http://www.cbbulletin.com/default.aspxColumbia Basin Bulletin recent articlesFri, 11 May 2012 19:23:08 GMTSmartSolutions.Impact, Version=2.5.1383.19310, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=nullhttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss60http://www.cbbulletin.com/lunarlogo.gifhttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420369.aspxWith the spring sun finally starting to impose its will on snowpack, it’s clear the Columbia-Snake River basin will be enjoying a fully stocked water supply. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420369.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:23:08 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420368.aspxSalmon savants – those charged with predicting adult fish returns -- are having to go back to the drawing board these days with the spawners stalling, teasing, tantalizing and most recently…overwhelming counters on the lower Columbia River. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420368.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:20:22 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420367.aspxCalifornia sea lion presence and predation activity in the waters below the lower Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam is at its lowest ebb of any year since 2002 when U.S. Army Corps of Engineers researchers began monitoring the big marine mammals to evaluate their impact on migrating salmon. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420367.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:17:47 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420366.aspxHuman activities, such as industrial production, transportation, and day-to-day living, are sources of many contaminants that flow into the Columbia River. A recently completed reconnaissance study detected hundreds of these contaminants in water samples collected from wastewater-treatment-plant effluent and storm runoff from roads and other urban environments in nine cities that line the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420366.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:16:34 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420365.aspxThe straying of wild salmon from their specific natal water can be a good thing in many cases, according to a research paper produced by University of Idaho scientists and published recently in the April edition of the Ecological Society of America’s journal, Ecology. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420365.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:15:09 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420364.aspxDuring the first week of inspection operations, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife boat inspectors discovered invasive mussels on two boats: one in Central Point and one in La Grande. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420364.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:13:52 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420363.aspxNorthern Idaho’s south Selkirk Mountains herd of caribou should be taken off the federal Endangered Species Act list, because the herd isn’t distinct in a legally or biologically relevant way from the vast population of caribou elsewhere on the North American continent, according to a “delisting” petition filed this week by the Pacific Legal Foundation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420363.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:12:38 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420362.aspxThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed environmental compliance for the Dworshak Nutrient Supplementation Project, an “ecosystem improvement project” at Dworshak Reservoir in Idaho. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420362.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:10:37 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420361.aspxCharlie Black has been named the new director of Power Planning at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420361.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:09:27 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420360.aspxA 100-fold upsurge in human-produced plastic garbage in the ocean is altering habitats in the marine environment, according to a new study led by a graduate student researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420360.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:08:04 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420359.aspxU.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Mark Begich (D-AK) have issued statements following recent reports from Alaska pilots that large amounts of debris are accumulating along the central Gulf of Alaska coast from Kayak Island to Montague Island. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420359.aspxFri, 11 May 2012 19:05:54 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420182.aspxThe Kootenai Tribe of Idaho is in the second year of implementing a top-down approach to restoring and improving Kootenai River habitat for white sturgeon and other native species. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420182.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:54:05 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420179.aspxA full-fledged effort to knock back non-native northern pike populations in eastern Washington’s Box Canyon reservoir on the Pend Oreille River has proved a success so far. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420179.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:52:40 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420178.aspxWith salmon counts lagging at the Bonneville Dam, fish and hydro system managers have ventured into relatively new territory by holding back a share of the incoming for a four-hour period Thursday from a surging Columbia River in an attempt to entice movement of what was expected to be a bumper upriver run. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420178.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:50:42 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420177.aspxWith the 2012 spring chinook salmon run expected to number 314,200 adults entering the Columbia River, and sea lion take expected to be only about two-thirds of 1 percent of those fish, “there is no pressing need to continue to kill federally protected wildlife in the next few weeks, and before this case can be heard on the merits,” according to a brief filed April 27 in U.S. District Court in Portland. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420177.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:48:33 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420176.aspxAnglers will have at least four more days to fish for hatchery-reared spring chinook salmon on a section of the Columbia River stretching 163 miles upstream from Bonneville Dam. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420176.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:47:02 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420175.aspxStudying the earbones of trout can reveal their lifetime movements in a large river system, according to a study released in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420175.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:45:45 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420174.aspxThe Washington Department of Ecology will hold public workshops on possible changes to the state’s fish consumption rates in May in Ellensburg, Tacoma and Spokane Valley. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420174.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:44:34 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420173.aspxThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Region Fisheries Program has begun a six-month “Luna the Lamprey: The Story of a ‘Forgotten Fish’” social media campaign, which follows the journey of a fictional adult Pacific lamprey and her virtual associates as they struggle for survival in the Columbia River and its tributaries in Oregon, Idaho and Washington. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420173.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:43:17 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420172.aspxA new analysis of streams in the western United States with long-term monitoring programs has found that despite a general increase in air temperatures over the past several decades, streams are not necessarily warming at the same rate. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420172.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:41:54 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420171.aspxOf the thousands of fishing holes across the nation, two locations managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Walla Walla District made the Bassmaster Magazine Top-100 list of best places to fish for bass, according to an April 24 release by B.A.S.S. Communications. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420171.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:40:33 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420170.aspxLoss of biodiversity appears to affect ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress, according to results of a new study by an international research team. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420170.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:38:51 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420167.aspxNOAA Fisheries has released the draft final report of the “Independent Science Panel of the Bilateral Scientific Workshop Process to Evaluate the Effects of Salmon Fisheries on Southern Resident Killer Whales.” http://www.cbbulletin.com/420167.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:37:42 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/420163.aspxA May 2 investigation by ODFW confirmed that four penned sheep (two ewes, two lambs) were killed by a wolf on private land east of Weston, Ore., in northern Umatilla County. http://www.cbbulletin.com/420163.aspxFri, 04 May 2012 19:35:41 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419993.aspxIn a retrospective interview with Idaho Public Television previewed this week, the long-time presiding federal judge in the Columbia River basin’s salmon recovery debate said efforts may to this point have fallen short by assuming dam breaching is not an option. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419993.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 19:08:31 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419992.aspxThe state of Oregon is sending out word that it wants to have more management options in dealing with the double-crested cormorants -- including shooting the big birds – to control impacts on hatchery-produced and wild juvenile salmon that stream into estuaries along the coast. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419992.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 19:06:22 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419991.aspxNOAA Fisheries “provided reasoned interpretations” of Marine Mammal Protection Act provisions earlier this year in granting the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington authority to kill California sea lions that are known to be preying on wild salmon stocks in the lower Columbia River, according to recent federal court filings. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419991.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 19:04:51 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419990.aspxThe Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has expanded the popular fishing area at the mouth of the Wind River in the southwest part of the state by moving the outside boundary about 250 yards out into the Columbia River. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419990.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 19:03:13 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419989.aspxSince April 13, national fish hatcheries in the Columbia River Gorge have released more than 10 million juvenile chinook salmon into the lower Columbia River and its tributaries, continuing a 70-year program that supports tribal and sport fish harvests worth millions of dollars. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419989.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 19:00:00 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419988.aspxThree projects are planned by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation this spring and summer to measure the success of lamprey passage and reintroduction programs started 12 years ago on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419988.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 18:58:32 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419987.aspxLeadership from four Columbia River treaty tribes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Indian Affairs gathered on the banks of the Columbia River Wednesday morning to celebrate the completion of the Dallesport Treaty Fishing Access Site. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419987.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 18:57:10 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419985.aspxThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Portland Bureau of Environmental Services are co-hosts for an open house on Thursday, May 3 to discuss construction activities this summer to restore a portion of Crystal Springs Creek in southeast Portland. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419985.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 18:54:07 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419984.aspxInside the National Guard Armory at Okanogan, Wash., Leroy and Mylan Williams teach a small crowd of onlookers the nearly lost art of building fish nets by hand. The father and son are part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation and are teaching other tribal members how to build and use traditional fishing gear. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419984.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 18:51:00 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419983.aspxThe Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee’s “Northwest Regional Forecast” released this week, tells the story of how the region’s electric utilities plan to keep the lights on over the coming decade. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419983.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 18:49:32 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419982.aspxAfter more than two years of intense field work and digital cartography, researchers have unveiled new maps of the seafloor off Oregon that cover more than half of the state’s territorial waters – a collaborative project that will provide new data for scientists, marine spatial planners, and the fishing industry. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419982.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 18:46:38 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419981.aspxResearchers from the University of Oviedo have for the first time analyzed a DNA fragment from commercial feed for aquarium cichlids, aquaculture salmon and marine fish in aquariums. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419981.aspxFri, 27 Apr 2012 18:43:38 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419833.aspxNOAA Fisheries announced Thursday that it is proposing to remove the “eastern” Steller sea lion population, currently deemed "threatened," from the list of endangered wildlife. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419833.aspxFri, 20 Apr 2012 18:58:32 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419832.aspxCatch rates have improved for both sport and commercial fisheries but apprehension over what appears to be a late arriving, or light, spring chinook salmon run to the Columbia-Snake river system has forced state managers to pause at least until a run-size estimate can be recalculated in early May. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419832.aspxFri, 20 Apr 2012 18:53:33 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419831.aspxOn Bridge Creek, a tributary to the John Day River in eastern Oregon, scientists with NOAA Fisheries’ National Marine Fisheries Service are installing a series of structures as part of a unique, low-cost approach to stream restoration. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419831.aspxFri, 20 Apr 2012 18:51:56 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419830.aspxThe strong desire, and increased effort, to prevent an “invasion” of non-native quagga mussels, or their zebra mussel kin, into the Pacific Northwest’s waterways has shown benefits over the past weeks or two, and more, due to diligence. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419830.aspxFri, 20 Apr 2012 18:49:48 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419829.aspxA total of as many as 900 test steel and concrete test panels, held in specially designed frames, are hanging in the boisterous waters of the lower Columbia to test the resilience over time of three silicon-based coatings. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419829.aspxFri, 20 Apr 2012 18:46:21 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419828.aspxThe Bonneville Power Administration and the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority have signed a new long-term agreement to use additional reservoir flow shaping capability on the upper Columbia River in Canada to provide safer flows for protected fish and support power generation. The term of the new Non-Treaty Storage Agreement will extend to September of 2024. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419828.aspxFri, 20 Apr 2012 18:43:42 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419827.aspxWith hundreds of thousands of young salmon now making their way toward the ocean, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is ramping up efforts to make sure they get there and aren’t picked off by hungry birds along the way. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419827.aspxFri, 20 Apr 2012 18:38:13 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419826.aspxMichael C. Ormsby, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced this week that Tom D. White, age 37, and his wife, Erin J. White, age 37, of Twisp, Wash., entered guilty pleas pursuant to plea agreements with the United States to criminal charges involving illegal conduct relating to endangered wolves. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419826.aspxFri, 20 Apr 2012 18:35:21 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419825.aspxA large, global move to produce more energy from forest biomass may be possible and already is beginning in some places, but scientists say in a new analysis that such large-scale bioenergy production from forest biomass is unsustainable and will increase greenhouse gas emissions. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419825.aspxFri, 20 Apr 2012 18:32:51 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419349.aspxThe confrontations between those who want the California sea lion presence lessened in the lower Columbia River and those who do not continued this week both on the river and in the courtroom. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419349.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:51:13 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419348.aspxThe surf’s up as Columbia and lower Snake rivers and tributaries flow with rains and runoff from bountiful snowpacks -- water that is pouring down through the system earlier and at a higher level than normal. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419348.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:48:32 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419347.aspxMother Nature, in the form of a big log flushed down the Columbia River by high early spring flows, served to stall the release nearly 6 million subyearling Spring Creek National Fish Hatchery “tule” fall chinook – but by only two days much to the relief of everyone involved. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419347.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:47:04 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419346.aspxBoth sport and commercial fishermen continue to get a bite at the apple as fishery managers await what they still believe will be a relatively high return of upriver spring chinook salmon to the Columbia-Snake river system. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419346.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:45:52 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419345.aspxFour sections of the Snake River in southeast Washington will open to fishing for spring chinook salmon this month, starting April 20 with the stretch below Ice Harbor Dam. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419345.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:43:48 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419344.aspxThey are among the smallest, least understood, and yet most important fish in the Columbia River and its tributaries. Eulachons, better known as smelt, appear to be returning in stronger numbers the last two years than in the recent past, although they are still listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act and, as such, are off limits to fishing. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419344.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:42:17 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419343.aspxThe Environmental Protection Agency is seeking comments by April 30 on measures proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect threatened and endangered pacific salmon from potential effects from three pesticides -- oryzalin, pendimethalin, and trifluralin. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419343.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:40:20 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419342.aspxThe Independent Scientific Review Panel’s recently completed final review of 71 “Resident Fish, Data Management, and Regional Coordination” proposals includes a thumbs up for 14 projects submitted for funding through the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia River Fish and Wildlife Program. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419342.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:39:04 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419341.aspxNew research suggests that allowing more Pacific salmon to spawn in coastal streams will not only benefit the natural environment, including grizzly bears, but could also lead to more salmon in the ocean and thus larger salmon harvests in the long term. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419341.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:38:07 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419340.aspxA survey on the loss in the Northern Hemisphere of large predators, particularly wolves, concludes that current populations of moose, deer, and other large herbivores far exceed their historic levels and are contributing to disrupted ecosystems. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419340.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:36:55 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/419339.aspxAs part of President Obama’s “all-of-the-above” strategy for American energy, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Anne Castle announced this week that 373 existing Bureau of Reclamation canals and conduits have the combined potential of generating an additional 365,219 megawatt-hours of hydropower annually. http://www.cbbulletin.com/419339.aspxFri, 13 Apr 2012 20:35:15 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418923.aspxRemovals of salmon-eating California sea lions resumed this week when two of the big marine mammals were the captured below the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam by state officials and chemically euthanized. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418923.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:43:24 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418922.aspxWith the lower Columbia River running high, cold and murky and filled with debris, anglers have had little success so far this spring – a fact that prompted state managers on Thursday to allow an extra week of early-season salmon fishing. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418922.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:41:50 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418921.aspxOregon’s Deschutes River basin is buzzing with the knowledge of good works completed, and more to come, in the effort to boost existing wild and hatchery produced salmon and steelhead populations, and create new ones. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418921.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:40:17 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418920.aspxThe Pacific Fishery Management Council on Thursday adopted a set of ocean salmon seasons for this coming summer that provides both recreational and commercial opportunities up and down the Oregon, Washington and California coasts. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418920.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:38:35 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418919.aspxState and tribal co-managers meeting in Seattle on Thursday agreed on a package of salmon fisheries that they says meets conservation goals for wild salmon populations, while providing fishing opportunities on healthy stocks. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418919.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:37:14 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418918.aspxColumbia Land Trust and the Bonneville Power Administration on Wednesday announced the purchase of 560 acres near the mouth of the Columbia River to permanently protect riverside habitat for Northwest fish and wildlife, including threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418918.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:35:05 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418917.aspxU.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, and Mark Begich, D-AK, have called for a clear federal action plan to address the tsunami debris off the Pacific Coast, following the discovery in March of a tsunami-swept Japanese fishing vessel off the coast of Canada. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418917.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:31:18 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418916.aspxThe report, “Preparing for a Changing Climate: Washington State’s Integrated Climate Change Response Strategy,” was released this week. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418916.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:29:41 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418915.aspxA task force that conducted one of the most comprehensive analyses of global “forage fish” populations issued its report this week, which strongly recommends implementing more conservative catch limits for these crucial prey species. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418915.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:28:15 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418914.aspxThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun implementing its 2012 Fish Operations Plan addressing Columbia River Basin juvenile salmon and steelhead migration to the ocean. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418914.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:26:04 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418913.aspxDavid J. Ponganis has been named Programs Director for the Northwestern Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, headquartered in Portland. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418913.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:24:50 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418911.aspxThe Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife collared a 96-pound male wolf from the Wenaha pack Monday in northwestern Wallowa County. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418911.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:22:52 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418910.aspxNOAA’s Fisheries Service announced Monday that, after considering the “best scientific and commercial data available, it has decided that chinook salmon stocks in the Upper Klamath and Trinity rivers basin of southern Oregon and northern California do not warrant listing as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418910.aspxFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:20:33 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418604.aspxFor eight years and counting, the timing of the annual surge of spring chinook up the Columbia River has lagged behind previous experience. And the hope this year for fishers and fish conservationists is that that trend is continuing, since the number of upriver spring chinook passing over Bonneville Dam through March 27 has totaled only 33 adult fish. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418604.aspxFri, 30 Mar 2012 18:59:45 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418603.aspxFor 28 years the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has been responsible for counting adult salmon, steelhead and other fish that pass upstream through Columbia and Snake River hydro projects each year. But a change could be in the offing. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418603.aspxFri, 30 Mar 2012 18:57:55 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418602.aspxThe legal debate over whether salmon-eating California sea lions can be lethally removed from lower Columbia River waters should be moved to an Oregon-based court, according to a “joint stipulation and proposed order” filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418602.aspxFri, 30 Mar 2012 18:55:57 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418601.aspxA recent surge of precipitation, and a forecast of more to come, the Snake River basin’s water supply forecast has become rosier, with the predicted April-August outflow pushing above 100 percent of average for the first time this season. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418601.aspxFri, 30 Mar 2012 18:54:11 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418598.aspxResearch on northeast Oregon’s Catherine Creek is helping to focus habitat restoration efforts needed to recover the creek’s spring chinook, steelhead and bull trout populations, which are all listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418598.aspxFri, 30 Mar 2012 18:52:38 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418597.aspxBycatch reduction devices have been part of the Oregon pink shrimp fishery for more than a decade, but this season the entire Oregon shrimp fleet will use the cleanest, most effective BRDs yet when the season opens April 1. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418597.aspxFri, 30 Mar 2012 18:51:01 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418596.aspxA leak was repaired Tuesday in a sewage pipe in Trail, British Columbia, where a coupler broke, spilling raw sewage into the Columbia River. The estimate of raw sewage spilled to the river was estimated at about 1.15 million gallons. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418596.aspxFri, 30 Mar 2012 18:49:41 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418595.aspxThe Washington Department of Ecology has issued a permit that means the Mill Pond Dam in Pend Oreille County can come down, restoring Sullivan Creek to the mountain stream it once was. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418595.aspxFri, 30 Mar 2012 18:48:32 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418594.aspxWind turbines in the Bonneville Power Administration’s transmission grid generated over 4,000 megawatts for the first time on Sunday, March 11, producing nearly twice as much energy as that generated by coal, gas and nuclear plants connected to BPA’s system at that time. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418594.aspxFri, 30 Mar 2012 18:46:53 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418593.aspxTwo new NOAA Sea Grant studies will look at how new business models, based on the success of community supported agriculture, could benefit fishing communities in Washington, Oregon, and California. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418593.aspxFri, 30 Mar 2012 18:44:27 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418331.aspxA federal judge on Thursday denied a request that sea lion trapping below the lower Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam be forestalled while newly filed litigation plays out. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418331.aspxFri, 23 Mar 2012 20:31:17 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418330.aspxThe Oregon Supreme Court on Monday issued opinions certifying wording for ballot titles for a trio of initiatives aimed at banning commercial non-Indian gill-net fishing on the mainstem Columbia River. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418330.aspxFri, 23 Mar 2012 20:27:55 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418329.aspxAfter a relatively slow start to the 2011-2012 wintertime snow-water collection period, Mother Nature has served up enough precipitation over the past few weeks to prompt evacuations of water behind hydro projects to assure there’s space to handle the spring meltdown that’s ahead. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418329.aspxFri, 23 Mar 2012 20:25:43 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418328.aspxThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday announced that those involved in a budding bull trout reintroduction program in northwest Oregon’s Clackamas River are among the recipients of 2011 Recovery Champion awards, which honors agency employees and partners for outstanding efforts to conserve and protect endangered and threatened species of fish, wildlife and plants. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418328.aspxFri, 23 Mar 2012 20:24:12 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418327.aspxThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that the public will have an additional 60 days to submit comments regarding the agency’s proposed critical habitat designation for the southern Selkirk Mountains woodland caribou, an endangered mammal known to occur in the states of Idaho and Washington and in British Columbia, Canada. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418327.aspxFri, 23 Mar 2012 20:21:30 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418326.aspxIdaho Power’s trout-stocking program can bring some thrills to a lot of anglers, and none bigger than the one Marvin Channer of Boise got when he recently won $1,000 in the twice-annual jaw-tag drawing. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418326.aspxFri, 23 Mar 2012 20:20:16 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418325.aspxHow do we understand what's happening today by looking back millions of years? Scientists are looking at what climate conditions were like 3.3 to 3 million years ago, during a geologic period known as the Pliocene, and they are confident in the accuracy of their data. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418325.aspxFri, 23 Mar 2012 20:18:38 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418324.aspxIn the search for sustainability of the ocean's fisheries, can solutions be found in the ancient past? http://www.cbbulletin.com/418324.aspxFri, 23 Mar 2012 20:17:00 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418013.aspxState officials are hoping that the third time is the charm as regards to their desire to remove salmon-munching California sea lions from the lower Columbia River. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418013.aspxFri, 16 Mar 2012 19:15:40 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418012.aspxLeaders of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission's member tribes expressed support Thursday for NOAA Fisheries’ decision to authorize the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington to permanently remove California sea lions that travel up the Columbia River each spring to prey on returning salmon spawners. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418012.aspxFri, 16 Mar 2012 19:14:19 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418011.aspxThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has launched a process aimed at determining what management actions might be undertaken to reduce avian predators’ impacts on protected Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead in the mid-Columbia plateau region. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418011.aspxFri, 16 Mar 2012 19:12:33 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418010.aspxThe complete elimination of the West Coast’s largest double-crested cormorant colony, located each spring and summer just inside the mouth of the Columbia River at East Sand Island, could, as a result of reduced predation on juvenile fish, boost populations of upriver steelhead by as much as 2.5 percent, according to a recent research report. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418010.aspxFri, 16 Mar 2012 19:11:14 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418009.aspxHow would Flathead Lake’s complex food web and ecology change if an aggressive netting project started removing 140,000 lake trout every year? http://www.cbbulletin.com/418009.aspxFri, 16 Mar 2012 19:09:53 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418008.aspxAs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers team at Ice Harbor Lock and Dam performs repairs of power transformer heat exchangers or “cooling units” that recently leaked oil into the river, the Corps says it is taking precautions to protect Endangered Species Act-listed fish. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418008.aspxFri, 16 Mar 2012 19:08:33 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418007.aspxEfforts already under way this spring at the Berggren Watershed Conservation Area continue to improve habitats for fish and wildlife on the lower McKenzie River. They are also helping to protect the river’s water quality. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418007.aspxFri, 16 Mar 2012 19:05:47 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/418006.aspxThe Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday denied a challenge to congressional action that effectively de-listed wolves in the Northern Rockies last year. http://www.cbbulletin.com/418006.aspxFri, 16 Mar 2012 19:03:06 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/417718.aspxColumbia-Snake river water supply forecasts for the approaching warm months remain “below normal, but not drastically so,” according to the Steve King of NOAA’s Northwest River Forecast Center in Portland. http://www.cbbulletin.com/417718.aspxFri, 09 Mar 2012 20:36:41 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/417717.aspxBetween now and May the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and staff will mull independent scientific assessments and testimony from an international group of proponents and others regarding the potential value Pacific Ocean research might provide in efforts to recover imperiled Columbia River basin salmon stocks. http://www.cbbulletin.com/417717.aspxFri, 09 Mar 2012 20:35:17 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/417716.aspxThe Bonneville Power Administration on Tuesday announced a proposed new approach to addressing situations when too much energy is available for delivery to power customers through a Pacific Northwest transmission system that the federal power marketing agency largely controls. http://www.cbbulletin.com/417716.aspxFri, 09 Mar 2012 20:33:54 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/417715.aspxThe Pacific Northwest is likely to continue producing more electricity than it needs in the spring and early summer, a time when demand for power usually is low and the supply of hydropower and wind power can be high because of seasonal storms and the annual snowmelt runoff in the region’s rivers, says an analysis by Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff. http://www.cbbulletin.com/417715.aspxFri, 09 Mar 2012 20:32:27 GMThttp://www.cbbulletin.com/417714.aspxJust over a week after the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes decided to expand an environmental review process for a controversial lake trout netting project on Flathead Lake, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has withdrawn its support for the process. http://www.cbbulletin.com/417714.aspxFri, 09 Mar 2012 20:31:05 GMT