NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information that leads to a civil penalty or criminal conviction of the boater observed driving through resting California sea lions in the Columbia River on April 3, 2023, near Hayden Island, Oregon.
In a draft environmental impact statement, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff has recommended issuing a license for the proposed closed-loop pumped storage project near the Columbia River’s John Day Dam. The staff alternative does note the project would damage Tribal cultural resources.
About 200 sea lions were counted last week in the Columbia River between the I-205 Bridge and Bonneville Dam, a 36-mile stretch of river, spurring states and tribes to begin trapping and euthanizing the pinnipeds at Bonneville Dam.
The number of upriver summer steelhead forecasted to return to the Columbia River basin has been declining, year after year. This year’s return of the fish is anticipated to be the lowest count of both hatchery and wild steelhead since the construction of Bonneville Dam — at only 42 percent of the 10-year average.
The Washington State Legislature this week approved a $14 billion 2023-25 transportation budget that includes $8 million for studying what would be necessary to maintain energy, transportation and irrigation services now provided by the four Lower Snake dams should they be breached to recover Snake River basin salmon and steelhead.
A new study assesses the marine distribution of dozens of infectious agents in wild Pacific salmon in the marine environment. The novel study reveals where salmon populations have experienced infection “hotspots,” some featuring potentially detrimental pathogens.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission accepted a petition to list the Southern Resident killer whale Distinct Population Segment as endangered under the Oregon Endangered Species Act.
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that the Tribal Ceremonial and Subsistence fishery for coho salmon on the Elwha River will be open for a limited time during fall 2023. Additionally, the Tribe, ONP, and WDFW agreed to extend the closure of other recreational and commercial fisheries in the Elwha River for another year.
Researchers from NOAA Fisheries and University of California Santa Cruz are tagging several groups of juvenile salmon in the Sacramento River system to help measure the benefits from the river’s first “pulse flow.” A pulse flow is a rapid increase and decrease in dam released water designed to resemble natural spring runoff.
One hunter-harvested mule deer, a buck from El Dorado County, was confirmed to be infected with SARS-CoV-2. The deer was harvested in 2021 and sampled by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for chronic wasting disease surveillance. It was negative for CWD and did not show any outward signs of illness.
Lead U.S. government negotiators vowed to intensify their work to conclude a new Columbia River Treaty with Canada by early summer as they held a public listening session this week. The two countries have been in negotiations for over four years and a new agreement to upgrade or modernize the Treaty must be reached by the end of summer 2024.
A new study offers a comprehensive look at the state of North American wild Chinook salmon. Researchers say findings hold new insights for fisheries managers looking to address wide-ranging declines among Chinook stocks.
A bill to create a 1,000-yard buffer around the critically endangered Southern Resident orcas is headed to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk for his signature after clearing a final legislative hurdle this week. Senate Bill 5371 requires that boaters stay 1,000 yards away from Southern Residents, beginning in 2025.
Earlier this month, Ryan Mejaski and Joe Wilhite were fishing for kokanee on the Deschutes arm of central Oregon’s Lake Billy Chinook without much luck when they decided to move spots. After casting into a group of small kokanee that were jumping to the surface, his secret lure sank to about five feet when he got a big strike that took off screaming.
Video of a wolverine crossing Hwy 20 east of Santiam Pass on April 6 was confirmed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. ODFW Deschutes District staff confirmed tracks near the video location on the day of the sighting.
The minimum known count of wolves in Oregon at the end of 2022 was 178 wolves, an increase of three wolves over the 2021 minimum known number of 175, according to the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management annual report released today.
The amount of sediment carried by Columbia River waters to the Pacific Ocean has declined by about half since Bonneville Dam was built in 1935. Much of the sediment no longer moved by the river has found a home at the mouths of tributaries, creating shallow sediment fans or deltas where warm water and predators impact juvenile salmon and steelhead, some listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Despite what seems like an endless winter, with heavy spring rains and snow throughout the Columbia River basin, stream flows and the water supply that will help provide spill at dams and water for salmon and steelhead this summer, continue to be below average in most of the Snake and Columbia river basins.
The Washington Gray Wolf Conservation and Management 2022 Annual Report released by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife shows a 5% increase in wolf population growth from the previous count in 2021. WDFW also documented Washington’s first pack to recolonize the south Cascades this winter.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is expecting a 2023 commercial salmon harvest of 189 million fish. That’s 26 million more harvested salmon than last year.
To address the continued potential for low run-off conditions and unprecedented water shortages in the Colorado River Basin, the Bureau of Reclamation this week released a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to potentially revise the current interim operating guidelines for the near-term operation of Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams.
Work has officially begun on removing the four dams that comprise the Lower Klamath Hydropower Project.
Oregon’s Marine Reserves Program will take part in a groundbreaking new study designed to estimate how Oregonians assign value to the reserves beyond traditional economic impacts.
Deteriorating habitat conditions caused by climate change are wreaking havoc with the timing of bird migration.
Most of the 75 people testifying during their three minutes of allotted time at two White House-sponsored listening sessions advocated removing four lower Snake River dams as the only way to recover salmon and steelhead in the watershed, as well as to provide food for endangered Orca whales in Puget Sound.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
