Federal executives comment on new approach for salmon recovery

PR 32 07

PORTLAND, Ore. – Federal action agencies are proposing expanded actions to support recovery of Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead, representing the most comprehensive approach ever conducted to help Endangered Species Act-listed fish in the Northwest. The Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation are making the following resources available to help convey the importance of these plans for the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS), how these plans differ from the past, how they respond to direction from the courts, how they took collaboration to a new level and how science leads the proposed recovery actions.

Under the Endangered Species Act, a federal agency whose proposed actions may affect a species (or its habitat) listed as threatened or endangered must assess the potential impacts of its actions in a document called a “biological assessment” (BA). The FCRPS action agencies have submitted the proposed actions and comprehensive analysis to NOAA Fisheries, which will conduct its own independent analysis of the actions and will determine whether the proposed actions will avoid jeopardy to the listed species.  

Below are resources to help learn about the agencies’ proposed expanded actions:

Audio interviews of federal executives

• Audio interview with Steve Wright, BPA administrator and Witt Anderson, chief of planning and environmental resources, Northwest Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the importance of Columbia River Basin BA documents.
  
  Full nine minute interview segment with both executives

• Wright answers the following questions:
• What’s the significance of the agencies’ filing with NOAA Fisheries? If you’re a citizen of the Northwest, why should this matter? (Answer)
• The federal courts rejected the previous plans – what did you do to respond to the court with this proposed plan? (Answer)
• When the whole thing is said and done, do you think the federal agencies will produce a plan that the judge can support? ( Answer)
• Anderson answers the following questions
• Give some concrete examples of how these proposals are "different" from past proposals? (Answer)
• What are the next steps from here? (Answer)
• Meanwhile, with the development of plans and lots of attention on that matter, what's happening out in the river with fish recovery efforts? (Answer)  

• Additional closing perspective from both Wright and Anderson
  
  
• Audio interview with Bill MacDonald, regional director, Bureau of Reclamation, about the Upper Snake River BA.
• What are you proposing to do in the new Upper Snake Biological Assessment? (Answer)
• How does the Upper Snake BA fit into the FCRPS BA?  (Answer)
• What are the benefits of flow augmentation? (Answer)
• If the lower Snake River dams were removed, would you still do flow augmentation? (Answer)
• How does the Nez Perce water rights settlement fit in? (Answer)
  

• Video interviews of questions above with Wright and Anderson (please contact Mike Hansen of BPA at contact number above to request an e-mail of these high resolution video files).

Overview of FCRPS Actions to Advance Recovery (27 pages)
The history, development and the merits of the FCRPS analysis and proposed actions are highlighted in this piece. It tells the story of where we have been, what we have accomplished, and the collaborative steps we took along with the region to be able to present the BA and accompanying documents to NOAA Fisheries.

Complete Biological Assessments and Comprehensive Analysis (approx. 1,800 pages total)

This is the complete submittal to NOAA Fisheries for both the Columbia and Snake river systems, including the FCRPS BA and Appendix , the upper Snake River BA and a comprehensive analysis. The comprehensive analysis carefully analyzes the status of each of the listed stocks and the factors that have contributed to their decline, assesses the impact of the federal agencies’ proposed actions, and makes a determination of whether those actions and the actions of others will put that fish on a trend to recovery.

Executive summary (26 pages)
This is a synopsis of the three documents described above.

Citizens update(8 pages)
An illustrated citizens' guide to the three documents

Presentation (14 slides)
Overview of the contents of the documents, including graphics that may be helpful tools for media outlets.

Background

In October 2005, U.S. District Court Judge James Redden found the FCRPS Biological Opinion (BiOp) invalid. He was responding to lawsuits brought by environmentalists and fisheries groups against NOAA Fisheries, which issues the BiOps related to anadromous fish.  He remanded the BiOp back to NOAA Fisheries and directed the federal action agencies (BPA, Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation) to work with Columbia Basin tribes and the four Northwest states to develop a new Proposed Action: that is, the collection of measures to be carried out by the federal action agencies on behalf of Columbia Basin fish listed under the Endangered Species Act. In addition, in a separate lawsuit, the BiOp for 12 federal projects in the upper Snake River was remanded by the Court for correction on the same grounds as the FCRPS BiOp.

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