Columbia Basin state and tribal representatives gathered Wednesday to
discuss how they fit into salmon recovery plans that profess federal
responsibility but stress that success hinges in part on actions taken
outside federal agencies’ direct authorities.
A self-described “five-year blueprint for fish recovery actions by the
three (action) agencies” was released this week in draft form —
detailing how Federal Columbia River Power System operators aim to meet
survival goals for salmon, steelhead and resident fish species listed
under the Endangered Species Act.
Oregon and Washington officials are predicting uncommon success for
sport anglers turned loose Wednesday to pursue salmon returning to the
Columbia River.
Many are already zeroing in on coho near Buoy 10 at the river’s mouth,
where more than one million hatchery coho are predicted to return along
with nearly 300,000 chinook.
Responding to criticism, an independent science panel stands by its assessment that a “more cautionary approach” should be used in attempts
to supplement Columbia Basin wild salmon and steelhead populations with
surplus hatchery fish.
A 2001 trend towards early and abundant fish runs is continuing, with
upriver summer steelhead adult counts seemingly on a record pace.
The single highest daily steelhead count on record — 10,181 — was
charted Monday (July 23) at the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam …
The number of endangered sockeye salmon swimming toward central Idaho’s
Stanley Basin is a trickle compared to the relative gusher of adults
that made the trip up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers last year.
But researchers involved in the captive broodstock program — attempting
to revive a population that counted zero returning adults in 1997 and
one in 1998 — remain optimistic.
Citing the failure of the Bush administration to increase funding for
recovery of endangered Columbia Basin salmon, Rep. Jim McDermott, D
Wash., on Thursday introduced legislation to develop contingency plans
for breaching four dams on the lower Snake River.
A recently published research paper concludes that young steelhead are
the favored targets of avian predators circling the Columbia River
estuary, a phenomenon the authors say could have dire implications for
some of the basin’s most imperiled stocks.
Columbia Basin fish and wildlife managers and others watching this
year’s mainstem and tributary flows fear the worst for migrating
juvenile and adult salmon as the summer warms.
The forecast for January-July runoff as measured at The Dalles Dam fell
to 54.7 million acre feet or 52 percent of normal …
A long-running difference of opinion about how, when or even if
supplementation should be used in Columbia Basin salmon recovery efforts
continues to simmer this summer, with an independent scientific report
on the practice again the focus.
In a June 29 letter, the heads of the two entities that sponsor the
11-member Independent Scientific Advisory Board defended the panel and
the conclusions made in a recently published review of “surplus”
hatchery salmon issues.
A research project on Caspian terns in Commencement Bay has been cut
short due to concerns raised by tribal fisheries co-managers about the
birds’ consumption of area salmon, according to the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Oregon House of Representatives on Tuesday approved by a 32-26 vote
a bill that would establish a moratorium on destroying hatchery-bred,
returning adult salmon while a scientific panel studies those fishes’
role in wild fish recovery.
Reacting to improved news about the region’s electric system reliability
from the Northwest Power Planning Council, the Bonneville Power
Administration said today (May 25) that it will not only extend spill at
two lower Columbia River dams through next Friday, it will also spill
water through McNary and John Day dam spillways through Tuesday in an
effort to move juvenile salmon downstream.
An independent scientific panel this week urged regional entities to
learn as much as they can from this good news-bad news year for Columbia
Basin salmon recovery efforts.
The good news is that many of the basin’s salmon stocks are returning
this year in larger, and sometimes record, numbers to spawn naturally or
revisit the hatchery of their origin.
The term “surplus hatchery fish” has, at least for this year, has been
erased from the Methow Basin salmon management dictionary following a
landmark agreement that focuses on the collection of local, naturally
spawning spring chinook to replenish hatchery egg banks and lets
unneeded hatchery stocks seek a spawning niche in the river’s mainstem.
A bill that sponsors say would allow more hatchery salmon to spawn
naturally and require the state to use hatchery salmon eggs to replenish
fish runs was signed into law late Tuesday by Washington Gov. Gary Locke
over the protestations of the federal agency charged with protecting and
rebuilding “wild” salmon and steelhead runs.
A proposal to begin spilling water now at lower Columbia River hydro
projects to improve passage for a building juvenile salmon and steelhead
migration hit a snag Friday (today) when the Bonneville Power
Administration and Grant County Public Utility District failed to win
regional support for the plan.
A proposal to begin spilling water now at lower Columbia River hydro
projects to improve passage for a building juvenile salmon and steelhead
migration hit a snag Friday (today) when the Bonneville Power
Administration and Grant County Public Utility District failed to win
regional support for the plan.
Two Oregon leaders are supporting a plan by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, to
make Northwest salmon recovery a national priority and boost federal
funding by $400 million next year.
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., this week gave his endorsement, and Gov. John
Kitzhaber praised the overall $688 million plan, which Crapo announced
on May 3.
The pickings have been somewhat meager to date, but state fishery
officials are hoping that an ongoing “tangle” or “tooth” net
experimental fishery will yield information that allows commercial
gill-net salmon fishers to regain a foothold in the Columbia River.
A lawsuit filed Thursday asks the U.S. District Court to order the
federal government to rethink a Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan that
the plaintiffs say is rife with faulty scientific assumptions and doomed
to failure because of a lack of Bush Administration support for
implementation funding.
Flow “augmentation” via water releases from Snake River reservoirs and
those that feed the Snake should not be abandoned. But a fine-tuning of
research is needed to settle conclusively debates over the practice’s
potential benefit to migrating fall chinook salmon, according to a panel
of independent scientists.
Long wary of “so-called independent science committees,” the head of the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission has called for the
disbanding of an 11-member group assembled to advise the Northwest Power
Planning Council and National Marine Fisheries Service on fish and
wildlife recovery issues.
For the first time since the late 1960s, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will open fishing for hatchery spring chinook salmon on the Snake River in southeast Washington, taking advantage of a predicted record upriver run bound for hatcheries and tributary spawning grounds.
An independent scientific panel has advised regional fisheries managers
to proceed cautiously as they decide what to do with an expected tidal
wave of upriver spring chinook salmon arriving at Columbia and Snake
river hatcheries during the next few months.
Using what they say is a “conservative estimate,” state, tribal and
federal officials have pushed upwards the forecast for what was already
predicted to be a record return of upriver spring chinook salmon to the
Columbia River.
A calculation made Thursday, taking into account fish tallies to-date,
estimates that 433,000 upriver chinook adults will turn into the
Columbia this spring.
President George Bush’s first budget maintains current funding levels
for Pacific salmon recovery programs, but they are more than $400
million below the amount estimated to be needed to implement the
Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
In February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber asked Bush administration
officials for an increase of $566 million – $438 million in FY02 and
$128 million as a supplemental add-on in FY01.
President George Bush’s first budget maintains current funding levels
for Pacific salmon recovery programs, but they are more than $400
million below the amount estimated to be needed to implement the
Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
In February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber asked Bush administration
officials for an increase of $566 million – $438 million in FY02 and
$128 million as a supplemental add-on in FY01.
President George Bush’s first budget maintains current funding levels
for Pacific salmon recovery programs, but they are more than $400
million below the amount estimated to be needed to implement the
Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
In February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber asked Bush administration
officials for an increase of $566 million – $438 million in FY02 and
$128 million as a supplemental add-on in FY01.
Though clouds again linger over much of the Columbia Basin and
Northwest, most participants in a Tuesday drought workshop agreed that
the region will have to play with the hand dealt by Mother Nature during
a dry fall and winter of 2000-2001.
It would take 225 percent of normal precipitation between now and July
to get the region back on track toward a “normal” water year, according
to Harold Opitz, hydrologist in charge of the Northwest River Forecast
Center.
A 2001 Columbia Basin upriver spring chinook salmon run expected to set
a modern day record is, indeed, passing Bonneville Dam counters at an
unprecedented pace.
“All of the counts so far are much higher than anything in our data
sets,” said Mike Matylewich of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission …
More than 200 people turned out in Wenatchee, Wash., Tuesday night to
hear a scientific debate over a key question: Can hatchery stocks be
used successfully to revive naturally spawning Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead populations?
The forum, and one held Wednesday in Winthrop, were intended to air two disparate positions on the issue.
The Oregon Legislature is attempting to define what constitutes a wild
fish in a variety of bills now before the House Committee on Stream
Restoration and Species Recovery.
The most far reaching of the proposed laws blurs the distinction between
wild and hatchery fish, while others simply define the relationship
between fish produced by hatcheries and those that spawn and rear in
streams.
Columbia River treaty-fishing tribes this week have asked U.S. Sen.
Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to hold field hearings to change the federal
government’s endangered species and artificial propagation policies.
In a March 20 letter, tribal leaders asked Smith to help protect
thousands of hatchery-reared adult salmon that would be destroyed under
policies implemented by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The Bonneville Power Administration agreed during a Technical Management
Team conference call last Friday (March 9) to spill 50,000 cubic feet
per second (50 kcfs) of water for three days, 12 hours each evening, at
Bonneville Dam to help Spring Creek Hatchery tule chinook juveniles move
down river.
Chum fry incubating in the Ives and Pearce islands channel downstream
from Bonneville Dam could be the first casualty of this low-water year.
So far, about half the fry have emerged from their nests and left the
area, but the last of the fry aren’t expected to complete emergence
until mid-April.
Some say push ahead, while others, including the National Marine
Fisheries Service, are urging the Northwest Power Planning Council to
take its time in revising the Columbia-Snake mainstem portion of its
fish and wildlife program.
With the largest upriver spring chinook run in recorded history poised
to enter the Columbia River, fishery officials say they have reached an
agreement that is both geared toward rebuilding depleted, wild stocks
and affording increased fishing opportunities on hatchery fish during
such times of abundance.
With the largest upriver spring chinook run in recorded history poised
to enter the Columbia River, fishery officials say they have reached an
agreement that is both geared toward rebuilding depleted, wild stocks
and affording increased fishing opportunities on hatchery fish during
such times of abundance.
Increased flows correlate highly with increased survival rates of
migrating Snake River subyearling fall chinook salmon, National Marine
Fisheries studies continue to show, but only drastic tests would settle
debates about the importance of flows augmented by releases from
upstream reservoirs.
The differences between hatchery bred salmon and wild salmon were
debated this week before a committee of Oregon’s House of
Representatives.
The House Committee on Stream Restoration and Recovery — which Chairman
Rep. Bob Jenson, R-Pendleton, said is charged with recommending changes
to the Oregon Plan for Salmon that could influence how Oregon hatcheries
operate in the future — heard scientists touting both sides of the
equation in Salem Monday.
A planned test of selective commercial harvest gear this spring won
Northwest Power Planning Council approval Wednesday, jumping ahead of a
pack of some 96 fish and wildlife proposals hoping to gain fiscal year
2001 “high priority” project funding.
Washington state Sen. Bob Morton, vexed by a situation last year that
saw tens of thousands of hatchery “surplus” fish killed while streams
within his own district hold only remnant populations, says he is
pursuing accountability.
He has authored legislation in the Washington Senate that calls for a
two-year moratorium on federal fishery agency orders to destroy
“surplus” hatchery fish or their progeny returning the state’s
hatcheries.
The substantial differences between hatchery and wild fish that often
inhabit the same watershed is reason enough to support sacrificing
excess hatchery fish. That’s the conclusion of a white paper recently
released by the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.
A bountiful, by recent standards, return of spring chinook salmon last
year has translated into the top spawning count on record for one
unlisted Oregon run and generally improved returns for ESA listed fish
on which much of the Columbia Basin’s recovery efforts are focused.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission this year will increase
direct contacts with members of Congress and federal officials in
Washington, D.C., on salmon recovery funding and other issues, members
and staff said this week.
Columbia River Compact members balked Thursday at putting the financial
onus on commercial fishers for an experimental fishery intended to test
live capture methods that might increase harvest opportunities without
further imperiling ESA listed stocks.
The Compact, delegates representing the Oregon and Washington fish and
wildlife commissions and departments, is charged with setting mainstem
commercial fishing seasons.
Columbia Basin electric ratepayers have footed a $3.48 billion bill
since 1978 to help restore fish and wildlife populations in the region,
according to a draft report released this week by the Northwest Power
Planning Council.
The “Annual Report of the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program,
1978-1999″ is a first-time attempt to detail exactly fish and wildlife
expenditures of the Bonneville Power Administration …
The four lower Columbia River treaty tribes have offered a 2001 spring
fishing proposal they say will share an expected a wealth of returning
hatchery-produced upriver spring chinook salmon without blunting a
parallel resurgence in wild, Endangered Species Act listed fish numbers.
Freezing endangered salmon sperm could be the most unique effort in the
Northwest to help save wild runs of salmon. However, researchers hope
the sperm will never have to be used to resuscitate any of the
endangered salmon stocks of the lower Snake River basin since its use
would occur only after all else fails and one of the stocks nears
extinction.
At the same time he released a “State of the Salmon” report, Washington
Gov. Gary Locke proposed to the state Legislature that $212 million in
state and federal money be spent over the next two fiscal years to help
pay for the state’s salmon restoration activities. That is about $30
million less than was spent over the previous two years.
A Northwest Power Planning Council “high priority project” solicitation
intended to “identify immediate actions that will assist Endangered
Species Act-listed anadromous fish” in the Columbia Basin has drawn a
considerable response.
A draft scientific review of Oregon hatcheries urges a shift from what
it calls largely site-specific management to a more coordinated approach
that takes into account hatchery effects on other, particularly wild,
species and better blends with habitat/harvest decision making.
Federal agencies said Thursday that they have put themselves on notice:
If their latest Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan doesn’t play out as
envisioned, the National Marine Fisheries Service could play trump cards
as soon as 2003 that might include seeking authorization to breach four
Lower Snake River dams.
The Columbia River treaty tribes have greeted the latest federal salmon
recovery plan with disdain, saying it ignores science and the federal
government’s treaty responsibilities to the tribes.
The reaction to the biological opinion of the Columbia River hydro
system released this week by the National Marine Fisheries Service
focused mostly on breaching four lower Snake River dams.
But not all looking at the breaching language in the same way.
Federal officials plan to release the final Columbia Basin salmon
restoration plan and biological opinion on the federal hydropower system
as required under the Endangered Species Act next week.
Large-scale manipulations — such as through dike removal, changes in
hydrosystem-controlled flow regimes and altered predation management —
may be necessary to assess the impact human development has had on
Columbia River estuarine habitats and their fish and wildlife
populations, according to a scientific report released this week.
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.
A successful British Columbia watershed restoration project that
improves stream structure and habitat, adds nutrient pellets and
increases smolt survival could provide a lesson in how similar streams
in the Northwest can be restored to help increase runs of salmon now
listed as endangered.
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 …
Improved ocean and in-river migrating conditions in the past year or two
have added momentum to efforts intended to boost natural production of
Snake River fall chinook above Lower Granite Dam.
A test of hatchery supplementation using the only Snake River basin fall
chinook stock in the Northwest reaped benefits last year and this.
More than 130 redds have been counted two months after 364 mature adult
spring chinook salmon were released in the Walla Walla River, where they
had been absent for most of the last century.
The spawning of those adults, surplus from the Ringold Hatchery near
Priest Rapids, Wash., bolsters what biologists from the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have been saying for the last
10 years.
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.
Research aimed at capturing, “reconditioning” and re-releasing
once-spawned wild steelhead so that they spawn again received a
financial boost from the Northwest Power Planning Council Wednesday
“because the success during the first year has been dramatically better
than anticipated.”
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.
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.
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.
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 summer-long battle by tribes and a local citizens group to find a home
for surplus hatchery spring chinook salmon and their progeny entered a
new phase this week with Washington Sen. Slade Gorton promising funds to
avert “destruction” of those fishes’ eggs and challenging ESA guardians
to rethink genetic rules.
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 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.
Preliminary counts indicate that naturally spawned Stanley Basin sockeye
are out-returning their hatchery-reared brood mates as unprecedented
numbers of the endangered fish make a late-summer return through the
9-year old Redfish Lake captive broodstock program.
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
Four environmental groups and a fishing group have given notice to the
National Marine Fisheries Service that they intend to sue because they
say NMFS’ 4(d) rules released this week will not protect endangered
salmon and steelhead from the harmful effects of logging and urban
development.
Irrigator associations from Oregon and Washington have issued a policy
statement supporting the positions of Columbia River treaty tribes on
salmon spawning, hatchery supplementation and harvest practices.
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.
Those charged with recovering salmon and steelhead stocks listed under
Endangered Species Act say the significance of this year’s high fish
counts at Bonneville Dam has yet to be determined.
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.
Tribal leaders are frustrated by an Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife plan to destroy an estimated 1,000 surplus hatchery steelhead
returning to the Grande Ronde River basin in Northeast Oregon.
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.
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.
By the May 12 deadline, the Northwest Power Planning Council had
received 55 submissions recommending amendments to the Council’s
regional fish and wildlife management program, last revised in 1994.
A $16 million Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery plan won Northwest Power
Planning Council approval Wednesday despite an early solicitation that
produced construction bids ranging from $4 million to $11 million over
the targeted cost.
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 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.
A Nez Perce tribal hatchery supplementation plan — 18 years and $13.7
million in the making — could get the green light May 17 when the
Northwest Power Planning Council considers a $16 million construction
spending proposal.
A meeting of Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery’s analytical
minds was called this week to sort through the varied methods,
assumptions and conclusions now being produced that are intended to
eventually inform the region’s decision makers.
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.
Wide ranging suggestions on the near-term direction of Columbia Basin
salmon recovery efforts were offered Thursday by witnesses called to
testify at a U.S. House of Representatives Resources Committee hearing
in Pasco. All but a few said dam breaching should be dropped from
consideration.
The smolt-to-adult return rate of Columbia Basin hatchery salmon and
steelhead have been declining during the 1990s, along with the adult
fish’s value to fishers, according to natural resource economist Hans
Radtke.
Harvest of salmon in the Columbia River is at the lowest allowed level
ever. Further changes to harvest rates would not add significantly to
salmon recovery.
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.
Conservation and science groups came out this week in support of Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife hatchery practices that prevent
hatchery-raised fish from mixing with wild stocks when they return from
the ocean to spawn.
The Senate last week passed two bills by Northwest members to create or
expand programs dealing with salmon recovery projects.
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.
A proposed federal land management plan for roughly 63 million acres in
Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington is intended to leave a lighter
footprint both on the land and on the resource-based economies within
that territory.
Federal scientists conclude that drastic action must be taken soon to
head off extinction for Columbia Basin salmon runs in the worst shape,
and decision-makers must take that plunge without the certainty that
those actions will work.
Fishermen in Southeast Alaska have finally found unity on a salmon
management issue, thanks to federal consideration of Alaska harvest
cutbacks in order to restore chinook runs in the Snake River.
Like most farmers, Jerry Scheid grew up in an era when people thought
dams could do no wrong.
Juvenile salmon and steelhead passed through Bonneville Dam’s No. 1
powerhouse fared better when encountering a newly designed turbine than
they did when passing through traditional turbines, according to results
from a recently completed $2.5 million biological study.
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.
State, federal, tribal and representatives of the public are expected to
emerge from weeklong meetings in Sacramento with a set of regulatory
options intended guide sport and commercial fisheries off the West Coast
during the summer and fall of 2000.
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.
A panel of federal officials heard contrasting advice on how to run
Columbia Basin rivers, dams and fisheries at a hearing in Kalispell
Wednesday.
Despite his controversial stand in favor of breaching Snake River dams,
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber this week continued to work with fellow
Northwest governors and members of Congress on how best to restore
salmon.
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.
At least some members of the group charged with judging the
Columbia-Snake river hydrosystem’s technical fixes for fish want more
time to evaluate what they call “questionable conclusions” drawn in a
Corps of Engineer Phase I report on potential John Day reservoir
drawdown.
Breaching Four Lower Snake River dams is not the only way, but it’s the
best way to start rebuilding threatened and endangered Columbia Basin
salmon and steelhead stocks, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber said last Friday
afternoon (Feb. 18).
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s demand for immediate salmon recovery action
startled some with its call for Lower Snake River Dam breaching, but
didn’t immediately swing political momentum in his direction.
A comprehensive Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery plan that
includes the breaching of the four lower Snake River dams is Oregon Gov.
John Kitzhaber’s preferred option, according to notes from a speech he
was expected to deliver today in Eugene to the American Fisheries
Society.
Federal officials were bombarded Tuesday with comments from tribal,
sport and commercial fishers who said their communities and cultures had
been plundered by hydrosystem development aimed at benefiting upstream
interests and by salmon recovery plans that ignore the obvious —
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.
The National Marine Fisheries Service would increase spending on
Northwest salmon recovery by $9 million in FY2001, under the final
budget of President Clinton’s term.
The Northwest Power Planning Council this week unveiled preliminary
analysis of seven river management schemes that shows all the options
producing positive change for chinook salmon populations in the Columbia
River Basin.
The Multi-Species Framework process drew polite applause this week from
Columbia Basin interest groups that for the most part like the potential
and intent but withheld judgment on its usefulness in guiding salmon
recovery processes.
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.
Farmers, ranchers and loggers took turns in Pendleton Jan. 25 bashing the 4(d) Rules proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
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.
Oregon set harvest levels for returning Willamette River spring chinook at the lower of two options and further reduced harvest in the Clackamas and North Santiam rivers.
The federal caucus will be taking its developing salmon recovery
products on the road next month, spotlighting three Corps of Engineers studies of Lower Snake River hydrosystem configuration options. More follows.
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.
Despite a stand-offish policy stance reiterated this week by Washington
Gov. Gary Locke, the governors of Oregon, Idaho and Montana decided
Thursday to forge ahead with a plan to bring the region more authority
in fish and wildlife recovery decision-making.
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.
Basing the region’s salmon recovery efforts on “the best available
science,” — a phrase included in nearly every salmon-related state,
federal or tribal document these days — is easier said than done,
according to a federal researcher.
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
