Stay connected
Follow the Federal Caucus on Twitter Follow the Federal Caucus on Twitter

The salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin are one of the great icons of the Pacific Northwest. Born in the Columbia and Snake Rivers and their tributaries, they migrate to the Pacific Ocean and back through many dams, farms and populated areas. Thirteen populations of these amazing fish are identified as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The Federal Caucus is a group of ten federal agencies operating in the Columbia River Basin that have natural resource responsibilities related to the ESA. This Web site provides information about the Caucus and its activities to protect and recover ESA-listed fish in the Columbia River Basin.





Announcements

Hemlock Dam downstream

Aug. 5, 2010:  Wild steelhead are swimming up Trout Creek in southwest Washington’s Wind River now that Hemlock Dam is gone. Bonneville Power Administration and the US Forest Service partnered with many others to take out the obsolete dam last year.  Watch a short video of what the stream looks like today.

July 22, 2010:  The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has completed its purchase, funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, of a former southeast Idaho fish hatchery site with the goal of constructing a new hatchery to further boost rebounding numbers of endangered Snake River sockeye salmon.  See press release and fact sheet.  

June 29, 2010: This decade is shaping up to be one of the best for adult fish returns to the Columbia River since Bonneville Dam was completed in 1938, with three remarkable years: 2001, 2002 and now 2010.  See Federal Caucus news release.

June 21, 2010: Dam passage improvements are part of a four-year implementation plan for the FCRPS BiOp the action agencies released today. The plan outlines a comprehensive program of habitat improvements, hatchery reforms and hydrosystem operations and improvements to protect Columbia and Snake river fish.

June 11, 2010:   The federal government has filed the Corps of Engineers’ 2010 Summer Fish Operations Plan.  Spill operations are largely a continuation of the summer spill operations in 2009.

May 20, 2010: The federal goverment today filed a supplemental FCRPS BiOp considering new research and fully integrating the Adaptive Management Implementation Plan into the 2008 FCRPS BiOp. Two years into the implementation of this BiOp, the region's efforts to protect salmon are on course.  See press statement and overview fact sheet.

April 21, 2010: The Court has issued an order on spring 2010 operations for fish on the FCRPS.

April 19, 2010:  The federal government today filed a reply brief and the Federal Agencies' final determination on transport operations for spring 2010.  See also press statement.

April 3, 2010:  The Corps began spring spill operations today at the four Snake River dams, consistent with the 2010 spring fish operations plan.  Major improvements have rendered the lower Columbia and lower Snake River dams more fish friendly than when they were constructed. Juvenile in-river survival is nearly twice as high as it was in the mid-to-late 1970s.  See news release here.

March 31, 2010:  The Corps of Engineers has prepared a fish operations plan for 2010 spring operations at its mainstem FCRPS dams.  The plan is consistent with 2009 Court-ordered spring spill operations.  See court submittal here.

March 31, 2010: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today released a plan of study identifying steps if needed for evaluating the breaching of one or more of the lower Snake River dams.

Feb. 19, 2010: US District Court Judge James Redden today entered a voluntary remand order on the 2008 NOAA Fisheries FCRPS BiOp. The order grants the federal defendants' request for a limited, voluntary remand to consider, among other actions, integrating the Adaptive Management Implementation Plan into the BiOp. See also statement of NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco.

Jan. 29, 2010: The federal government today filed a reply brief in U.S. District Court presenting legal options to allow for the Court's proper consideration of the Administration's review of the FCRPS BiOp.

Jan. 22, 2010: The action agencies sent a letter to NOAA Fisheries today saying that the status of Upper Columbia Spring Chinook is unlikely to drop below the Adaptive Management Implementation Plan Significant Decline threshold in 2010 or 2011. More information here.

Jan. 13, 2010: The US Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a proposal to revise the critical habitat designation for threatened bull trout, designating 22,679 miles of streams and 533,426 acres of lakes and reservoirs in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana and Nevada as critical habitat for the wide-ranging fish. More information on bull trout here.

Jan. 4, 2010: The Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 will host a workshop on Columbia River toxics reduction Feb. 25, 2010, in Portland, Oregon. See the Region 10 website for more information and an agenda.

More Announcements    
Salmon Map

There are 13 ESA-listed stocks that migrate through the Columbia River and its tributaries to
get to the Pacific Ocean. In addition, two native stocks (bull trout and sturgeon) are affected
by operation of the federal dams. These are the stocks that the federal caucus works to protect
and recover.