[1] House Bill Would Give Congress OK To Breach Snake Dams
With the Obama administration expected to announce its position on the 2008 hydro BiOp by last Friday, a last-minute PR blitz by BiOp critics spilled over into proposed legislation that calls for more study of "all" recovery options for Columbia Basin salmon--"all" being the code for breaching lower Snake dams. But the sense of urgency dissipated after judge James Redden gave the administration another month to study it.
The latest flap came after Washington Rep. Jim McDermott (D) introduced a new version of his old salmon planning bill July 31 that included a provision giving Congress the authority to breach the dams.
The current 10-year salmon plan doesn't include any possibility for breaching those four dams because federal attorneys had argued that it was not an action reasonably certain to occur.
Most critics of the plan disappeared--except for environmental and fishing groups, the state of Oregon and the Nez Perce Tribe--after BPA promised some Columbia Basin tribes and states nearly $1 billion in salmon recovery money in exchange for supporting the plan and promises not to stump for dam removal over the next 10 years.
McDermott's bill--the latest version of proposed legislation he has championed for years--calls for a scientific analysis of all salmon recovery efforts, including dam removal, to be provided by the National Academy of Sciences.
None of McDermott's previous efforts at putting the salmon recovery study into law has made it out of committee, and there is no reason to think that his latest effort will fare any better.
It has already incurred the wrath of another Washington congressman, Doc Hastings (R), who vowed to stop it.
"One of first places this dam removal bill will land in Congress is on my desk as the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, and I pledge to do everything in my power to stop it," Hastings said.
Congressional support is waning for McDermott's salmon legislation. He has only 21 co-sponsors this time around. In 2007, he had 32 co-sponsors. In 2005, 76 other representatives co-sponsored the proposal.
According to the bill's language, "Recent studies indicate that the window of time to protect and restore Snake River salmon and steelhead is short, with scientists estimating that, if changes do not occur, several of the remaining Snake River populations could be extinct within the next 20 years."
Two years ago, in his letter soliciting support from other politicians, McDermott said the fish could be extinct in 15 years.
The bill language doesn't cite any particular study to back up its claim, but it is likely based on a largely discredited 2001 analysis funded by the environmental group Trout Unlimited that cherry-picked data to reach its conclusions.
But earlier this year, the extinction theme was picked up by the federal BiOp judge, James Redden. Last May, at a non-public meeting between litigants, he made continual references to the possibility of the Snake River salmon going extinct by 2017, shortly after an article in High Country News dredged up the 2001 study.
The federal government's latest salmon plan disputes that notion, and says most ESA-listed runs are "trending towards recovery."
In fact, the region is poised to see the real possibility of a record run of ESA-listed Snake River spring chinook next year, if this spring's astounding jack counts are any indication.
That hasn't stopped McDermott, his allies at Taxpayers for Common Sense and other politicians from making another run at it. Only one other Northwest politician has expressed support for the proposed legislation, Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D), who issued his own statement after the bill was introduced.
"Some have equated knowing the facts with actually triggering the process to remove the dams," he wrote. "My position over the years has been consistently to support evaluating all options for salmon recovery. The studies authorized by the bill will help us determine the consequences of dam removal not only for Northwest salmon, but also for transportation, energy, and irrigation in the region."
Blumenauer didn't mention the huge effort completed by the Corps of Engineers in 2001 that looked at different alternatives for fish passage on the lower Snake, including dam breaching, and considered social and economic consequences as well as expected biological benefits.
The six-year, $20-million study found--to no one's surprise--that the agency preferred to make major system improvements at the four dams, rather than tear them out.
The drastic breaching alternative had originally come to light after an interim review found that partial-year drawdowns of reservoirs behind the dams would cost more and probably help fish less than simply breaching them and paying the economic price.
By 1999, the Corps had narrowed the range of alternatives to three others besides breaching: existing condition, maximum fish transport, and the major system improvements.
Nearly 9,000 people attended meetings throughout the Northwest to discuss the options. The Corps collected 230,000 written comments before it was all over.
Nearly 10 years ago, the 2000 NMFS hydro BiOp called for resolution of these questions and for dam breaching studies to begin if listed fish runs didn't improve. But it also concluded that even if survival through the hydro system were 100 percent, return rates would be too low to maintain the runs, so the BiOp recommended extensive off-site mitigation efforts to help fish--especially in the first year of their life.
But Judge Redden threw that BiOp out because many of those habitat actions were non-specific and funding for them was not guaranteed.
Since then, the listed runs have generally improved, and until the latest court challenge, the dam breaching issue had been simmering.
Glenn Vanselow, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, said that in two previous attempts at pushing the salmon planning legislation, McDermott had even removed language that gave Congress authorization to have the dams breached.
But with the Obama administration getting close to reporting its position on the BiOp to Judge Redden, Vanselow says the breaching language in McDermott's bill is probably just a way to get more visibility for the option.
Vanselow was confident that the administration had no reason not to support the BiOp because it was based on a general collaboration throughout the region and on sound, up-to-date science.
If the Obama administration supports the BiOp, Vanselow said, the judge may be convinced that it is not just a political product based on Bush administration policies, as critics have portrayed it, but a science-based recovery plan built on unbiased analysis.
Environmental groups are still trying to paint the hydro BiOp as a product of Bush-era thinking. On Aug. 5, the Save Our Wild Salmon coalition orchestrated the release of a letter written by three former Northwest governors that called on President Obama to dump the current salmon plan and begin settlement talks with all parties. Downplaying the BiOp's collaborative nature--most states and tribes in the Columbia Basin support it--former governors Mike Lowry (Washington), Cecil Andrus (Idaho) and John Kitzhaber (Oregon) said they think the judge will find it illegal and recommended the administration begin settlement talks with all parties.
"Dialog among key parties on the salmon, energy, water and jobs issues at stake here has never entirely died," the letter said, "but it was not a priority for the last administration. Bringing people together to find lawful, science-based solutions that help people, create jobs, and build the green economy of tomorrow is a priority for you, and it is exactly what is needed in this case."
Sources said that White House officials met again with NOAA personnel on Aug. 6 in Washington, D.C., to discuss elements of the BiOp, with updated information from NOAA scientists.
No one wants to bet just how far the new administration will go to please Redden. Some say the White House may actually support NMFS' own studies that contradict the judge's court-ordered spill regime. The scientists say the added spill in May short-changes survival of Snake spring chinook and steelhead because it reduces the number of juvenile fish that are transported downstream by barge.
Redden had suggested that before he would approve the 2008 BiOp, it would need more spill at dams, and more habitat improvement actions, particularly in the estuary, along with a provision to study other recovery alternatives, like breaching the lower Snake dams if the listed stocks didn't improve.
Action agencies are reportedly working feverishly on a contingency plan to satisfy the judge, and it will most likely include some language that calls for the Corps of Engineers to initiate breaching studies in case listed fish populations don't stay in recovery mode.
Some sources tell NW Fishletter that the White House is actually convinced the current BiOp is scientifically sound, but will still do most everything it can to placate the judge, whether based on the best science or not, because they feel if this BiOp goes down, any BiOp could go down.
If Redden does approve the BiOp, plaintiff groups may still appeal his decision if they feel they can get even more concessions in the future.
If breaching studies end up as part of the final deal, it does raise one question--just what did BPA get for the $1 billion it spent on states and tribes to keep the breaching issue out of the BiOp equation? -Bill Rudolph
[2] Judge Gives Administration Another Month To Study BiOp
Last week, BiOp judge James Redden gave federal officials another month to work on their final position in regard to the latest plan for operating dams and saving salmon, but it looks less likely that any kind of settlement with plaintiffs in the ongoing litigation will be reached.
The feds, scheduled to report to the judge Aug. 14, said they needed more time to talk to all plaintiffs and explain their process and position before reporting to the court.
On Aug. 10, Judge Redden OK'd the feds' latest request. The next day, plaintiffs filed their own request for a status conference with the judge and other parties to air their concerns about the process.
Despite repeated requests, they said, they had not had any "meaningful engagement" with agencies and the administration to determine whether further talks were warranted.
So far, the plaintiffs have presented their positions to administration officials in two hour-long listening sessions. Defendant-intervenors got equal time. Federal officials have also heard from agency scientists, and independent ones, as well.
After reviewing some documents and emails garnered through the FOIA process, plaintiffs said it was clear the administration was moving forward to accept the "Bush" salmon plan, and that deficiencies in the 2008 BiOp, identified by both plaintiffs and the judge, "apparently have been largely ignored or down-played."
But the judge denied their request on Aug. 12 without any explanation, which surprised some long-time policy wonks and short-circuited a noisy press release from environmental groups. The release touted a letter sent to Commerce secretary Gary Locks by more than 100 "scientists" that asked him to reconsider the current salmon plan.
Plaintiff environmental and fishing groups, Oregon, and intervenor the Nez Perce Tribe are clearly worried about the direction the administration is headed.
"We are willing to talk about the next steps and would love to find some common ground with this administration, but we're skeptical about their path," said Nicole Cordan, legal and policy director of the Save Our Wild Salmon coalition, in a press release. "Unfortunately, nothing that we've heard or seen to date indicates that we're likely to see anything more than the same general Bush administration salmon plan 30 days from now. Adopting the standards and analysis in the Bush plan while adding a few additional bows to the box, doesn't change the contents of the box--it's still an illegal and scientifically corrupt plan, not the result of a thoughtful review by an administration that has repeatedly stated the importance of scientific integrity."
The increasing likelihood that the administration will add breaching studies of the four dams to the BiOp to satisfy the judge has led the plaintiffs to wage an all-out war in the press. Both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times wrote editorials last week calling on the administration the dump the current salmon recovery plan.
"It has become clear," plaintiffs said in their filing, "that that the unilateral process federal defendants have followed to finalize their decision jeopardizes any opportunity that may remain to resolve this controversy. In order for this process to lead to any correction of the deficiencies in the 2008 BiOp, there must be a marked change of course in both substance and process by federal defendants."
Plaintiffs accused BPA and other federal agencies of presenting the Obama Administration with misleading information, an accusation that was echoed in the SOWS press release.
But plaintiffs themselves downplayed the improving numbers of listed fall chinook, runs that have actually surpassed recovery thresholds in recent years, by noting that "the adult returns have not been sustained over any meaningful period of time..."
They also said dam removal costs cited in a April 29 presentation by federal agencies to administration officials were lowballed by BPA, and that the amount of power needed to make up for the loss of the dams was overestimated.
But on Aug. 13, Paul Norman, BPA senior vice president for Power Services fired back, saying the plaintiffs "misrepresented the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's recent analysis of dam removal costs.
"We stand by the high end of our $450 to $850 million range of costs of dam removal," said Norman in a letter to SOWS' executive director Pat Ford.
An analysis of dam removal costs, evidently completed by Northwest Energy Coalition staffer Steve Weiss, provided the basis for the contested numbers. His analysis concluded that it would cost the region only $173 million to $321 million a year to replace the power lost by taking out the four lower Snake dams.
Norman said the Council's cost estimate was based on "average" forecasts of natural gas prices and CO2 emissions, but costs could actually be much higher. He also noted the Council estimate did not add in the value on the reserves and voltage support provided by those four projects.
Norman also said the plaintiffs' statement that only 750 aMW of the dams' 1,100 aMW output would be replaced, was also incorrect.
"Their [the Council's] analysis," said Norman, "reflects the reality that essentially all of the dams' 1,100 aMW would have to be replaced, either through construction of new power plants or increased output from existing power plants. Most of this generation would be C02 emitting and would cost much more than operating these dams."
Norman said the Council analysis did not show that conservation and renewables would be the replacement resources if the dams were removed, "since these resources will be developed even with the dams in place."
He also pointed out that the Council analysis verified that dam removal would boost carbon emissions by 3 to 4 million tons per year, from replacement of hydro by fossil-fuel generation.
He said dam removal would push carbon emissions up, and keep the region from reaching the Oregon goal for emission reductions.
Norman said the SOWS' rate impact estimates were also wrong , because the power replacement costs were too low.
"Parenthetically," said Norman," I would note that fully one-third of BPA's power rates to our 130 utility customers go to cover the costs of the current fish recovery program. If the costs of replacing the dams were added to BPA's rates, this would increase the impact to over half of our rates."
He noted that the four dams' output was almost equal to the 1,200 aMW of conservation tha BPA and its customers have achieved over the past 27 years at a cost of more than $2 billion.
On Aug. 17, federal attorneys sent a letter to all parties in the litigation inviting them to meet sometime around the end of the month. They said regional federal executives will attend as well. "We envision a morning session where the Administration will present its current position on the FCRPS BiOp and then the plaintiffs could present what they believe is required to settle this litigation. In the afternoon, we would enlist the aid of a mediator to facilitate a discussion to determine if there are areas of common ground."
They said even a second meeting might be possible. Neither would be open to the public.
Many of the same parties took part in mediation over the 2000 FCRPS BiOp, In a process that took more than a year, it ultimately failed to resolve differences over the old salmon plan which included dam breaching studies to commence if fish numbers hadn't reached certain levels five to eight years after implementation. Plaintiffs ultimately walked away from the table. -B. R.
[3] Harvest Managers Expect More Fall Chinook This Year
Columbia Basin harvest managers expect about 20 percent more fall chinook to return in 2009 than last year, when nearly 450,000 made it back to the river, according to the July 16 joint staff report from Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife departments.
That puts this year's projection firmly in line with the average return over the past 10 years. It's also continuing an upward trend from the 219,000-fish return in 2007.
Upriver stocks will make up more than half of this year's run to the Columbia River mouth, the harvest managers say, including a 6,600-fish return of wild Snake River falls.
That's good news for the region, since the stock is listed for ESA protection and doing much better than in the 1990s, thanks to improved ocean conditions and a hatchery supplementation program.
With a projected 270,000-fish return, upriver brights bound for Hanford Reach are expected to make up a little more than half the total return, while Bonneville hatchery tules are not predicted to show up in as many numbers as last year. Only 58,000 are estimated--60 percent of last year's return and the 10-year average.
The wild lower Columbia fall chinook, the only other fall stock that is now listed under the ESA, should also do better than last year. Managers predict about 8,600--only 58 percent of the 10-year average, but about twice 2007's return.
Last year, the lower river wilds surprised everybody and showed up in about 90 percent better numbers than the pre-season prediction of only 3,800 fish.
Select area brights, the Rogue River-based chinook stock raised in net pens near Astoria to support a local commercial fishery, are also pegged to do well. About 12,000 are predicted to return, close to last year's number and well above the 10-year average. Managers say cuts in the ocean chinook fishery off the Oregon coast have helped improve the return.
Steelhead returns are expected to be close to last year's 355,000 fish, which was 18 percent above the 10-year average.
The Group B stock (hatchery plus wild) heading for Idaho is forecast at about 21 percent better than the 10-year average. However, the ESA-listed wild component of the "B" steelhead run is predicted to be only about half the size of last year's 18,500-fish return, which was the largest wild return since 2002, when 32,000 wild B steelhead returned to Idaho.
Huge numbers of steelheaad were counted passing Bonneville Dam last week, likely due to the fish moving again after piling up below the dam during the scorching heat in early August. About 125,000 steelhead were counted from Aug. 11-16. The 10-yr. average for that time frame is only about one-quarter of that number. Overall, this year's run of 323,000 steelhead is running 131,000 above the 10-yr. average of 192,000 fish.
Big expectations are also riding on this year's coho run, which is projected to show up in the 700,000-fish range, after accounting for 200,000 or so harvested before the run enters the river. Both early and late coho stocks are expected to show up 30 to 40 percent better than the recent 10-year average.
If the coho run materializes as expected, this year's return could be one of the best in the last 30 years. And current signals from ocean catches are already optimistic. If the run shows up as forecast, it would be the best count since 2001, when more than one million coho returned to the Columbia.
That million-fish-plus return was the flip-side of the La Niña bounce from earlier El Niño conditions and overharvest that decimated coho in the 1990s. Only 75,000 coho came back to the river in 1995.
This year's return of Lower Columbia chum, also listed for protection under the ESA, was not estimated by managers. In recent years, their numbers have declined from 2002-2004 returns. Last year, fish-per-mile observations for chum in tributaries declined to 255 from 1,634 in 2004. -B. R.
[4] Mussels Will Eventually Bug Northwest Dams, Experts Say
It's only a matter of time before Northwest hydro operators will be plagued by millions of tiny mussels, said a government scientist at the July meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
They will show up in the Northwest within five years, said Bureau of Reclamation botanist Fred Nibling. Hopefully, by then, ways will be developed to fight them successfully.
Nibling described his first-hand experience at dams on the lower Colorado, where zebra and quagga (slightly larger cousins) mussels have found perfect growing conditions at Bureau of Reclamation projects, including the mighty Hoover Dam, and have threatened to clog dam intakes and plug up pipes that cool huge turbine bearings.
But there are some things that can be done to deter the prolific mussels, Nibling said. One of the most promising ideas is to use a certain bacteria--actually, a dead one--to kill them. The bacteria produce natural compounds in the mussels' digestive systems that do them in. The agencies are waiting for EPA to approve its use.
Nibling said early detection is the key--it could buy two to four years' time to plan, budget and implement preventative measures.
Quagga mussels were actually discovered in Lake Mead four years before they showed up at Hoover Dam, he said.
"Once the mussels are in a water body, we don't believe there is any way to eradicate them from a reservoir or a stream, but you can take steps to protect your facilities," he said.
Nibling explained the lengths his agency has gone to in fighting the invasion of mussels that began in the Great Lakes in the late 1980s, spread from ballast water in a freighter that likely brought them in its bilge from the Caspian Sea.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation, formed a zebra mussel task force in early 1990s, spreading the word throughout 17 western states.
But despite a concerted effort to inspect all boats being trailered west from mussel-infested waters in the east, where they have clogged plumbing at municipal water plants and cooling pipes on tugboats, they began showing up west of the Mississippi River a few years ago.
Since then, zebra mussels have been found in Oklahoma, Kansas, and California's Central Valley, while DNA from both species has been detected in Colorado and Utah.
Nibling said agencies are now dealing with heavy infestations in Lake Mead that go all the way down to the Gulf of California. He said the Bureau's water distribution system has created a perfect distribution system for the mussels as well.
Once the mussel colonies are established, the larvae swim wherever the waters take them, Nibling said.
Conditions in the Colorado are much better for their growth than on the East Coast. Out here, they grow three times faster.
Unfortunately, the mussels' favorite place to attach themselves is concrete, with stainless steel and aluminum not far behind, Nibling said. He showed a photo of a fish screen at Parker Dam that he said provided perfect flows for their colonization.
However, experimentation has shown that mussels don't like attaching themselves to certain metals--copper, for instance, and galvanized iron.
But they have grown so prolific that they have reduced water flows through trash racks at Hoover Dam by 50 percent, while threatening to clog pipes that carry water to keep turbine bearings cool and well lubricated.
Nibling said adding preventative coatings to the insides of pipes and cleaning them has helped some, but even after the mussels die, their shells can be a problem by clogging systems.
The larvae can be kept out of some water systems by effective filtration or killed by UV light, but such strategies aren't practical with the huge volumes of water piped around at most dams.
"Don't give up hope," Nibling said. "The time you buy will save you money in the long run."
He said the mussels weren't discovered in the Colorado until they were in "full-phase growth." That's why Northwest agencies are ratcheting up their surveys for any sign that the invasive mussels have taken hold in these parts.
Another Bureau staffer, Curt Brown, told the council that the recent economic stimulus bill passed by Congress has provided funding to test 60 water bodies within Reclamation's purview. Those in the Northwest include Lake Cle Elum, Lake Roosevelt, Banks Lake, Hungry Horse Reservoir, and water bodies at Jackson, Palisades, American Falls, Anderson Ranch, Cascade and Owyhee.
States are testing additional lakes, Brown said, and the Bureau is working closely with them through the 100th Meridian Initiative to track mussel migration throughout the West and communicate their findings in a timely way.
"We may not like the results, but in eighteen months we'll know a lot more about where these organisms are and be able to more carefully plan for dealing with them," Brown told the council.
Oregon council member Melinda Eden called the presentation, "fascinating, but horrifying."
The region has already developed a rapid response plan to try and limit mussel multiplication once they are found in Northwest waters, but it may be too little, too late. The report said that more than 100 boats inspected between 2004 and 2006 were found to have mussels on their hulls. -B. R.
[5] Dam Managers Tweak Reservoir To Aid Fish
Water temperatures in Northwest rivers rose along with surface temperatures late last month, causing fish managers on both sides of the border to worry about the heat's effects on both young and old migrating salmon.
But on Canada's undammed Fraser River, where water temperatures are expected to reach nearly 72 F by Aug. 5, managers could only cross their fingers and hope for the best as early-run sockeye migrated upstream.
According to the Pacific Salmon Commission, if the river hit the estimate, it would be the highest Fraser temperature recorded in a nearly 100-year data set. It didn't quite make it, but peaked at 70 F.
In the Columbia Basin, dam operators and fish managers met in late July to see what they could do to improve conditions for migrating fish, both the late-migrating juveniles and returning salmonids.
They agreed to bump up outflows from Idaho's Dworshak Reservoir to 14 kcfs from 12 kcfs to help cool the Snake River above Lower Granite Dam where tailrace temps were slightly below 68 degrees by July 29. Sixty-eight degrees is generally considered a threshold for adverse effects on salmonids and is mandated in the Clean Water Act.
However, the 43-degree water from Dworshak was providing only limited help for fish, because 74-degree water was rolling down the Snake from Brownlee where Idaho Power was faced with mandatory releases from an unusually wet June.
But operational constraints at Dworshak (dissolved gas limits from spill) kept outflows to 14 kcfs, said dam operators at the July 29 meeting of the Technical Management Team. All were on board with the change, acknowledging that by using up more Dworshak water now, less will be available later in the season, when the adult chinook migration will be in full swing.
Managers were hoping that water in the tailrace at Lower Granite would head down to 67 degrees by Aug. 1, but they admitted that water temperatures were not behaving according to their model, which seemed stymied by the extra-hot water from Brownlee.
It's not the first time this season managers had gotten into hot water. Earlier in July, they had to change operations at McNary Dam after hot water from the Snake slid along the south side of the Columbia past their confluence and boosted temperatures up to 74 degrees in the fish bypass system at the dam. They said migrating juvenile salmon were highly stressed from passing into rapidly warming water (66 to 72 degrees) and began dying in large numbers by July 16.
On July 21, some fish managers requested a change in operations that would boost spill, reduce powerhouse flows and bypass fish back to the river on non-transport days.
The Corps agreed to spill to the total dissolved gas cap at McNary until barging began on July 24, when spill went back to 50-percent levels.
According to the fish managers' written request, up to 17 percent--about 11,000--of the young fall chinook collected for barging on July 18 died.
But most of the mortalities were hatchery fish. According to a July 24 Corps' memo, mortality of ESA-listed wild fall chinook during the July 16-22 period was estimated to be only around 400 smolts. At a generous 1-percent smolt-to-adult return rate, that would translate into less than four returning adults--more than 6,000 wild Snake fall chinook made it back to the Columbia last year.
In another memo that outlined the situation to federal BiOp judge James Redden, the Corps said if the temperature gradient in McNary's bypass system exceeded 3 degrees C from one end to the other, or if fish mortality exceeded 6 percent for three consecutive days, they would spill to the gas cap again until conditions improve.
By July 27, mortalities had dropped to about 1 percent after the operational changes were helped by declining water temperatures (to 70 degrees F). The third week in July is generally the hottest of the year on the Snake. After that, shorter days tend to help cool the river.
Luckily, the juvenile fish migration had dropped off considerably from its peak in early June. Only a thousand or so smolts were passing each lower Snake dam every day. The weather began cooling by the end of the week, so dam managers lowered the Dworshak outflow to 12 kcfs by Aug. 5. Flows from the Snake cooled down too.
But soon, adult fall chinook will begin showing up. They can benefit from cooler water temperatures, as well. There is already a considerable number of adult steelhead migrating upriver--thousands are passing Bonneville Dam every day.
If the Columbia gets too hot in August, adult chinook and steelhead tend to seek out cool-water refuges like tributary river mouths, where they will linger until water temperatures moderate -B. R.
[6] Council OKs $70 Million In Wildlife Funding
The wildlife portion of the region's BPA-funded Fish and Wildlife Program got a boost last month after the Northwest Power and Conservation Council approved $70 million in funding over the next five years. The money will pay for 34 projects vetted by the independent science panel that reviews the merit of F&W proposals.
Two other proposals that focused on southern Idaho wildlife mitigation didn't make the cut.
The five-year time frame marks a break with the three-year allocations in past F&W budgets. The extra time will allow for greater flexibility, according to a NWPCC staff memo, "much like the flexibility of a Columbia Basin Fish Accord."
The council also approved nearly $68 million for a capital budget for wildlife projects over the next three years.
Some of the priciest proposals include nearly $700,000 a year each for IDFG and the Albeni Falls Interagency Workgroup to restore and maintain habitat compromised by the Corps of Engineers' Albeni Falls hydro project, which regulates the level of Idaho's Lake Pend Oreille.
More than $1.5 million has been allocated for Colville Tribes wildlife mitigation; $700,000-plus a year for Kootenai Floodplain assessment (Kootenai Tribe) and a similar amount for Willamette Basin mitigation (ODFW).
BPA is even spending $91,000 a year to support WDFW efforts to recover Western pond turtles. -B. R.
[7] Niners Uphold Puget Sound Harvest Plan
The Ninth Circuit Court has nixed an appeal by conservation groups that argued the National Marine Fisheries Service had not properly factored recovery of Puget Sound's listed chinook into its harvest plan and biological opinion for the ESA-protected run.
The Niners' panel upheld the ruling by District Court Judge James Lasnik that said the agency deserved deference in its determination that since total recovery of the ESU was not achievable under current habitat conditions, the resource management plan developed by NMFS did not appreciably reduce the chinook ESU's chances of recovery.
"This conclusion," wrote the panel in its Aug. 14 decision, "and the methods adopted to reach it--was reasonable and entitled to substantial deference."
The plaintiff groups, the Salmon Spawning & Recovery Alliance, the Wild Fish Conservancy (formerly Washington Trout), Native Fish Society, and Clark-Skamania Flyfishers, took small comfort in comments added by Ninth Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon, who did take issue with part of the decision.
Though she did agree that NMFS was entitled to deference in its determination, she sided with the conservation groups who argued that NMFS acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" when it approved planned exploitation rates for the Georgia Strait region, because they were twice the benchmark rebuilding exploitation rates the agency had derived for the ESA-listed Nooksack River chinook.
Judge Berzon said NMFS' arguments that other factors would adequately protect chinook populations in the region were not reasonable. "Even if contributions from hatchery-origin spawners will 'buffer' the adverse effects of high exploitation rates, this justification cannot be squared with NMFS' repeated emphasis on maintaining the viability of the natural salmon population in each region."
The judge said the agency's argument that increasing natural-origin escapement trends justified a departure from its methodology was at odds with NMFS' previous conclusion that the absence of increasing natural-origin escapement among other populations justified higher exploitation rates.
Berzon didn't buy another NMFS claim--that Indian tribes' expertise regarding the conservation of trust resources would adequately protect the Nooksack River chinook. She said the statement was "vague."
She also faulted the agency for not providing any quantitative support for its proposition that these factors would compensate for the "dangers posed by high exploitation rates. The absence of quantitative analysis is particularly striking in light of the fact that the agency used complex data analysis techniques to drive the RERs [Rebuilding Exploitation Rates] and did not rely simply on speculation." -B. R.
[8] Fraser Sockeye Run Major Disappointment
After predicting a 2009 return of more than 10 million sockeye, Canadian biologists are stunned at the poor show of the country's premier sockeye run.
The first batch of returning Fraser sockeye, the Early Stuart run, returned at about half the original prediction of 165,000 fish.
The second peak, the Early Summer run, was expected to come in around 740,000, but only about 175,000 are expected now.
The largest component, the Summer run, was pegged at close to 9 million. However, after test fishing and initial inriver counts, only about 600,000 are now expected. Biologists estimate about 50 percent of them have already passed by southwest Vancouver Island.
Mike LaPointe, chief biologist with the Pacific Salmon Commission, said there isn't much of a chance that the Summer run is just late, since later-returning stocks like the Harrison Late-run are now showing up.
He said the only glimmer of good news is that the Harrison Late-run sockeye are likely returning at twice their expected number of 69,000 fish, and the river is cooling off for now to improve adult survival
LaPointe said the Harrison sockeye have a unique lifestyle compared to other Fraser stocks. They don't spend a year growing in freshwater lakes, but migrate down river shortly after they emerge from the gravel, and spend months hanging out in Georgia Strait before they head north to the Gulf of Alaska, via a route that takes them outside of Vancouver Island. Most Fraser juveniles quickly migrate up the inside.
These differences may have helped them survive better, said LaPointe, since Georgia Strait was fairly warm the year they went to sea in 2007.
Georgia Strait can be a hugely nutritious place for young salmon, but it has a tendency to stay warm long after El Nino events have come and gone in the nearby North Pacific and ocean waters have cooled into a more productive state.
The PSC Aug. 14 news release said the reason for the low returns of most Fraser stocks "are presently unknown," though several factors can be rejected. The parent run was a healthy 3.3 million fish, over a million more than average for this part of the Fraser cycle.
Commercial sockeye fishing has been totally shut down this year, with BC tribal fishers catching only 47,000 so far, for personal and ceremonial uses.
Freshwater survival of this year's run was exceptionally strong--77 million smolts left Chilko Lake in 2007, almost twice the previous high of the past 50 years.
The Commission says the low returns may be due to factors in marine areas sometime between ocean entry in the late spring and early summer of 2007 and the adult return in 2009. Farmed fish critics blame sea lice that the sockeye might have picked up from netpens on their migration up the inside of Vancouver Island.
However, the sockeye run in northern BC's Skeena River is extremely poor this year as well, but LaPointe said the wild sockeye from Vancouver Island's Barkely Sound seem to be coming in at expected numbers.
He said this year's cycle of the Fraser run was responsible for a 23-million fish return in 1993. He said it's hard to believe it has gotten this low.
The Fraser pink salmon run is expected to be a healthy 17.7 million fish this year. They swim by the netpens as well.
Further north, salmon runs have been a mixed bag. Bristol Bay showed a strong 31-million sockeye return, but in other parts of the state, sockeye returns have been disappointing.
In Prince William Sound, a 40-million-fish pink salmon projection has not materialized. So far, only 4 million have returned. -B. R.
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