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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.