The Columbian ~

ARIEL — State and federal fishery officials, along with PacifiCorp, have agreed to delay the preparation of Yale Reservoir and its tributaries for the reintroduction of salmon and steelhead.

PacifiCorp’s federal license to operate Merwin, Yale and Swift hydroelectric dams on the North Fork of the Lewis River calls for the utility to have a downstream fish passage facility at Yale Dam operational by June 26, 2021.

The settlement agreement between PacifiCorp and the fish agencies, Forest Service, Indian tribes and local governments also requires a “habitat preparation plan’’ beginning five years prior to fish passage.

Boston Globe -

For about a quarter-million dollars, a nonprofit research organization will build a modest test facility at the Cape Cod Canal that may help prove that producing electricity from ocean currents can be commercially viable.

The Marine Renewable Energy Collaborative will soon install the nation’s first permanent facility to evaluate submerged turbines that generate electricity from tidal power, in 25 feet of water at the west end of the canal, near the Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge. The simple trestle-like stand will make it vastly easier — and less expensive — for companies and researchers to subject their prototypes to real-world conditions.

UW-

For two University of Washington researchers, the real test came as they walked across a barren-looking field. They were on the Columbia Plateau with two state wetland ecologists, searching for a 1-acre body of water identified and mapped for the first time using a new method they developed.