n the quarter century between 1996 and 2020, wildfires in California consumed five times more area than they did from 1971 to 1995. Researchers at the University of California and other international institutions have concluded that nearly all of the increase in scorched terrain can be blamed on human-caused climate change.
Wildfires have become increasingly frequent due to climate change, with record occurrences in areas not historically prone to them. In California, wildfires and regional power shutoffs have cost billions and taken lives. For some 46 million Americans living next to forests – at what scientists call the “wildland-urban interface” (WUI) – the risks of wildfire can be especially acute.
The rapid growth of harmful algae along parts of the Southern California Coast is believed to have killed hundreds of California sea lions and close to 60 dolphins in the first weeks of June.
Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Troopers discovered fish with embedded hooks, sliced fins, circular scabs, and other evidence of illegal tactics, while assisting ODFW hatchery staff during the spring salmon spawning season.
All parties, both plaintiffs and defendants, along with the State of Alaska, have unsuccessfully challenged the results of a recent lower federal court decision that vacated a part of NOAA Fisheries’ 2019 biological opinion governing Southeast Alaska’s summer and winter commercial troll fishing for Chinook salmon. The litigation now moves to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The breeding season for avian predators, March–August, overlaps with the peak out-migration of juvenile salmon and steelhead, April — August, according to a recent survey of literature that looked specifically at peer-reviewed studies of Caspian terns, double-crested cormorants and gulls that prey on salmonids in the Columbia River basin.
Record average temperatures across the Columbia River basin, with little to no rain in the western and northern areas of the basin in May, are leaving the region dry with a smaller snowpack than average and declining water supply at the beginning of June.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) this week joined U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad to announce an $83 million commitment to rebuild the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, $240 million for Northwest salmon and steelhead hatchery infrastructure, and $60 million for Mitchell Act hatcheries.
An Oregon State University researcher has been awarded a three-year, $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to lead a study about the movement of fish stocks due to changing climate conditions and the potential geopolitical tensions that could result from that shift.
In early 2014, a great anomaly descended upon the seas: A patch of warm water that manifested in the Gulf of Alaska. Scientists called it “The Blob.”
As the ocean warms, marine fish are on the move—beyond their traditional habitats and across international boundaries. Understanding these patterns of movement is essential to predicting change and managing climate-resilient fisheries.
Grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have been able to gain the body fat they need for hibernation even as population densities have increased and as climate change and human impacts have changed the availability of some foods, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners.
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s authorization of the killing of up to 72 grizzly bears on public land just outside of Yellowstone National Park violated federal law.
Representatives of Columbia and Snake river ports and grain shippers, as well as Oregon, Idaho and Washington public utilities, lined up to oppose breaching the four lower Snake River dams last week in the fourth and, perhaps, the last listening session sponsored by the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
A federal government agency will set water quality standards for nine toxic pollutants in Washington, effectively taking over the job generally relegated to the state’s Department of Ecology, even though Ecology is in the rulemaking process to set the standards.
After catch data analysis showed allowable harvest impacts to wild spring chinook have been exceeded, Oregon and Washington fisheries managers on extremely short notice shut down salmon and steelhead fishing on the Columbia River.
Once extirpated, coho salmon are making a rebound in two upper Columbia River tributaries. It’s taken nearly 25 years, but the year 2021 saw a record run in the Wenatchee and Methow rivers, a result of reintroduction work in the two basins by the Yakama Nation to bring the salmon back.
The Washington Department of Ecology has issued a Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certification for the proposed Goldendale Energy Storage Project.
Fishery managers from Washington and Oregon added eleven recreational fishing days (Thursday, May 25-Sunday, June 4) to the ongoing spring Chinook fishery downstream of Bonneville Dam during a joint state hearing Wednesday.
Since their protection under the Endangered Species Act, wolf populations have been making a comeback in the continental United States. Conservationists have argued that the presence of wolves and other apex predators, so named because they have no known predators aside from people, can help keep smaller predator species in check.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Rivers have filed a petition to list Washington coast spring Chinook salmon under the federal Endangered Species Act.
In 1957 Celilo Falls, a fishery that was pivotal to the lives of many Native Americans along the Columbia River, was lost when it was flooded and destroyed by the construction of The Dalles Dam.
Negotiating teams for Canada and the United States met in Kelowna, British Columbia for the 17th round of negotiations toward a modernized Columbia River Treaty.
With a flurry of spring Chinook passing Bonneville Dam daily the past two weeks, Oregon and Washington decided to reopen spring Chinook angling from Buoy 10 in the lower Columbia River to the Oregon/Washington border.
Spending on maintenance of Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead hatcheries, as well as fish screens, could see a significant bump in fiscal year 2024 if the full Northwest Power and Conservation Council approves a plan endorsed this week by the Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee. That approval could come as early as the body’s June meeting.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
