the film forum library tutorial contact

Clinton's NW Salmon Czar Returns Under Obama by Jeff Mapes The Oregonian, May 13, 2010

Anyone who covered the timber and salmon wars in the Northwest in the 1990s knew Will Stelle, the regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Now, after a decade of lawyering in Seattle, Stelle is returning to his old government job at the behest of the Obama administration.

Rocky Barker, the veteran environmental writer at The Idaho Statesman who has been on top of this story, notes that Stelle was a forceful player in the Northwest environmental debates who knew all of the interests in the region.

Says Barker: "The federal agencies generally like him. The environmental groups that are suing the federal government over salmon generally don't."

A big question now is how Stelle will proceed given U.S. District Judge Jim Redden's continued skepticism about the federal salmon recovery plans on the Columbia and Snake river system.

Related Pages:
Migrating Toward Consensus on Salmon by Will Stelle, The Seattle Times, 10/16/9
Stelle gets both Kudos and Complaints by Staff, Columbia Basin Bulletin, 9/15/00
NMFS Head, Will Stelle, Steps Down by Mike Lee, Tri-City Herald, 9/10/00
Testimony of William Stelle, Jr. before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, Water & Power Subcommittee, 7/19/00
Saving Fall Chinook Could Be Costly by Rocky Barker, The Idaho Statesman, 6/27/99