Related links: Mainstem review page

June 11, 2003

BOISE ? The Council today approved a three-year, $34 million package of fish and wildlife improvement projects that squeezes as much work as possible from a limited budget in a time of financial crisis at the Bonneville Power Administration, the federal agency that pays for the work.

Collectively, the projects continue implementation of the Council's Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program and also the 2000 biological opinions on hydropower operations issued by NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for threatened and endangered fish species. The $34 million budget reflects an overall reduction in funding for the Council's fish and wildlife program imposed earlier this year by Bonneville. For 2003, Bonneville limited direct expenditures for the program to $139 million in reaction to the agency's financial crisis, a reduction of about $40 million over previously planned spending.

?The decision on this package of projects was very difficult for us, but we did the best we could with the budget we were given,? Council Chair Judi Danielson said. ?For each project, we asked whether the work is a Bonneville ratepayer responsibility or could be funded by others. Given the current financial crisis at Bonneville, we recommended a package of projects that will produce biological benefits and improve scientific knowledge at the lowest possible cost.?

Research, and fiscal restraint, dominates the recommended projects. For example, the package includes continued funding, but at a reduced level, for a popular sportfishing bounty program that targets northern pikeminnow, a voracious predator of juvenile salmon and steelhead. The Council cut the budget for that program in half, from $2.8 million to $1.4 million per year, in response to a recommendation from the Council's Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP). The ISRP reviewed and approved all of the projects recommended by the Council. After reviewing the pikeminnow project, the ISRP concluded the bounty fishery has been successful at reducing the pikeminnow population and that the reduction would continue even if the fishing ? and the funding ? were reduced. 

Also largely in response to budget concerns, the Council did not recommend continued funding for a project that tested the effectiveness of tanglenets in the lower Columbia commercial fishery. Tanglenets, which snare salmon and steelhead by their teeth rather than their gills, were effective. But the nets also caught excessive amounts of steelhead. Fixing that problem is a matter for state fish and wildlife managers who regulate harvest, not Bonneville, the Council reasoned.

The package of projects recommended by the Council includes $31 million in direct spending and $3 million in projects that require capital financing. Bonneville is required by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 to consider the Council's recommendations.

Here are web links to representative projects from the mainstem package:

• Pikeminnow management program
• Estimating survival of juvenile salmon and steelhead through the lower Snake and Columbia river dams
• Budget for the Fish Passage Center, which provides technical support for fish and wildlife agencies and Indian tribes in planning and implementing operation of the hydroelectric system
• Budget for the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority, which coordinates the participation of the region's fish and wildlife agencies in implementation of the Council's fish and wildlife program
• Identify the mechanisms of stranding juvenile fall chinook salmon in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River
• Evaluate delayed mortality of yearling chinook salmon passing through Snake River dams

See the complete list of recommended projects and supporting materials.

The Council is an agency of the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington and is directed by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 to prepare a program to protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife of the Columbia River Basin affected by hydropower dams while also assuring the region an adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply.