Major 



Accomplishments 



B-, 

 efore 1982, the year the North- • ■ 

 west Power Planning Council 

 created the first Columbia River Basin Fish 

 and Wildlife Program, the region lacked a 

 coordinated response to the decline of fish 

 and wildlife populations. Now it has one. Our 

 program is comprehensive. It includes mea- 

 sures designed to improve fish and wildlife 

 survival throughout the basin. More than 600 

 projects have been initiated. Here is a 

 sampling: -. 



At the Dams 



■ The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in- 

 staUing diversion screens in front of the turbine 

 intakes at federal dams on the Columbia and 

 Snake rivers, improving smolt collection and 

 transportation facilities, and improving ladders 

 for adult fish. While bypass systems were being 

 built at the dams, water — and fish — were 

 spilled over the tops of dams to prevent their 

 being forced through dam turbines. 



■ To speed salmon migration, river flows 

 were boosted in the spring and early summer by 



increasing water storage in winter. 

 ■ The impact of barge transportation on 

 salmon and steelhead is being studied, and 

 changes are being made to improve survival of 

 these fish. Work also focused on developing 

 new and improved treatments to prevent the 

 spread of viral diseases among juvenile fish 

 during barge transportation. 

 S In September 1988, we adopted our 

 protected areas rule into the fish and wildlife 

 program. This rule sets aside some 40,000 

 miles of streams in the Northwest as off limits 

 for construction of new hydroelectric dams 

 because of important fish or wildlife habitat. 

 We continue to work with the Federal Energy 

 Regulatory Commission to assess new 

 hydropower projects and incorporate 

 protected-area designations into Commission 

 decision-making. 



47 



