A federal district court ordered yesterday that additional water be spilled over the dams along the Columbia and Snake river systems this spring and summer to provide more natural river conditions for spawning salmon. This comes after the federal government's previous plan was thrown out by the courts because it did not meet the requirements to protect and restore salmon populations, according to the Endangered Species Act.

Conservation organizations are nothing new, and it seems that every year an up-and-coming group of sportsmen and women form a group to tackle a different problem. In 2009, Trout Unlimited will celebrate it's 50th anniversary, while wast year saw the 80th anniversary of Ducks Unlimited and 25th anniversary of Pheasants Forever.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service is asking a federal judge to withdraw papers that were submitted to add the sage grouse to the endangered species list. Adding sage grouse to the endangered species list could mean tighter restrictions on oil, housing, and agricultural development across the Rocky Mountain West.

The battle between the USFWS and the Western Watersheds Project on the protection of sage grouse has been going on since 2005, when the Western Watersheds Project sued the USFWS when the grouse did not make the endangered species list.