A huge snowpack in Canada provides a stark contrast to the nearly empty snowfields in southern Idaho where snowpack is at record lows this year and in eastern Oregon, with much of that area in drought or developing drought, according to an April National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report.
The Pacific Northwest has seen below-normal snow this season — and new research from Portland State University suggests that the region’s snowmelt-dependent water resources could face growing challenges in the years ahead as forest fires and winter rainstorms become more frequent.
Summer weather is arriving earlier, lasting longer and packing more heat than it used to—and it’s happening faster than scientists had previously measured.
During the 2024–2025 spawning season, endangered Central California Coast coho salmon migrated to Mendocino Coast rivers in numbers few scientists thought they would see in their careers. Monitoring teams estimated that more than 30,000 adult coho returned, double the previous season’s record-breaking return of 15,000 coho. These numbers represent a significant leap from the past decade, where as few as 3,000 fish returned annually.
The U.S. Geological Survey released a new machine learning tool that forecasts droughts up to 90 days ahead nationwide. The tool may provide communities extra time to prepare for water shortages that could impact agriculture, municipal supplies, recreation and ecosystems.
Scientists with the Wildlife Genetics Research Unit at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife have completed a genomic study of nutria, an invasive South American rodent, linking their 2017 discovery in Merced County to a population in central Oregon. This was the first genomic study of the semi-aquatic pest species that is harmful to wetland habitats and agriculture and has challenged control efforts of land and wildlife managers worldwide for decades.
New evidence suggests that a disease-causing tapeworm that has been spreading across the United States and Canada has arrived in the Pacific Northwest. The tapeworm, called Echinococcus multilocularis, lives as a parasite in coyotes, foxes and other canid species and can cause severe disease if passed to domestic dogs or humans.
The Center for Biological Diversity has sent a notice to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of its intent to sue the agencies for approving a logging project in western Oregon that it says will destroy and fragment the mature and old-growth forests needed by marbled murrelets.
The number of sea lions in the Bonneville Dam tailrace has dropped in recent years, perhaps due to a persistent lethal removal program by states and tribes, but the percentage of the run of Columbia River salmon and steelhead that is devoured by sea lions has largely remained about the same.
A month after a U.S. District Court in Portland issued a partially favorable ruling to plaintiffs on a preliminary injunction directing Columbia and Snake river dam operations designed to aid salmon and steelhead, federal agency defendants challenged the decision at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The defendants notified the District Court of the challenge Friday, March 27.
Of the fish that had passed Bonneville Dam last spring, California and Steller sea lions consumed 3.6 percent of the spring Chinook salmon and 5.5 percent of the steelhead. Some 98 individual sea lions were responsible for this predation, according to a recently-released annual report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Endangered Southern Resident killer whales are known for the tight-knit family structure that isolates them from other killer whale populations. In 2005, NOAA Fisheries listed the whales as a Distinct Population Segment under the Endangered Species Act due to their unique genetic legacy and endangered status. The 74 whales remain at risk from insufficient prey, environmental contaminants, disturbance and inbreeding.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff at the Ashland Boat Inspection Station found quagga mussels on a motorboat that was being transported from Lake Havasu, Arizona into Oregon on March 21.
White-nose syndrome in bats has been detected for the first time in Oregon in Columbia and Benton counties. Also this month, the first cases of the disease in Idaho bats were detected.
Alaska’s glaciers respond to climate change by melting for three additional weeks with every 1 degree Celsius increase in the average summer temperature, data from satellite-mounted radars show.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, will host two virtual public information sessions on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, to discuss proactive safety measures being implemented at Hills Creek Dam in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
This winter was one of the warmest on record across the West; as a result, many snowy, alpine areas have seen bouts of winter rainfall where there would ordinarily only be snow. These unusual weather patterns have contributed to an abysmal ski season, but they can also set the stage for dangerous avalanches.
A new study from the University of British Columbia has found that artificial turf fields across Metro Vancouver leach 6PPD-quinone, a chemical known to kill coho salmon, into municipal stormwater systems—and the contamination persists long after the fields are installed.
Rising temperatures in a Southcentral Alaska river have led to a hungrier population of invasive northern pike, a trend that could imperil native salmon and other fish species.
A renewable fuels refinery that would be capable of producing 50,000 barrels of renewable diesel per day and 1.4 billion gallons per year has been proposed on more than 100 acres of wetlands in the Columbia River estuary near Clatskanie, OR, and also near a critical corridor for migrating salmon and steelhead, according to a draft Environmental Impact Statement released in late February by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Center for Biological Diversity has notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service it intends to sue the agency for failing to make a timely decision on whether the western ridged mussel should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The imperiled mussels are disappearing from streams and rivers across the three West Coast states and Idaho and Nevada.
NOAA Fisheries scientists have found telltale changes in cool, highly productive water upwelling along the West Coast — changes that can provide “an early warning system” signaling greater risk of humpback whales getting entangled in fishing gear.
Anglers on north Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille continue to play an important role in helping Idaho Fish and Game monitor the lake’s trophy rainbow trout fishery. Through the Lake Pend Oreille Angler Science Program, anglers voluntarily record details about their fishing trips and the trout they catch.
The enormous power and water use forecasted at the over 100 data centers at various stages of development in 12 counties along the Columbia River will strain Oregon and Washington state mandates to achieve their aggressive renewable energy goals as well as put a strain on local water resources and threaten fish and wildlife, according to a recent report by Columbia Riverkeeper.
Common ravens are often spotted soaring above wolves in Yellowstone National Park. Researchers assumed that the scavengers were following the wolves to get their scraps, but new research reveals a twist: Ravens don’t follow wolves, they remember common hunting grounds and regularly check back for fresh meat.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
