/Snake hydro system — will continue to be in the near term anyone’s guess, according to a report released this week by the Independent Scientific Advisory Board.
In order to better prepare for future tasks, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and staff need a “clearer understanding” of recent fish and wildlife project funding decisions, according to a letter forwarded Monday (March 19) to the Bonneville Power Administration.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has asked for input on how it might update the guidance document it has used since 1997 in considering ocean conditions when making fish and wildlife project funding recommendations.
Wind power projects are being rapidly developed throughout the Northwest, and the region’s existing power system can most likely accommodate the 6,000 megawatts of wind energy anticipated by 2024 – or perhaps much sooner given the current pace of development, says a new plan released this week.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week decided to seek further clarification on fiscal year 2007-2009 funding shifts that represent both contractual fine-tuning and the imposition of policy choices that are, from its standpoint, yet unresolved.
The decision to trigger the nomination process for a Fish Passage Center oversight board has been delayed for at least a month at the request of fish managers who want input on the composition and responsibilities of the panel.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week recommended spending $500,000 during fiscal year 2007 to further the goals of the Yakama Nation’s Yakima Side Channels fish and wildlife project.
Three Columbia River Basin tribes announced Wednesday a coalition agreement for better advocacy regarding fish and wildlife resources impacted by hydroelectric systems on the upper Snake River.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Independent Economic Analysis Board Wednesday presented to the Council its review of Revenue Stream, a report prepared by the staff of several fishing associations and environmental groups.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council continues to mull whether it should officially respond to Bonneville Power Administration Feb. 26 fish and wildlife project funding decisions that strayed in many respects from the Council’s desires.
Project data reporting and collection must be shored up before a valid assessment can be made about the biological benefit to be earned with the planned $143 million annual investment through the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia River basin fish and wildlife program.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council, NOAA Fisheries, and the Bonneville Power Administration last week unveiled a new Internet-based tool that provides access to a vast reservoir of information about fish, wildlife, and water in the Pacific Northwest.
A 16-year stint with the Northwest Power and Conservation Council ends this week (March 9) for fish and wildlife division director Doug Marker, who resigned recently to pursue other career opportunities.
Northwest electricity ratepayers could pay $400 million to $550 million a year to replace the power capabilities of the four lower Snake River dams if those dams were removed, the Bonneville Power Administration said in a press release.
Caspian terns’ consumption of juvenile salmonids grew last year, as did the sheer numbers of another avian predator — doubled-crested cormorants — in the Columbia River estuary and elsewhere, according to a draft research report released this week.
The goal of having a third lower Snake River hydroproject outfitted with a “removable spillway weir” in time for the 2007 spring-summer salmon migration will be missed due to construction delays, according to federal officials.
While calling a recent report on the cost and benefits of removing the four Lower Snake dams “unreliable,” the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s independent economic advisors say that “perhaps” the region should again study the economic and ecological impacts of removing the dams.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Wednesday decided to seek assurances that long-term fish and wildlife funding agreements hammered out in federal court proceedings adhere to provisions of the Northwest Power Act.
The latest scientific information in, potentially, five complex subject areas will be reviewed and digested later this year when the Northwest Power and Conservation Council convenes a science/policy conference as preparation for planned Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program amendments.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week issued a plea to fish management entities to fuel research that might decide whether Snake River fall chinook salmon that migrate in-river to the ocean survive better to adulthood than those that are collected and barged downstream through the federal hydrosystem.
With the Fish Passage Center’s funding future assured for at least the near-term, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council spoke last week of “re-energizing” its oversight of the data collection and analysis entity.
Does the Pacific Northwest electric power system have a surplus supply of electricity for the next 10 years or does it currently have an electricity deficit the size of a nuclear power plant?
Bonneville Power Administration officials said that the bottom lines are essentially the same, but Northwest Power and Conservation Council members left their meeting Wednesday with budgetary and legal questions about a fish and wildlife project funding package unveiled by the federal power marketing agency.
A Bush Administration proposal to speed Bonneville Power Administration repayments to the U.S. Treasury would drive up Northwest power rates and cause job losses as well other negative economic effects in the region, according to a draft analysis by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Power Division staff.
Declining water supply forecasts could well mean that desired flow augmentation from the Snake River basin for migrating salmon and steelhead will be in short supply this summer.
An evaluation of the survival of in-river Snake River fall chinook salmon migrants vs. that of fish barged downriver through the hydrosystem appears stalled, at least for this year, despite the urgings this week from the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Technology that has been field tested by tracking Columbia Basin salmon as they migrate north along the Pacific coast will be refined and expanded worldwide thanks to $45 million in grants announced Monday by Canada’s Foundation for Innovation.
A federal appellate court on Wednesday – in response to a request by Columbia River basin tribes and fishing and conservation groups – ordered the Bonneville Power Administration to “continue its existing contractual arrangements to fund and support” the Fish Passage Center.
Columbia Basin tribes and fishing and conservation groups are jubilant, and Idaho’s senior U.S. senator is frustrated, over a Wednesday order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit requiring continued federal funding for the Portland-based Fish Passage Center.
A newly-bestowed priority designation for the 260,000 square mile Columbia River basin has provided impetus for the Environmental Protection Agency to accelerate its efforts to reduce what is viewed as a significant threat to salmon and other forms of life — toxics pollution.
Even the driest of winters would not test the “adequacy” of the Northwest’s supply of electricity despite the region’s heavy reliance on hydro power, according to recent analysis produced by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Power Division staff.
A recent hydrosystem operations/fish and wildlife project funding agreement between the Bonneville Power Administration and five Columbia River tribes was described Wednesday as a step toward a broader agreement on how funding resources should be directed across the basin.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council added its voice to the chorus of U.S. interests asking that the British Columbia government require a more exhaustive environmental review of potential consequences before allowing a coal mining project to commence in the Flathead River’s Canadian headwaters.
A solicitation for “innovative” fish and wildlife project proposals was approved this week, but its fleshing out awaits a Bonneville Power Administration determination on what it is willing to fund and how much it is able to spend.
A signed agreement filed Tuesday in federal court promises the support of five Columbia River tribes for a specific set of 2007 federal dam operations designed to improve salmon and steelhead survival in exchange for the promise of funding for more than $5 million worth of fish and wildlife projects.
A decision to operate Libby Dam under “strict VARQ” flood control operations this year will likely mean less water will be available than in recent years from the dam’s reservoir to augment flows in the lower Columbia River this summer for migrating salmon, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., will headline one of two meetings Jan. 15 in Kalispell on coal-mine development in British Columbia’s Flathead drainage.
In a significant development, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council is taking up the issue at its meeting this month.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intends to follow recommendations from Montana and the Northwest Power and Conservation Council in operating Libby Dam this year, one of Montana’s members on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council said Wednesday.
New Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter announced one appointment on Wednesday to a key natural resources position in his administration, and another to an Idaho seat on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Bonneville Power Administration and five Columbia Basin tribes are working this week to seal an agreement that outlines Columbia/Snake river hydropower/fish passage operations for the 2007 juvenile salmon migration season, and provides funding for tribal fish restoration projects.
A new piece has been thrown into the puzzle that is Snake River fall chinook salmon life history.
New research shows that a certain share of juvenile fish not only scatter throughout the Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem to prepare for ocean life, but also settle in freshwater below Bonneville Dam for the winter.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council last week approved a $657,800 within-year budget request to shore up a Kootenai white sturgeon hatchery water supply system that was overtaxed this year by high flows.
A Washington climate change impacts analysis will be expanded to include the entire Columbia River basin with the help of a grant approved last week by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Wednesday bid its economic advisers to review a report issued recently by a coalition of conservation and fishing groups that claims the removal of four federal dams on the lower Snake River would provide net biological and economic benefits for the region.
A Northwest Power and Conservation Council initiative to better define appropriate costs for wildlife operation and maintenance projects gained momentum this week with discussions kindled on a variety of fronts.
A long-running terminal fishing program in the Columbia River estuary costs more than the benefit it generates but does perform better economically than other basin harvest-producing enterprises, according to a recently completed draft report.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Wednesday put the cap on its 2007-2009 recommendation process with a final decision document that details how and why it made its decisions on specific fish and wildlife project funding and programmatic issues.
Now up and running is a new peer-reviewed process for technical analysis regarding impacts of Federal Columbia River Power System operations upon salmon, steelhead and resident fish.
The so-called Comparative Survival Study this week earned partial funding for fiscal year 2007, enough to prepare a “retrospective” report describing the 10-year-old project’s methods and results and to outfit some 240,000 juvenile salmon with PIT tags so their survival can be tracked.
A $2.5 million funding package has been recommended for five entities’ “coordination” activities over the next year while they and the Northwest Power and Conservation Council work to better define what that term means.
Construction of the latest “removable spillway weir” to be added to the Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem fish passage toolbox is behind schedule by an estimated 32 days, threatening its installation in time for the 2007 spring juvenile outmigration.
The final data checking and fine-tuning is under way in what is said to be the most comprehensive attempt yet to “track the status of fish and wildlife populations throughout the Columbia River Basin” and provide access to that information for managers and others.
A congressionally driven process is building momentum toward its goal of delicately balancing Columbia River Basin hatchery production so it provides desired harvest and, at the same time, protects threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead.
The Pacific Northwest has an ample supply of electricity for the coming winter months, according to an analysis by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council next week will ponder a wealth of newly-arrived advice when decides how it wants to allocate available fish and wildlife funding for the next three years across the Columbia River Basin.
While stressing that recently previewed analysis and determinations are preliminary, the Bonneville Power Administration has said that ultimately it intends to judge whether Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program projects present “in lieu” problems and seek corrective action.
A $10.7 million deal to protect 1,761 acres of Plum Creek Timber Co. land in Montana’s Swan Valley has been completed.
Federal, state and tribal officials last Friday (Sept. 22) celebrated the completion of the Yakima Basin Phase II fish screen project, which over the past 14 years has involved modifying or rebuilding and maintaining 31 diversions that help keep fish from dying in irrigation canals and ditches.
Only three adult sockeye survived the 900-mile trip up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers this year, matching the low since 1999, when hatchery-origin fish used to keep the run alive first began returning.
Draft fish and wildlife project funding recommendations approved this week by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council would largely balance provincial and mainstem on-the-ground/multi-province budgets at allocation targets for fiscal years 2007-2009, and come in at more than $10 million under budget in the basinwide category.
A three-judge appellate panel on Tuesday focused its questions on whether or not the Bonneville Power Administration used the proper rationale in deciding to end funding for the Fish Passage Center, and whether that decision aligned with language in the Northwest Power Act.
Even as the Northwest Power and Conservation Council enters its budget-setting stretch run, it is hearing that the nation’s largest fish and wildlife mitigation effort is not large enough.
A panel representing a broad spectrum of interested parties will help Washington State launch a new water management program for the Columbia River aimed at balancing economic needs with the needs of fish and healthy watersheds.
The Bonneville Power Administration will have the tools to raise power rates in dire times, if need be, to meet Endangered Species Act costs stemming from ongoing litigation in federal court, according to a report filed earlier this month.
About 35 percent — an estimated $29 million — of the fiscal year 2007 Columbia River Fish Mitigation program budget will be focused on projects to provide surface bypass for juvenile salmon and steelhead at hydro projects on the Columbia and Snake rivers, according to priorities set by the System Configuration Team.
A number of funding decisions remain in limbo as the Northwest Power and Conservation Council enters the stretch run in deciding which of $1 billion in funding requests will fit into a fish and wildlife program budget that holds about half that amount for fiscal years 2007-2009.
Changed troll fishery management intended to benefit Canadian fish appear to have the pleasant side effect of reducing the toll on at least one protected Columbia River basin salmon stock, according to a report prepared for the Pacific Salmon Commission.
A Bonneville Power Administration interpretation of the Northwest Power Act would “render meaningless the detailed congressionally mandated processes” for deciding which Columbia River basin fish and wildlife projects are funded, according to briefs filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
A July 21 letter from the Bonneville Power Administration’s CEO Steve Wright reiterates the agency’s intent to defer funding for new Nez Perce tribal hatchery facilities while the project’s full biological benefits are weighed in an ongoing court-ordered process.
A Nez Perce proposal to minimize summer spill at Dworshak Dam and use resulting proceeds to police Columbia River fisheries got a mixed review during a Thursday meeting of the Implementation Team.
Federal attorneys have attempted to trivialize the government’s responsibility under the 1980 Northwest Power Act to fund Columbia River basin fish and wildlife restoration activities, according to a legal brief filed Monday for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and federal agencies have opened a new chapter in efforts to conserve and recover Kootenai River white sturgeon.
The Independent Scientific Advisory Board likes the concept, but says a proposal to make all Columbia River basin fish and wildlife data available through one internet source should start first as a demonstration/pilot project.
A rapid, late spring snowmelt that caused harm to northwest Montana resident fish could, in a round-about way, also bring those same trout long-sought benefits.
Implementing the purposes of the Northwest Power Act is a balancing act that requires discretion, and the Bonneville Power Administration’s CEO used it well last winter in deciding not to issue a new contract to fund the Fish Passage Center, according to a federal brief filed in federal court.
Survival of juvenile Snake River spring chinook salmon from Lower Granite Dam to Bonneville Dam was higher in 2006 — 58 percent — than it has been since federal research began in 1993, according to researchers.
Federal officials — reluctant July 6 to implement a hydrosystem operational strategy offered by Montana — will next week consider an alternative that would draw down Libby and Hungry Horse faster than the state would like but not as fast as is now planned.
The state of Montana and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho have joined a lawsuit contesting Libby Dam operations on different sides but with similar goals.
Montana intervened as plaintiffs in a lawsuit initiated by the Center for Biological Diversity, which has staunchly advocated higher flows in the Kootenai River for the benefit of white sturgeon, an endangered species. The Kootenai Tribes, meanwhile, joined in support of a recent biological opinion that the lawsuit challenges.
With advice from a variety of sources now in hand, Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff will begin piecing together a recommendation for how available fish and wildlife monies will be spent in fiscal years 2007-2009.
Montana officials will have to wait another week to find out if their long-sought summer outflow plan from Libby and Hungry Horse dams will be accepted by regional interests and implemented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation.
The Bonneville Power Administration ignored provisions of the Northwest Power Act and followed instead non-binding congressional report language last year when it chose to stop funding Fish Passage Center operations, allege briefs filed June 16 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week endorsed expansion of the hatchery captive broodstock program that is the sole barrier between Snake River sockeye salmon and extinction.
A Snake River sockeye salmon captive broodstock hatchery program that continues the genetic line of “Lonesome Larry” earned a groundswell of support this week after receiving a critical scientific review.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer is criticizing an ongoing spill over Libby Dam, suggesting it could have been avoided if not for pressure to store water for Columbia River salmon.
The near edge of that “black box” called the Pacific Ocean has been pried open by NOAA Fisheries scientists who say they can gauge how well juvenile salmon and steelhead survive during that crucial time when they move from Columbia River freshwater to saltwater.
A hoped-for June start to construction on a $16.4 million Northeast Oregon Hatchery complex has been deferred as the project’s funding source, the Bonneville Power Administration, awaits assurances that it will bring desired Endangered Species Act “credit.”
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council is seeking public comments on its fifth annual report to the Northwest governors on Bonneville Power Administration expenditures to implement the Council’s program to protect and rebuild fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin.
New “PIT tag” data analysis developed by NOAA Fisheries should better allow the agency to calculate survival rates of adult salmon and steelhead as they attempt their spawning journey up through the Columbia and Snake rivers’ system of dams and reservoirs.
The Independent Scientific Review Panel last Friday (June 2) issued its preliminary review of projects proposed for inclusion in the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia River basin fish and wildlife program during the 2007-2009 funding cycle.
The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit challenging the government’s recently issued biological opinion for operations at Libby Dam in northwestern Montana.
Montana this week pressed regional hydro and fish managers for a more gradual drawdown of Montana reservoirs during this year’s salmon migration season.
Fish and wildlife project contracts expiring this fall will be judged on a case-by-case basis and either renewed or brought to “smart closure” ahead of other projects submitted for funding during the fiscal 2007-2009 period, according to a staff plan endorsed by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee Tuesday.
An initial review of mainstem/systemwide fish and wildlife proposals puts 28 projects in a “Core Program” category and another 32 in “High Priority,” marking another step in selecting projects for Bonneville Power Administration funding during fiscal years 2007-2009.
A $16.4 million Nez Perce hatchery construction project was given a conditional green light by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council Tuesday, though state water permitting and Endangered Species Act hurdles remain before the first shovel of dirt is turned.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week recommended more that $6 million in “within-year” fish and wildlife project funding adjustments with the vast majority coming its capital expense account.
A preliminary, and admittedly “coarse,” look at proposed cost-sharing with the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s fish and wildlife program has turned up some impressive numbers, potentially adding one-third to the total amount spent.
Fish and wildlife project contracts expiring this fall will be judged on a case-by-case basis and either renewed or brought to “smart closure” ahead of other projects submitted for funding during the fiscal 2007-2009 period, according to a staff plan endorsed by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee Tuesday.
Anglers targeting native northern pikeminnow this spring and summer on the mainstem Columbia and Snake rivers once again can reap numerous rewards — satisfying their fishing urge, earning money and helping boost salmon recovery.
One of Montana’s representatives on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council says the state will pursue a lawsuit if the federal government attempts to use “spill” at Libby Dam to help the endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has released for comment its plan for developing a basinwide system for evaluating the success of its fish and wildlife mitigation and restoration projects.
The Spokane Tribe and others affected by the repeated rising and falling of north-central Washington’s Lake Roosevelt have long chaffed at perceived inequities in how the huge reservoir is managed.
A favorable vote next month by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council would trigger a summertime start to construction on the Northeast Oregon Hatchery, part of a vision first adopted into the Council’s Fish and Wildlife program nearly 20 years ago.
An Army Corps of Engineers study of the Columbia River basin flood control system should be tightly focused on that topic, and not on providing additional flows for fish, and should not be paid for with dollars from electricity ratepayers, according to a letter penned this week by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Thursday pitched new and alternative energy production and urged the Northwest Power and Conservation Council to recognize concerns about endangered species in the upper Columbia River Basin.
The Bonneville Power Administration announced this week that it has extended its existing funding agreement for the Fish Passage Center through Nov. 30 in order to assure compliance with a recent court order.
A Canadian-based effort to track salmon and other sea-going creatures up the North Pacific coast’s continental shelf will fully flower this spring and summer with the goal of detailing fish movements and survival that have to this point mostly mystified fish managers.
The Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife departments beginning April 1 will expand on federal efforts to keep sea lions and other pinnipeds ill at ease in the waters below Bonneville Dam.
A developing tool to assess the effects of Columbia/Snake river dams and dam operations on migrating salmon and steelhead should buoy future decision-making processes if remaining technological gaps are filled, according to a March 15 Independent Scientific Advisory Board Review.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at the 11th hour issued a three-paragraph order that would appear to keep the Portland-based Fish Passage Center in operation for at least the near term.
A request for a temporary restraining order that would keep the Fish Passage Center operating was turned aside this morning (March 17) by a Portland federal district court judge who told litigants that he lacked the jurisdiction, and the conviction, to respond favorably.
Court-ordered spill for fish passage at eight federal Columbia/Snake river hydro projects will mean about $60 million less in revenues, but will not affect the Bonneville Power Administration’s ability to answer Northwest power demand, according to analysis conducted by Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff.
Northwest Power and Conservation Council members and others in the region this week questioned the advisability of moving forward with a $30 million study to evaluate how Columbia River basin flood control operations might be changed to provide more water in-river for migrating salmon and steelhead.
An independent scientific review agrees with criticisms on numerous technical points but says the Fish Passage Center’s ongoing Comparative Survival Study is generally heading in the right direction and doing well with the tools at hand.
The Bonneville Power Administration struck the proper balance in following a congressional directive to no longer fund the Fish Passage Center while staying within Northwest Power Act guidelines, according to a March 3 federal filing in U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Some 7.5 million juvenile “tule” fall chinook salmon released from Spring Creek National Fish Hatchery Thursday (March 2) will have intricate juvenile bypass systems, the turbines and the relatively new “corner collector” for passage routes as they head downriver through Bonneville Dam.
Representatives of federal agencies and Northwest states say they need more time to digest a Corps of Engineers’ “reconnaissance” report that suggests it may be possible to adjust Columbia River basin flood control operations to bring benefits to protected salmon and steelhead.
Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff last week unveiled a first iteration of a document that it will use to resolve problems or “issues” that arise in the process to decide who receives fish and wildlife project funding from a budget that could total as much as $537 million for fiscal years 2007-2009.
Even though the Klickitat Subbasin Anadromous Fishery master plan’s hatchery scheme is still a work in progress, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee has recommended that $474,000 be spent this fiscal year for an environmental review of related passage improvement proposals.
A reduction in “load following” at federal Columbia/Snake river hydroelectric projects could have serious implications that need to be understood before a study of their effects on fish is launched, Bonneville Power Administration officials said this week.
A review and analysis of existing research says that salmon-related dam operations reduce average Columbia River basin hydroelectric generation by 9 percent annually and irrigation withdrawals from the Columbia and Snake rivers cut power production by 5 percent.
Conservation and fishing groups last week asked the federal Ninth Circuit of Appeals to put a hold on plans dismantle the Fish Passage Center and transfer many of its present tasks to two other entities.
Nearly $4.2 million in within-year fish and wildlife project funding budget expansions got the endorsement Wednesday of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The 15 largest utilities in the Northwest collectively reduced demand for electricity by 108 average megawatts in 2005, enough power for about 63,000 homes, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council reported this week.
President Bush’s proposed fiscal year 2007 budget released to Congress this week calls for the Bonneville Power Administration to use any surplus power sales (“net secondary”) revenues it earns above its historical high level of $500 million in a year to make early payments on its federal bond debt to the U.S. Treasury.
The Bonneville Power Administration could absorb the additional cost of diverting a portion of its annual revenue to the federal Treasury in 2007, but President Bush’s proposal would force Bonneville to raise its electricity rates about 7 percent in 2008.
President Bush’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2007 includes $578 million for “Columbia River Federal Basinwide Salmon Funding” – an increase of $19 million over FY 2006’s enacted budget of $559 million.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council entered the New Year with a revised power plan in place, but with much work to do balancing power requirements with actions outlined in subbasin plans adopted recently as part of its Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program.
More than a million fertilized white sturgeon eggs were released into the Kootenai River’s braided, canyon reaches upstream of Bonners Ferry, Idaho this past summer as a strategy to revive flagging wild populations.
Environmental and sport-fishing industry groups on Monday petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to keep intact the Fish Passage Center, a technical entity charged with keeping fish managers informed about salmon and other fishes’ success at traversing the federal Columbia River hydrosystem.
Bonneville Power Administration officials announced Thursday that they believe they can achieve a “seamless continuity of activities” by transferring the duties of Fish Passage Center to two other entities — the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and Battelle Northwest — beginning March 21.
An independent scientific panel’s review of fish data collected during last year’s court ordered summer spill operations at Columbia/Snake River hydro projects points out “potential” benefits and drawbacks of the practice.
Washington member Tom Karier was elected Wednesday to chair the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a four-state energy planning and fish and wildlife mitigation agency.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has in hand more than $1 billion worth of fish and wildlife project funding requests for fiscal years 2007-2009 — double the amount it will likely have to spend during the period.
A U.S./Canada scientific panel says there is no ready, or inexpensive, cure for problems that have beset the north Pacific’s coded-wire tag program for monitoring ocean fishing’s impacts on individual stocks of fish.
The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and federal agencies start a new chapter in efforts to conserve and recover Kootenai River white sturgeon.
The process for revising the federal government’s Columbia River hydrosystem salmon protection plan are described in a set of documents filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Portland.
Bonneville Power Administration officials say the agency has received proposals from five entities that aspire to take over the primary functions of the Fish Passage Center, which will be phased out by the end of March.
Revived salmon and steelhead runs have the potential to provide a economic boost for Northwest communities, but a $544 million annual estimate proclaimed early this year overstates that potential, according to a newly completed report from the Independent Economic Advisory Board.
Fish Passage Center supporters and detractors marched to the microphone Wednesday, providing emotional testimony about the technical entity’s past and offering views about how the future should look without it.
Attorneys for fishing and conservation groups argued this week that their plan for boosting Columbia River hydrosystem spill and flow regimes next year has a sounder biological base than a federal strategy they predict would further harm salmon and steelhead now listed under the Endangered Species Act.
A truckload of documents filed with the U.S. District Court last week seek to discredit a previously submitted Columbia River hydrosystem operations plan for the spring and summer of 2006, and substitute plans that federal agencies and others say will provide more benefits for salmon and cost less to implement.
The Bonneville Power Administration will issue a request for proposals as early as next week for entities, or an entity, to take over the primary functions of Fish Passage Center.
Requested increases in the water spilled at Columbia and Snake river hydro projects next spring and summer and changes in river flows to aid juvenile salmon and steelhead migration in 2006 could cost the region a range from $125 million to $560 million, according to preliminary analysis of impacts on power generation completed by Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff.
Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig says he claimed a victory for science and thriftiness Monday when the 2006 Energy and Water appropriations bill cleared Congress containing language he had inserted to cut funding for the Fish Passage Center.
Montana stands to lose plenty in terms of water and impacts on fisheries and recreation if a federal judge goes along with the latest requests in a lawsuit over salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin, state officials say.
The Independent Scientific Advisory Board made official this week its intent to review data regarding the biological effectiveness of this year’s spill operations at Columbia River basin dams to provide downstream passage for salmon and steelhead juvenile migrants.
One angler earned $39,620 this year fishing for northern pikeminnows with a hook and line. His closest rival reeled in $38,084 during the five-month season.
The Independent Scientific Advisory Board has agreed to review available data regarding the biological effectiveness of the controversial, court-ordered 2005 federal hydrosystem summer spill program.
A joint 11-page report released last week by two independent science panels chides Columbia Basin fishery experts and policy makers for failing thus far to develop a plan for evaluating critical uncertainties — including possible negative effects — associated with supplementing natural spawning salmon and steelhead populations with hatchery fish.
A trio of Northwest congressmen exploring options to improve Columbia River adult salmon survival returned again and again to the topic of harvest during discussions with constituents this week in Vancouver, Wash.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council decided this week to move ahead with a fish and wildlife project selection process that will involve a review of proposals from across the Columbia River basin and the development of funding recommendations before the start of fiscal year 2007 next Oct. 1.
Independent scientists will judge the “net effect” of court-ordered spill this past summer at federal Columbia and Snake river dams if they agree to a request launched this week by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Fish Passage Center has released the annual 2005 “final draft” of the “Comparative Survival Study” that looks at smolt-to-adult return (SAR) data from electronically marked (PIT-tagged) Columbia River spring/summer chinook and summer steelhead during the years 1994 to 2003.
The Bonneville Power Administration says that 240,955 northern pikeminnow had been caught this season under the agency’s predator control program, ranking 2005 as one of the most successful years on record.
Fish and wildlife project sponsors looking to purchase wildlife, and in some cases resident fish, habitat may have a “new tool” available for them if the Bonneville Power Administration implements a proposed shift in its capitalization policy.
The future of Columbia/Snake river salmon restoration efforts drew comments ranging from gentle encouragement to threats Wednesday during closing exchanges at a Boise conference.
Idaho’s governor this week said regional interests needed to put the spurs to the federal government to produce a realistic salmon recovery plan and rein in commercial fishing practices that he says are blunting recovery efforts.
The financially embattled Fish Passage Center became the focal point of a discussion this week about why different scientists can analyze the same information and, as is often the case in Columbia River basin fish and wildlife arguments, come up with different conclusions.
The chairs of four Columbia River basin tribes with treaty-reserved fishing rights this week sent a letter supporting continued operation of the Fish Passage Center to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
The Independent Scientific Review Panel’s “Retrospective Report: 1997-2005” says that the scientific rigor of Columbia River basin fish and wildlife projects is much improved as the result of a years-long give-and-take between them, project sponsors, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and others in the region.
After reaching agreement on a variety of vexing issues, a Northwest Power and Conservation Council committee this week moved forward a proposed process for reviewing and selecting Columbia Basin fish and wildlife projects for funding.
Long-running litigation has focused on assuring that federal Columbia River hydrosystem operations do not jeopardize salmon and steelhead stocks over the long haul.
But legal battles within that legal battle have erupted regarding near-term operations such as spill and flow augmentation that are intended to benefit salmon stocks that are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act and can affect other fish stocks as well.
The Fish Passage Center this week released a “preliminary analysis” concluding that survival levels of juvenile salmon migrating “in-river” through the lower Snake River this summer were “the highest recorded in recent years.”
A draft “Snake and Columbia River Surface Passage Strategy” completed this summer by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cites early successes of the fish passage technology and calls for a reasoned process to decide how, when and where installation will unfold at other hydro facilities in the system.
The Pacific Northwest appears to have a surplus of electricity for the coming fall and winter, according to an analysis by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
A decision on when to trigger its next project selection process was delayed for at least month while the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee continues to ponder such issues as the overall allocation of funds across the region and its research, monitoring and evaluation desires.
Parties to the lawsuit have been given until Sept. 27 to describe their vision for remedying a federal Columbia River salmon protection plan left in question this spring by U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say they will provide the construction costs if other entities pay ongoing operations and maintenance and monitoring expenses that are necessary to eliminate costly March spill that is intended to flush hatchery-produced tule fall chinook salmon through Bonneville Dam.
Montana has been granted intervenor status in a lawsuit over salmon recovery efforts in the Columbia River Basin.
Dozens of innovative water transactions are set to play out in the Columbia Basin as the driest time of the year descends on the region’s tributaries. Imperiled salmon must navigate these often isolated streams where water shortages escape the notice of population centers.
Veteran Columbia River basin fish biologist Bruce Suzumoto will assume the daunting task of balancing hydrosystem and power needs with those of imperiled fish when he takes over Oct. 17 as assistant regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries’ Hydropower Division.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Region Fisheries Program has begun a three-year review of the Columbia River Basin salmon hatcheries it owns or operates with the aim of producing recommendations about how they might best be run to achieve Endangered Species Act recovery goals while providing sustainable fisheries.
A series of “scoping” meetings are planned later this month to discuss the potential hatchery project that the Bonneville Power Administration has proposed for funding on the Columbia River in central Washington.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Wednesday recommended $157.2 million in Columbia River Fish and Wildlife Program project spending during fiscal year 2006.
While the Pacific Northwest currently enjoys an electricity surplus big enough to power a city the size of Seattle, hot weather this summer could create shortages for certain hours that force wholesale power prices to high levels, according to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
A stalemated biological argument was broken Thursday when federal officials decided to follow prescriptions in NOAA Fisheries’ 2004 Federal Columbia River Power System biological opinion rather than slow the drawdown of reservoirs behind Libby and Hungry Horse dams as the state of Montana has requested.
Montana again is pursuing summer operations at Libby and Hungry Horse dams to benefit resident fish, but a conflicting proposal is aimed at delivering all “flow augmentation” water for migrating salmon in the lower Columbia Basin by the end of August.
Knowledge about the effects of harvests on naturally spawning Columbia River salmon and steelhead populations has advanced notably but the region still lacks the data and tools necessary to determine whether recovery efforts are hindered by carefully managed fisheries.
Idaho Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo says a key fish restoration effort in the upper Columbia Basin is an example of how collaboration can serve as an alternative to listings and litigation under the Endangered Species act.
A staff-generated proposal for Fiscal Year 2006 fish and wildlife project funding, and for the treatment of related issues, won favor neither in committee nor before the full Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Recent, relatively bountiful run sizes have helped fuel the West Coast economy to the tune of about $142 million in personal income, according to a study conducted by a panel of eight independent economists at the request of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Upper Columbia United Tribes and the Bonneville Power Administration announced this week that they have signed a memorandum of understanding intended to “increase the proportion of mitigated habitat in the upper Columbia River eco-region through improved funding and contracting measures and as appropriate other methods.”
The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2006, approved by the full Senate Appropriations Committee late last week, was accompanied with some surprise language for those involved in Columbia Basin salmon recovery.
A preliminary look at Fiscal Year 2006 funding needs that shifts perceived “capital” projects into the Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife expense budget would top out at about $170 million, according to an assessment coordinated by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council last week closed the loop on what has been a nearly three-year, $15.2 million process with the adoption of Oregon’s John Day Basin fish and wildlife management plan.
The first non-tribal commercial fisheries in 40 years that specifically target Upper Columbia summer chinook salmon were approved this week by the Columbia River Compact.
Fish hatcheries in the Columbia River Basin need clearly defined goals, better integration with wild fish production and better coordination among the numerous fish-production programs, according to a report approved by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week for transmission to Congress.
Long-familiar personalities moved to the background this week with the appointment of six new members to the Independent Scientific Review Panel — the largest turnover in the nine-year history of the group that reviews fish and wildlife projects as well as offering advice on other issues to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Montanan Brian Lipscomb has accepted the position of executive director of the Portland-based Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority, pledging to continue the good work of the organization that aims to build consensus among the region’s federal, state and tribal fish and wildlife managers.
Utility interests and fish advocates used Monday’s final Power Function Review meeting to continue to pull the Bonneville Administration either way on the fish and wildlife spending scale.
Independent scientists who advise salmon recovery efforts this week asked the Northwest Power and Conservation Council to support a proposed study of the impact of power “load following” on the behavior and survival of migrating juvenile fall chinook salmon.
The Bonneville Power Administration’s suggested fiscal year 2007-2009 funding level for the Columbia River fish and wildlife program drew a mixed reaction during Northwest Power and Conservation Council discussions this week.
Fisheries experts continue to be confounded about the dismal Columbia/Snake upriver spring chinook salmon return that was predicted to be the fourth largest since 1979 with a total of more than a quarter million adult fish but will likely be about one-third that number.
Three “water optimization and/or passage” projects in central Washington that aim to improve conditions for federally protected salmon and steelhead won the approval Tuesday of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Tuesday adopted as amendments to its fish and wildlife program subbasin plans for the Grande Ronde River watershed and for three sections of the Upper Snake River in Idaho.
A draft “closeout” letter and report released this week by the Bonneville Power Administration identifies potential net cost savings of up to $80 million per year for the fiscal year 2007-2009 rate period.
Cost estimates that fish and wildlife managers suggested be plugged into the Bonneville Power Administration’s power rate calculations for fiscal years 2007-2009 are “unrealistically broad in scope” in how they portray the federal power system’s obligation and what its ratepayers should, or could, bear, according to the agency.
A Bush Administration proposal to count new third-party debt backed by the Bonneville Power Administration within Bonneville’s U.S. Treasury borrowing limit could force the power marketing agency to reduce its future investments in energy conservation, renewable energy, and fish production and habitat in order to finance investments in its regionwide high-voltage transmission system, according to an analysis by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Officials from the agencies that operate the federal Columbia River hydrosystem and sell its power met with the Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week to elaborate on earlier announcements about special actions to be taken this year in response to anticipated low water conditions.
The gap is wide economically, perhaps $100 million or more, between planned summer federal Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem operations for salmon and steelhead in this anticipated “low flow” year and alternative operations begin sought in federal court.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council sent three “Updated Proposed Action” projects ahead, but withheld its funding recommendation for five other projects pending further refinement called for by the Independent Scientific Review Panel.
With less than two months remaining before they intend to issue a “closeout” letter detailing expected costs for the 2007-2009 rate period, Bonneville Power Administration officials continued this week to take input on fish and wildlife expenditures that, at least for now, are estimated at $691.6 million per year.
The Nez Perce Tribal Executive Council Tuesday (March 29) voted to accept the terms of the proposed settlement of the Tribe’s water right claims included in the Snake River Basin Adjudication.
The goal of resurrecting tribal spring and summer/fall chinook salmon fisheries, and creating recreational opportunities, in Washington’s Okanogan subbasin and other waters of the Colville Reservation moved into the realm of possibility Tuesday.
A Bush Administration proposal that would have required power marketing administrations (PMAs), including the Bonneville Power Administration, to increase rates to customers was rejected by the Senate Budget Committee late last week, largely through the efforts of senators from the Pacific Northwest.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week adopted four subbasin management plans despite a failure to win the endorsement of local county governments that have expressed concern about certain elements of the fish and wildlife management strategies and the overall planning process.
Conditional approval was given Tuesday for the expenditure of up to $268,000 for two “off-site” habitat projects that Bonneville Power Administration officials say will further federal agencies’ goal of countering Columbia/Snake hydrosystem impacts on salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.
If the Bonneville Power Administration is forced to sell electricity at average wholesale market rates, as the Bush Administration proposed last month, Bonneville’s rates would jump up 65 percent and cost the region’s ratepayers about $1.3 billion, according to an economic analysis completed last week by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff.
Tribal representatives argued for a loosening of fish and wildlife funding purse strings during Tuesday’s Northwest Power and Conservation Council meeting while spokesmen for Northwest utility interests insisted that such costs should be held at current levels or pared back during the fiscal year 2007-2009 period.
The specter of 2001’s spring/summer water shortage and West Coast power crisis has not emerged, but bleak Columbia River Basin water runoff forecasts could well push up the cost of power and federal hydrosystem operations intended to aid salmon and steelhead.
Despite continuing legal threats hovering in the background, federal “action” agencies have begun to push for rapid implementation of actions they say will raise salmon survival through the Columbia River hydrosystem, and beyond, and foreclose the possibility that certain of fish stocks will become extinct.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council will analyze the potential impacts in the region of Bush Administration proposals that would raise electricity rates charged by the Bonneville Power Administration and also limit the agency’s capital borrowing authority.
Twenty-five locally developed subbasin management plans were adopted Thursday by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council as amendments to its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.
The 53-member Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians this week put their stamp of approval on a budget proposal prepared by Columbia River basin fish and wildlife managers that calls for a steady ramping up of spending over the next four years.
Fully implementing newly created subbasin goals and objectives over a 10-year span would require more than a doubling of the amount of money now being spent through the Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife plan, according to estimates compiled by a resource managers work group.
With new provincial review process mechanics still in development and recommendations from the old process mostly expired, the fiscal year 2006 Columbia River Fish and Wildlife Program will largely be shaped around existing projects that staff judge worthy of continuing based on performance and on those projects’ conformance with the goals of newly developed subbasin plans.
The Bonneville Power Administration this week triggered the process that will define, with the public’s help, what its wholesale power rates need to be to cover its costs for the period that begins with fiscal year 2007.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Thursday elected Oregon member Melinda Eden to serve as chairman during the coming year.
Swelling numbers of non-native American shad in the Columbia/Snake river mainstem are likely having an impact on salmon, other fish species and the ecosystem generally, but little is known about the magnitude, or even the direction, of that change, according to a U.S. Geological Survey researcher.
A Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority member work group has set about the task of “sizing” the ratepayer-funded fish and wildlife program so that it can offer its views on funding needs for the years beyond fiscal 2006.
Their shortcomings now addressed, a set of 23 subbasin management plans were approved this week as draft amendments to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife program and offered for public comment through Jan. 31.
Northwest Power and Conservation Council and Bonneville Power Administration staff and others are looking at past and potential demands in an attempt to determine Columbia River Fish and Wildlife program funding needs in the future.
Montana Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer on Wednesday announced the appointment of two Flathead basin residents as the state’s next representatives on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week reached a long-sought goal by adopting as amendments to its Columbia River Fish and Wildlife program 23 individual subbasin management plans that will ultimately help the panel identify spending priorities.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council today approved the latest version of its Northwest Power Plan, the fifth plan since the Council was created in 1980.
The new plan, developed in the wake of the West Coast energy crisis of 2000/2001, is designed to help the region’s utilities and electricity consumers take steps in the future to avoid the shortages and high prices that characterized the energy crisis.
Washington Gov. Gary Locke, together with the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board (LCFRB) and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, this week presented to the federal government the first locally developed regional salmon recovery plan for Washington state during an event in Vancouver.
Puzzlement was expressed, once again, in public discussions this week regarding the type of project that qualifies as a capital expenditure, and what does not, under Bonneville Power Administration guidelines for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s fish and wildlife program.
Federal officials on Tuesday announced a package of Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem operations and off-site fish mitigation actions that they feel will both ward off the extinction of protected salmon and steelhead and parry potential legal thrusts like those that forced a December 2000 strategy to be rewritten.
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski this week announced that he will appoint State Sen. Joan Dukes, D-Astoria, to serve on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Upon Senate confirmation, Dukes will fill the seat on the Council currently held by Gene Derfler, whose term expires January 15, 2005.
A room full of scientists called together to consider the potential effects on salmon of reduced Columbia River summertime flow augmentation came away with new information, and more questions than answers.
Attempts to keep the Columbia River Fish and Wildlife Program within a $139 million annual average for the 2003-2006 period are, for now, right on track, according to Bonneville Power Administration officials.
Public hearing testimony across the Columbia River Basin, written comments received to-date and input received in other discussions across the region have largely focused on a broad set of subbasin planning programmatic issues rather than on the specifics of the 29 management plans themselves, according to Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff.
The ongoing “tension” that exists over Fish Passage Center biological analyses simmered in the background this week as Northwest Power and Conservation Council members continued their dissection of the center’s job functions and budget.
A group of state, federal and tribal officials that convened occasionally to troubleshoot during the development of 59 Columbia River basin “subbasin plans” was called together again last to offer advice on how and when the fish and wildlife goals of those plans should be implemented.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council and staff continue on their previously announced schedule toward adoption of newly developed subbasin plans while at the same time plumbing regional stakeholders’ for their views on side issues that will affect how those fish and wildlife management strategies will be implemented.
Greg Delwiche, a 20-year veteran of Columbia River energy and natural resource management, is the new vice president of Environment, Fish and Wildlife of the Bonneville Power Administration, the agency announced this week.
Two first-draft views on how Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program funding should be allocated in the years beyond fiscal 2006 have emerged — one coming from the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and the other from the Bonneville Power Administration.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council and NOAA Fisheries announced this week that they are sponsoring a symposium to examine how changes in reservoir operations at Libby and Hungry Horse dams in Montana may affect water conditions and fish survival in the mainstem Columbia River below Chief Joseph Dam.
A midsummer request for a budget increase has prompted Northwest Power and Conservation Council members to launch a hunt for efficiencies in the Fish Passage Center’s operations that they hope will help hold the line on an already stretched Fish and Wildlife Program budget.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Wednesday voted to release for public review and comment 29 locally produced “subbasin plan” recommendations as draft amendments to the Council’s fish and wildlife program.
Despite a fiscal wariness about large looming one-time and long-term costs, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week moved a $26 million expansion of the Northeast Oregon Hatchery program closer to reality.
A $1.4 million, 165-acre conservation easement purchase announced this week is intended to safeguard valuable Willamette Valley wetland habitat forever.
The Bonneville Power Administration said this week that there was a record catch of northern pikeminnow this year, saving 2.5-3.5 million juvenile salmon.
An economic analysis of the most popular and visible predator control program in the Columbia River Basin found the program to be a cost-effective of salmon recovery tool. In addition, the study provided some ways to improve the program’s effectiveness.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
