The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation publicly took a step this week towards recovering $50 million in Columbia Basin Fish Accord funds from the Bonneville Power Administration after the federal power marketing agency had allowed the Accords to expire at the end of September.
In its update to a 2007 climate report, a team of scientists noted that the rate and magnitude of changes in temperature and hydrology in the Columbia River basin has amplified over the past two decades and those changes will impact salmon and steelhead.
The run of endangered Snake River sockeye salmon this year was near the 10-year average, as counted at Lower Granite Dam, but far below last year’s seventh largest run of the endangered fish.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife scientists are using environmental DNA (eDNA) to take an unprecedented look at what lives in the state’s rivers, with the goal of conducting a census of every major river and drainage in Washington over the next seven years.
During the annual salmon run last fall, University of Washington researchers pulled salmon DNA out of thin air and used it to estimate the number of fish that passed through the adjacent river. Aden Yincheong Ip, a UW research scientist of marine and environmental affairs, began formulating the driving hypothesis for the study while hiking on the Olympic Peninsula.
July through September are the dryest and hottest parts of the year, with 2025 being the third consecutive year of drought in the Yakima River Basin.
A Chinese mitten crab, a prohibited species in Oregon, was found in the Willamette River near Portland’s Sellwood Bridge and reported to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on Nov. 17.
