Julie Titone

Research needed to guide Northwest salmon recovery efforts could suffer because of a budget cut being considered in Congress. A 10 percent decrease in this year's National Biological Service budget is among cutbacks that the House of Representatives is expected to vote on March 15. It was approved last week by the House Appropriations Committee. The biological service does plant and animal research for the Interior Department. Agency officials said the proposed cutback could force the closure of all or most of four major research centers in Anchorage, Alaska; Seattle; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Lafayette, La.

While the summer level of Lake Pend Oreille won't be dropped as Sandpoint-area residents feared, the wintertime level remains open to question. The winter lake level will be discussed at a public meeting at 10 a.m. March 18 in the Sandpoint Community Center.

The government is about to pull the plug on the Northwest's reliable hydropower supply, say utility company managers. In drought years, they claim, power outages could result when water is stored to help endangered salmon rather than released through dam powerhouses. "In some years, it would be impossible to buy enough replacement power to make up the deficit; blackouts or curtailments would result," said industry spokesman Al Wright.

Hazel Bauman listens as local legislators respond to questions from the audience at Saturday's legislative forum at Sorensen Elementary. The forum was sponsored by the school's Parent Teacher Organization to give constituents a chance to ask their elected officials about school issues. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

The government is about to pull the plug on the Northwest's reliable hydropower supply, say utility company managers. In drought years, they claim, power outages could result when water is stored to help endangered salmon rather than released through dam powerhouses. "In some years, it would be impossible to buy enough replacement power to make up the deficit; blackouts or curtailments would result," said industry spokesman Al Wright.

A Sanders Beach couple has extended their front yard too close to the shoreline. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

(For the record, Wednesday, February 15, 1995): Greg Brown is leading the effort to pass the Idaho Black Bear Initiative. His last name was incorrect in a story on Page B3 in Tuesday's Idaho Spokesman-Review.

The Northwest Power Planning Council voted Thursday to listen once again to the scientific arguments behind its plan to save Columbia Basin salmon runs. They did so to educate new council members about the complex issue, and to satisfy those who oppose parts of the recovery plan.

The zinc in Lake Coeur d'Alene is helping to keep it free of ugly algae, according to research summarized here Wednesday. Zinc, which in high enough amounts is harmful to humans, exceeds federal levels for plant and animal life in the lake.

Loggers worry about jobs, nature-lovers about fish, and highway districts about road maintenance. Lots of people are fretting about a proposed rule to limit activity around small streams on Idaho's state and private lands. Others object to another possible change in forest practice rules, which would require state permits for burning logging slash.

Mike Beckwith checks the Enaville gauge on the North Fork. Photo by Julir Titone/The Spokesman-Review

The owner of Sandy Beach Resort says he's doing all he can to keep sewage out of Lake Cocolalla. His best hasn't been good enough for some lakeside residents. They believe state environmental officials should have done something by now to fix the long-standing problem of a poorly designed sewage lagoon. "The lagoon is full to the brim. This sewage has got to be going somewhere," said Duane Wentz. "When is this ever going to stop?"

The National Marine Fisheries Service is calling for big changes in the region's hydropower system, having finally decided that dams are pushing Snake River salmon toward extinction. Fish survival will no longer take a distant third behind flood control and hydropower, NMFS regional director Will Stelle said Wednesday.

Mike Kreidler didn't vote for Snake River drawdowns. He wasn't on the Northwest Power Planning Council when it approved a salmon recovery strategy that includes dropping reservoirs and making other costly changes in river operations. But the new council member from Washington said Wednesday that utility companies and others unhappy with such changes should learn to accept them. "They're in denial," Kreidler said on a visit to Spokane.

That's odd, Mike Kirschbaum thought when he saw a red boat bobbing in Idaho's Clearwater River. Must be some kind of rescue practice under way. But it was no practice. The two guys clinging to the capsized canoe on Monday afternoon were struggling for their lives.

Norm Linton and Greg Rapp lift the cover off of the underground oil recovery system that their company, Potlatch, has installed on the banks of the St. Joe River. Photo by Julie Titone/The Spokesman-Review

Norm Linton and Greg Rapp lift the cover off the underground oil recovery system that their company Potlatch, has installed on the banks of the St. Joe River. Photo by Julie Titone.

It slices, it dices. It rearranges the truth? A TV advertisement showing baby salmon in a blender is upsetting some supporters of the hydropower system. The ad - staunchly defended by the environmentalists who paid for it - suggests that fish are pulverized by turbines as they migrate through dams.

Idaho's governor is pleading with federal officials not to list the bull trout as endangered. He wants Northwest states allowed to lead recovery efforts. But at the same time, his state Department of Lands is opposing a proposed statewide strategy to recover the native fish. So is the powerful timber industry.

In the Northwest, no January weather predictions are more eagerly watched than those involving mountain snows and precipitation. Things are looking great so far. In some watersheds, including the Spokane River basin, there's nearly twice as much snow as there was this time last year.

Future audiences at the Festival at Sandpoint may sit in a shoreline amphitheater and be entertained by musicians performing on a stage above the Pend Oreille River. Representatives of the non-profit festival presented their vision of a new Memorial Field facility on Tuesday. Before speaking to the Sandpoint City Council administrative committee, executive director Connie Bergham cautioned that the idea is preliminary.

More of North Idaho's Selkirk Mountains is being put off-limits to snowmobilers in order to protect endangered caribou. The animals run from the noisy machines even before the snowmobilers are aware of their presence, say biologists who track them from the air. "We don't believe snowmobilers are out there deliberately harassing caribou," Allen Chrisman of the Bonners Ferry Ranger District said Monday.

Dworshak, Roosevelt, Hungry Horse, Koocanusa, American Falls, Brownlee, Cascade. The Columbia River Basin's upstream reservoirs are being tapped - sometimes nearly drained - to help endangered salmon reach the ocean.