Panels made up of regional scientists, researchers and representatives
of economic interests were asked last week to offer their views on the
federal salmon recovery planning “process, science basis and prospects
for success.”
The setting was a Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on
Fisheries, Wildlife and Water hearing in Boise chaired by Idaho
Republican Sen. Mike Crapo.
Columbia Basin salmon managers — unused to dealing with bounty — are
smiling at preseason forecasts of a 2001 upriver spring chinook run that
would be 30 percent greater than the best run recorded since counts
began in 1938.
His tenure could, potentially, be brief, but acting Bonneville Power
Administration administrator Steve Wright sees the need to keep the
momentum rolling on a number of related fronts — among them finding
agreement on a “unified” Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery plan
demanded by his predecessor.
The Bonneville Power Administration witnessed a changing of the guard
today (Nov. 17) with Administrator Judi Johansen leaving to become
executive vice president for government affairs and regulation at
PacifiCorp.
Saying that rivers already have too little water to meet flow targets
for salmon migration, environmental groups petitioned the Washington
Department of Ecology to renew a moratorium on issuing water rights
permits on the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries.
An interim Corps of Engineers dredging plan intended to remove an
estimated 244,269 cubic yards of sediment from the federal navigation
channel at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers this winter
has drawn fire of conservation groups and tribes concerned about water
quality and impacts on ESA-listed and other fish.
A gathering last week celebrated the just-won congressional
authorization that $30 million be spent to restore habitat in the
Columbia River and Tillamook Bay estuaries.
Shepherding the Northwest estuary legislation through as part of the
Water Resources Development Act was U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.
The Northwest Power Planning Council and Bonneville Power Administration
issued a solicitation this week for “high priority” fish and wildlife
project proposals expected to bring immediate, on-the-ground benefits
for listed salmon and steelhead.
A report produced by Idaho agency officials and researchers says that
federal studies used as justification for Lower Snake River flow
augmentation do not hold water.
Flow augmentation, called for in existing and proposed federal
hydrosystem biological opinions, is drawn from Idaho reservoirs created
for irrigation, recreation and other uses …
At the request of fish and wildlife managers and hydropower customers,
the Northwest Power Planning Council has delayed putting into writing
its desires for a fish and wildlife program budget expansion for the
current fiscal year.
A suddenly volatile, and high, energy market has heightened Lower
Columbia River tribes’ fears that basin salmon recovery efforts —
intended at least in part of restore treaty protected resources — will
get short-changed.
A spring 2000 strategy to reduce the number of migrating salmon consumed
by Caspian terns in the Columbia River estuary produced some
eye-catching results, though researchers say a few shifts in political
will, and tern nesting locales, could have made an even greater
salmon-saving impact.
Idaho water users, and the state itself, have challenged proposed
federal salmon recovery plans, saying the strategy has the potential to
bleed the Upper Snake River’s farming economy with no proven benefit to
fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Reaction to Washington’s and Oregon’s denial of water quality permits
for deepening the Columbia River estuary ranged from proposed
celebrations in Astoria to a belief in Portland the process will still
work.
“Please pinch me, I might be dreaming,” said Peter Huhtala, executive
director of the Columbia Deepening Opposition Group in Astoria.
The Senate gave final approval Monday to a $23.6 billion energy and
water spending bill, which includes $5.5 million for the Columbia River
channel deepening project.
The vote was 57-37, short of the 67 needed to override the veto that
White House officials have vowed because the bill would block the Army
Corps of Engineers from implementing a plan to alter the flow of the
Missouri River. The House passed the FY01 energy and water
appropriations measure last week, 301-118.
Columbia Basin states, tribes and others have all pointed out what they
see as major flaws in two draft federal salmon recovery documents
designed to ensure survive of 12 salmon and steelhead species listed
under the federal Endangered Species Act.
In the face of a presidential veto threat, Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash.,
on Thursday agreed to drop his spending bill rider to prohibit studies
of federal dam removal in the Columbia Basin.
The one-year funding restriction was added last week to the final FY01
interior appropriations bill by a vote of 9-5 by the House-Senate
conference committee.
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a final FY01 spending
bill that includes $4.5 million to improve fish habitat and water
quality in the lower Columbia River.
The restoration of 1,550 acres of wetland and riparian habitat at
Shillapoo Lake, Wash., and elsewhere would mitigate for the impacts of
the Army Corps of Engineers’ project to lower the Columbia River
shipping channel by three feet, to 43 feet.
A draft Northwest Power Planning Council program amendment pays too
little attention to looming Endangered Species Act mandates and aims to
delve inappropriately into state and local watershed and land use
arenas, according to comments submitted last week by Washington state
agencies.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Wednesday endorsed a $135
million spending package for fiscal year 2001 that pares back a majority
of the more than 200 ongoing fish and wildlife projects and leaves
uncommitted an estimated $7.3 million to answer a variety of anticipated
new funding needs.
Three days of hearings before two Senate subcommittees this week
provided the first public forum for a direct exchange of views on the
Clinton administration’s salmon recovery plan between top federal
officials and their strongest critics in the Northwest congressional
delegation.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and representatives of other Northwest
governors and the Northwest Power Council this week went to Washington,
D.C., to seek a greater role for states in salmon recovery.
They testified at a Senate hearing, and Kempthorne met with two Cabinet
members about the issue — Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta and
Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. Kempthorne was accompanied by Idaho
Attorney General Al Lance.
State and tribal fisheries scientists told Congress on Thursday that the
National Marine Fisheries Service failed to collaborate with them on its
draft biological opinion for endangered Columbia Basin salmon.
Testifying on the last of three days of Senate hearings on the Clinton
administration’s salmon plan, four officials said collaboration ended in
late 1998 and early 1999 when NMFS abandoned the PATH process.
Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., this week announced he will seek to block
funding for federal agencies to further study the option of breaching
Columbia and Snake river dams to restore salmon.
In a Senate floor speech on Wednesday, Gorton said he would add the
funding restriction to the interior appropriations bill for FY2001.
Gorton chairs the Senate interior appropriations subcommittee.
The federal government’s top regional salmon recovery official has opted
for the private life, leaving his job little more than a month after his
and other federal agencies unveiled their sweeping plan for restoring 12
Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead runs listed under the Endangered
Species Act.
A plan to deepen the Columbia River channel from Portland to the ocean
was put on hold last week when the National Marine Fisheries Service
reversed its “not likely to jeopardize” biological opinion on the
project in order to reopen a consultation process with the Army Corps of
Engineers.
Some hope NMFS’ reversal dooms the $196 million channel dredging
project, while others believe the decision will, at most, delay it.
A draft federal hydrosystem biological opinion released last month
ventures into new territory and leaves, at least at this point, blurry
lines of funding responsibility, according to Northwest Power Planning
Council staff members.
Conservation groups and individuals on Wednesday asked the Northwest
Power Planning Council to take up the pro-dam breaching cause as part of
its amended Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program.
Breaching of four Lower Snake River hydroelectric dams “is the most
viable solution” to give impetus to salmon recovery efforts, Karie
Korporaal said during a public hearing on the Council’s draft amendment
to its fish and wildlife program. “You need to take a stand.”
Federal agencies intend to keep a closer eye on how available Columbia
Basin fish and wildlife funds are spent to ensure decisions are made
with Endangered Species Act recovery goals in mind.
The Bonneville Power Administration for the second week continued its
control of Columbia River operations as it declined to set absolute
river flow targets for upcoming weeks, but did say its intentions were
to operate the river according to projections by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers’ Reservoir Control Center.
Bonneville Power Administration representatives this week said a
presidential order to ensure West Coast power system reliability
requires the agency to take control of operations at federal hydropower
dams.
As a result, a request by fisheries managers to continue higher flows at
McNary Dam to aid fish passage became moot at this week’s Technical
Management Team meeting.
The Northwest Power Planning Council approved for public comment
Thursday a draft regional fish and wildlife program that aims to use
habitat restoration and protection as a first tool for undergirding the
Columbia Basin’s fish and wildlife populations.
A federal judge denied a Department of Justice request to throw out a
lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service for its decision
to approve a plan to deepen the Columbia River shipping channel by three
feet.
Maintaining water quality at federal dams is a requirement of the
federal Clean Water Act, not just an aspirational policy, according to a
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency letter sent this week to the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers.
State and federal officials expected to share in implementation duties
were briefed Thursday on a federal plan intended to ward off extinction,
and foment recovery, of listed salmon and steelhead species through a
combination of goals-oriented hydrosystem improvements and “off site”
mitigation actions.
Funding and the need for coordination of federal and regional salmon
recovery efforts surfaced as key issues for Northwest governors
following cursory reviews of a just-released federal draft hydrosystem
biological opinion and companion conceptual recovery strategy.
A hatchery system “overhaul” and short-term habitat improvement actions
aimed at reaping quick salmon survival benefits are key to a Columbia
Basin salmon recovery strategy outlined in draft form Thursday by
federal officials.
The draft plan, which a top White House officials says will “clearly
cost hundreds of millions” more to implement than is currently being
spent on recovery efforts, does not include dam breaching …
A Thursday morning session with a top Administration official produced
little satisfaction for Columbia Basin tribes who insist federal salmon
recovery plans miss a major mark by forestalling a decision to breach
four hydroelectric projects on the Lower Snake River.
“Today I was obliged to deliver the message to Mr. George Frampton,
representing the White House, that the federal decision not to breach
the lower Snake River dams is a purposeful and conscious decision to …
A new biological opinion for the Columbia River Basin federal hydropower
system calls for increased flows to get more water into rivers, improved
spill and passage for juvenile salmon as they travel through the dams
and more work at the dams to improve fish passage.
It also addresses improved management of flow, spill and operations of
the Columbia River hydro system …
The four Northwest governors revealed their strategy for salmon recovery
this week, which focuses on those areas where they agree and leaves dam
breaching to another forum.
By releasing the plan now, the governors say they hope to begin moving
the region toward recovery of salmon and steelhead listed under the
Endangered Species Act …
A biological opinion that governs hydropower operations to protect bull
trout and white sturgeon listed under the Endangered Species Act was
released this week at the same time federal agencies released a BiOp and
All-H paper for endangered salmon and steelhead.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the draft BiOp on Thursday for a 60-day public review. It applies to bull trout …
Clinton administration officials this week said they will not seek
removal of four lower Snake River federal dams to restore endangered
salmon but will continue to study and plan for the option for the next
10 years in case it proves to be necessary to avoid extinction.
The administration’s alternative to dam breaching will be …
The Clinton administration’s announcement this week that it would not
seek to tear down Snake River dams to aid endangered salmon was
criticized by both environmental advocates and dam supporters.
National and Northwest environmentalists said the administration’s
proposed non-breaching salmon recovery strategy could lead to
extinctions, while Republicans criticized it for leaving the door open
to possible future dam removal.
The extended ruminations over dam breaching’s salmon recovery potential
could be time well spent, according to a panel of economists called on
to critique the economic component of the Corps of Engineer’s draft
Lower Snake River Juvenile Salmon Migration Feasibility Study and
environmental impact statement.
State and tribal negotiators reached agreement Thursday on a sharing of
the upcoming upriver fall chinook harvest, providing a going-away
present of sorts for the U.S. District Court judge who has guided such
discussions for the past 13 years.
Negotiations on a management agreement for this year’s upper Columbia
River fall chinook, steelhead and coho runs had reached a dead-end in
recent weeks …
Federal fish and wildlife officials, and those from Washington state,
agreed in principle this week to put surplus Carson stock spring chinook
into what is “essentially an empty system” in the Okanogan Basin.
But a continued reluctance to employ the stock in a Methow River salmon
restoration effort has angered Columbia River treaty tribes …
The future is now for outmigrating Snake River fall chinook
subyearlings, which are expected to get a cooler ride to Lower Granite
Dam following a decision this past weekend to increase the outpouring of
water from the depths of Dworshak Reservoir in Idaho.
And according to a flow “shaping” plan discussed Wednesday by the
multi-agency Implementation Team …
Those managing the Columbia-Snake river hydrosystem to balance fish
passage, power generation, irrigation and recreational needs find
themselves dealing with a rapidly dwindling resource — water.
A five-fold increase in sockeye salmon run expectations has enabled
non-Indian commercial fishers their first sockeye salmon fishing
opportunity since 1989 below the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam.
Frustrated with a shrinking share of fishing opportunities, the states
of Oregon and Washington filed suit this week in U.S. District Court in
an attempt to prevent the federal government from using Endangered
Species Act provisions as the means of allocating harvest between tribal
and non-tribal fishers.
The planned release of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s
biological opinion regarding federal hydrosystem impacts on listed
Columbia Basin salmon species has been pushed back from late June to
late July as federal agencies continue to wrangle over the final details
of the document.
A self-described “odd coalition” of tribal, utility district,
agricultural and other local interests got together this past week to
demand that federal and state agencies rethink a federal salmon recovery
strategy that results in the “destruction” of surplus returning adult
hatchery fish.
About 75,000 soon-to-be smolted Snake River fall chinook salmon treaded
hatchery water this past week while the agencies and tribes debated the
merits of using the little fish in proposed research aimed at gauging
survival.
The slippery schedule for completing a draft biological opinion
governing operations of Columbia River hydroelectric projects slid
again, this time to June 30. Once coined the 1999 BiOp by the National
Marine Fisheries Service, it is now the 2000 BiOp and was last scheduled
for release in draft form May 22.
Attempts to bring agreement on the division of a limited amount of
Methow Valley water among competing uses has been greatly complicated
with the Endangered Species Act listing of spring chinook salmon in 1999
and steelhead in 1997 as endangered, according to federal, state and
local officials.
White House officials have assured state representatives that two federally-instigated Northwest salmon recovery plans would soon be ready for review. While those studies do not immediately recommend removing four lower Snake River dams, they do set performance standards, which if not met, could trigger removal of the dams within five or ten years.
The preliminary head count of upriver Columbia-Snake spring chinook at Bonneville Dam has provided a double blessing — ample numbers to revive long foregone fishing opportunities and signs that next year’s run will be even better.
Ninety percent of Caspian terns in the lower Columbia River estuary have chosen to nest at East Sand Island near the ocean, rather than at Rice Island where their diets consist of nearly 100 percent juvenile salmon, some of which are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Lawyers for fishing and conservation groups asked a federal judge on
Friday to order the Bureau of Reclamation to stop delivering irrigation
water to unauthorized farmland in the Northwest.
A flood of comments — many of them raising “significant issues” — may
push a Corps of Engineers recommendation on lower Snake River dam
breaching into year 2001.
The most bountiful adult return since 1972 has enabled the first
commercial treaty fishery on Columbia-Snake river spring chinook salmon
in more than two decades as well as a relatively rare sport fishing
season in Idaho.
Caspian terns in the Columbia River estuary will remain largely
unmolested this year as a plan to move North America’s largest colony
was stopped by a federal court this week.
A request from Columbia Basin salmon managers to “spread the risk” to
migrating juvenile salmon by increasing the amount of water voluntarily
spilled at the Lower Snake River’s Little Goose Dam was rejected
Wednesday by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
A planned summer National Marine Fisheries Service pilot study to
evaluate the survival of subyearling fall chinook transported from the
Snake River remains somewhat in limbo because of criticisms from other
agencies and tribes about the study’s design.
Federal agencies’ lack of progress in sorting out conflicting mandates,
and a meddlesome Clinton Administration, have brought into question the
agencies’ ability to make sound salmon recovery decisions, according to
Northwest members of the U.S. House of Representatives Resources
committee.
Breaching four Lower Snake River dams is not the answer for reviving
Columbia Basin salmon populations, a trio of Northwest lawmakers said
Tuesday at a Senate hearing at Bonneville Dam.
Two Northwest Republican senators this week said they suspect the delay
of federal agencies’ recommendation for modifying or removing lower
Snake River dams to improve salmon recovery is aimed at helping Vice
President Al Gore’s presidential campaign.
Harassment of Caspian terns in the lower Columbia River estuary ran into
a roadblock this week when environmental groups filed for an injunction against hazing the birds on Rice Island. The filing resulted in a
temporary restraining order. More to follow.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must comply with the Clean Water Act
when operating the four lower Snake River dams, U.S. District Court
Judge Helen Frye ruled recently.
Active harassment of what may be the largest colony of Caspian terns in
the world will begin next week in an attempt to move the birds closer to
feeding grounds where they will feast less on juvenile salmon and more
on other marine species.
The Bonneville Power Administration’s top official admitted Tuesday that
ESA-spawned mandates may increase immediate Columbia Basin fish and
wildlife program needs, but she showed a reluctance to juggle funds from
one account to another to answer those needs.
The National Marine Fisheries Service reviewed the impacts of proposed
tribal and state harvests of salmon on the mainstem Columbia River and
concluded that a 9 percent harvest rate of the most critical salmon
stocks would be appropriate to avoid jeopardy.
Late-arriving sanctions driven by the federal Endangered Species Act
forced Lower Columbia gill-netters off the river last week and
threatened to dock sport fishers aiming at Willamette River spring
chinook.
It was almost classic “East versus West” Tuesday as political officials
from Washington’s “dry side” urged rejection of dam breaching as an option. More to follow.
Major changes are foreseen for the region’s hatchery operations as fish
managers make adjustments to protect a growing list of threatened salmon
and steelhead populations while still providing promised treaty, and
other, fisheries, according a National Marine Fisheries Service
official.
A coalition of conservation and fishing groups on Tuesday asked
Portland’s U.S. District Court to order federal agencies to comply with
their own directives to provide Columbia Basin water flows to aid
migration of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species
Act.
Environmental groups and commercial fishermen filed suit this week
against the National Marine Fisheries Service saying the agency’s
biological opinion of a project to deepen the Columbia
River shipping channel lacked scientific foundation and will harm young salmon.
Federal officials who say decisions will be based on pure science and
economics were met with a flood of emotional pleas Tuesday during a
meeting in Spokane to discuss, among other things, dam breaching’s
potential for aiding salmon and steelhead recovery.
Under the Clinton administration’s proposed budget for FY2001, spending
on Columbia River fish mitigation would increase by $33 million to $91
million.
When it issues a biological opinion of the federal hydro system, the
National Marine Fisheries Service will attach a work in progress that
also addresses federal Clean Water Act issues in the Columbia River
mainstem.
Federal officials heard pleas about the need to restore salmon
populations, and preserve the economic functions of the Columbia
Basin’s hydroelectric system during the first public meeting planned around the region to gather public comment on fish recovery planning efforts.
The four Columbia River treaty tribes took their complaints about the federal government’s failure to consult with them on salmon issues to Washington, D.C., this week.
The National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday told tribal and non-tribal fishers that there might not be enough Columbia-Snake river spring chinook salmon to satisfy everyone’s harvest desires this year.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will harass Caspian terns on Rice
Island in the Columbia River estuary this spring so that no terns will
nest on the island.
About 13 miles of salmon spawning and rearing habitat in the lower
Columbia River estuary could be recovered if improvements suggested by a
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ environmental assessment are approved.
Objections from Idaho and Oregon fish and wildlife officials have left
in question planned pilot studies intended to explore impacts of dam
passage on adult salmon’s survival and reproductive success.
Federal agencies operating dams in the Columbia River Basin released a
December assessment that dams adversely affect six species listed as endangered or threatened in 1999. They recommend a new Federal Columbia River Power System biological opinion.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has released a draft of a
supplemental biological opinion on operation of the Columbia River
federal power system to federal and state agencies, along with tribes,
for quick review. It hopes to complete the BiOp by the spring 2000
juvenile migration.
A supplemental biological opinion completed last month blesses a plan to
continue federal operations which times the release of 427,000 acre feet
of reservoir water in Idaho to coincide, primarily, with the migration
of Snake River fall chinook salmon listed Endangered Species Act.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
