1. CONFERENCE COMMITTEE SLASHES CORPS BUDGET Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

A House-Senate conference committee Thursday night (Sept. 24) reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' proposed budget for fish passage modifications at Columbia/Snake River mainstem dams by $57 million, prompting concern that funds may be short to implement interim recovery measures for Snake River wild salmon and steelhead. The conference committee on energy and water development appropriations set the Corps' Columbia River Fish Mitigation Program budget at $60 million for fiscal year ... Read More...

2. GORTON SEEKS EXPANDED SCIENCE REVIEW Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

Washington Republican Sen. Slade Gorton will be proposing legislation requiring that federal agencies each year submit their Columbia Basin fish recovery projects to a science review panel for evaluation before Congress approves funding. Gorton had hoped the science review requirement would be included in the 1999 energy and water appropriations bill approved by a House-Senate conference committee Thursday night (Sept. 24). But the effort was rebuffed by Rep. Joseph McDade, chairman ... Read More...

3. INTERIOR SPENDING BILL PULLED, GOES OMNIBUS Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

The Senate's $13.4 billion Interior Appropriations Bill, which addresses congressional authority over modifications to Columbia Basin federal hydropower projects, was pulled from the floor this week. It will now become part of an "omnibus spending bill" that will include several appropriations bills, say Northwest congressional staffers. The final package will be shaped by a House-Senate conference committee. The Interior spending bill, largely crafted by Washington ... Read More...

4. COUNCIL APPROVES $131 MILLION IN PROJECTS Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

The Northwest Power Planning Council this week recommended that the Bonneville Power Administration use $131.4 million in 1999 to fund 275 Columbia River basin fish and wildlife restoration projects. The action came during its meeting Tuesday and Wednesday at Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish, Montana. The budget figure was nearly $5 million higher than this year thanks to an agreement which allowed the use of money from a contingency reserve and carryover and interest from the ... Read More...

5. TRIBAL LAW ENFORCEMENT FUNDING REJECTED Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

Funding requests for tribal law enforcement projects were rejected Wednesday as the Northwest Power Planning Council stressed the need to better define how the proposed activities would to help achieve the goals of its direct fish and wildlife program. The Council followed the advice of its Fish and Wildlife Committee in deciding not to reserve funding for law enforcement in the $131.4 million 1999 direct program budget. The decision on the law enforcement portion of the budget ... Read More...

6. TRIBAL FISHING SEASON ENDS TODAY Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

The Columbia River treaty tribes' 1998 commercial fishery is expected to end at 6 p.m. today as the combined impact of Indian and non-Indian sport and commercial fisheries on the threatened Snake River fall chinook stock approaches its upper limit. The tribes volunteered Tuesday to shut down the five-day fishing period one day earlier than originally planned because updated run-size and catch data "indicated that the Snake River (chinook) impacts would be right on" the ... Read More...

7. WASHINGTON ADOPTS EMERGENCY LOGGING RULES Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

Partly in response to the National Marine Fisheries Service's determination that Washington's current "Forest Practice Rules" jeopardize salmonids, the state's Forest Practices Board this week approved a new emergency rule designed to protect endangered steelhead in the Columbia River Basin. The new emergency rule, approved on a divided voice vote, is aimed at protecting Washington's Upper Columbia steelhead, Snake River steelhead and Lower Columbia steelhead, all of which ... Read More...

8. UMATILLA TRIBES PURCHASE 8,000-ACRE RANCH Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

Using $3.9 million in Bonneville Power Administration fish and wildlife mitigation funds, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have purchased an 8,441-acre ranch in southeastern Washington for fish and wildlife habitat. The sale closed Sept. 11. The "Rainwater Ranch," previously owned by Miller Shingle Co. of Granite Falls, Wash., includes 5,500 acres of timber, plus rangeland, and about eight miles of anadromous fish spawning and rearing habitat ... Read More...

9. PGE PEPARES BID FOR HYDRO PROJECTS Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

Portland General Electric will finish its draft relicensing application for the Round Butte Pelton complex of hydroelectric dams on the Deschutes River before the end of 1998 and expects to file its final application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by the end of 1999. The license, currently held by PGE, is contested by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, but, according to PGE, the two applications will be very different. (For information on Warm Spring tribes' Read More...

10. MAJOR CONFERENCE SET ON RIVER GOVERNANCE Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

Oregon Governor. John Kitzhaber, Washington Sen. Slade Gorton, former Oregon Sen. Mark Hatfield, Oregon Rep. Elizabeth Furse and Washington Rep. Rick White will join tribal leaders, senior federal officials, state legislators, and representatives of the region's economic and environmental interests for a major regional conference on the future of the Columbia River. "Governance and the Columbia River: Where Are We Going?" will be held Thursday, Oct. 15, from 8:15 a.m. to ... Read More...

11. COUNCIL ON TRACK WITH BUDGET CUTS Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

Budgets approved Wednesday keep the Northwest Power Planning Council "on track" to reduce its spending to $6.2 million annually by 2001, according to Steve Crow, the Council's executive director. At its meeting in Whitefish, Montana this week, the Council approved a revised $7.155 million budget for fiscal year 1999 and a draft 2000 budget of $6.724 million. The draft 2000 budget compares to a peak Council allocation of nearly $8.5 million in 1992. A staff analysis shows the Read More...

12. AGENCIES MOVE FORWARD ON TERN PLAN Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

A stopgap measure has been proposed to relocate nesting birds, including 8,000 pairs of Caspian terns, 16 miles closer to the mouth of the Columbia River where it is believed they will consume fewer migrating juvenile salmon. The multi-agency Avian Predation Working Group's proposed action would attempt to move the birds from Rice Island, which is 21 miles upstream from the mouth, to East Sand Island. The goal is to implement the action before the 1999 juvenile fish passage season, which Read More...

14. FEEDBACK Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 (PST)

RE: SCT article and Decision Process Coordinating Group article in last week's Columbia Basin Bulletin From BOB HEINITH, hydro coordinator for the Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission: I find it completely ironic that while the region's fish and wildlife policy makers are moving toward a multi-species approach through the framework and Decision Process groups, mid-level, technical, fishery agency managers and the Corps are continuing to advocate spending the lion's share of the FY99 Read More...