Breaching the four lower Snake River dams and increasing spill at the four lower Columbia River dams would provide the largest benefits for several ESA-listed salmon, but would also result in unacceptably high adverse impacts to hydropower, navigation, irrigation and existing recreation. Read more
Leaders of several utilities and conservation groups have come together to find common goals surrounding issues around the lower Snake River, and are asking governors of the four Northwest states to start developing a long-term solution to a controversy marked by decades of court battling. Read more
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown expressed her state's support for breaching the four lower Snake River dams as part of a long-term solution to salmon recovery in a letter sent Feb. 11 to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. Read more
A flurry of letters and statements about the Columbia River System Operations draft EIS preceded its actual Feb. 28 release. Read more
The long-awaited draft EIS for the Columbia River System Operations (CRSO) will soon be completed and released. As a reporter, I want to be prepared for this important document. What’s in the final EIS and subsequent Record of Decision will have a big impact on the future of the region. It m… Read more
Harkening back to its success in getting support for federal legislation to remove sea lions preying on endangered Columbia Basin fish, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission approached the Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Feb. 11 seeking a similar collaboration to addres… Read more
The Upper Snake River Tribes Foundation, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, individual tribes and nonprofit groups are objecting to Idaho Power's settlement offer, which would use some of the measures from its settlement agreement for a water quality certification as articles f… Read more
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has started a public scoping process to establish new regulations to expand options for the lethal take of double-crested cormorants, including those that prey on both wild and stocked fish. Read more
A plan to combat climate change released by the Washington Department of Natural Resources calls for increasing the use of state lands to develop renewable energy and accelerating salmon and orca recovery efforts as part of a larger effort to curb carbon emissions, increase carbon sequestrat… Read more
Thirteen new projects to benefit fish in the Deschutes Basin will receive a total of $4.5 million in a fifth round of funding established as part of the 2005 Pelton Round Butte Hydroelectric relicensing agreement. Read more
Pacific Rivers filed a motion Feb. 12 seeking to intervene in Idaho Power's application with FERC to relicense the Hells Canyon Complex. Read more
Washington and Oregon have agreed to the same regulations on the Columbia River for fishing gear and allocations between sport and commercial fisheries this year. Read more
The total area in the Pacific Northwest still abnormally dry or in moderate drought shrank considerably since Jan. 1, according to a Feb. 24 webinar by the National Integrated Drought Information System. Read more
A double-tanker truck overturned on Oregon’s Highway 22 on Feb. 16, spilling 7,871 gallons of fuel, some of which seeped into the North Santiam River—a tributary of the Willamette River—about 60 miles east of Salem, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality reported. Oregon and the U.S.… Read more
