NOAA Fisheries determined this week that the Oregon Coast and southern Oregon/Northern California Coast Chinook salmon may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.
A chemical used in the production of toilet paper and ‘forever chemicals’ have been found in the bodies of orcas in British Columbia, including the endangered southern resident killer whales.
Bonneville Power Administration will divvy up $500 million of excess revenue from its 2022 fiscal year, giving 70 percent to its customers to keep power rates down, 20 percent to pay down debt or for revenue financing and just 10 percent to its fish and wildlife program, mostly to help pay upkeep for hatcheries and fish screens, not directly for recovery of salmon and steelhead.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice this week of its intent to sue two federal agencies for approving a habitat conservation plan in the upper Deschutes River that it says fails to ensure that Wickiup Dam water-release operations won’t drive the threatened Oregon spotted frog extinct.
Despite recent rains and a strong mountain snowpack, Columbia River basin January water supply forecasts are painting a dismal picture for stream flows this spring and summer.
Of the seven species of salmon and steelhead that inhabit Washington state’s waters — and are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act as at risk of extinction– Hood Canal summer chum salmon and Snake River fall Chinook salmon are approaching their recovery goals, according to a biennial report soon to be released by the Washington Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office.
Researchers project that most glaciers in western Canada will be gone in 80 years.
More than a century of preserved fish specimens offer a rare glimpse into long-term trends in parasite populations. New research from the University of Washington shows that fish parasites plummeted from 1880 to 2019, a 140-year stretch when Puget Sound — their habitat and the second-largest estuary in the mainland U.S. — warmed significantly.
Oregon continues to face new and enduring hazards related to climate change, but opportunities for adaptation and mitigation are also expanding, the latest assessment released by the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute indicates.
National parks are the backbone of conservation. Yet mounting evidence shows that many parks are too small to sustain long-term viable populations and maintain essential, large-scale ecological processes, such as large mammal migrations and natural disturbance regimes.
Fishery managers from Oregon and Washington today closed sturgeon retention in Bonneville Pool as of Jan. 12.
Hugh Morrison has been selected to serve as Regional Director of the Pacific Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Morrison, who has been the acting regional director since May 2022, will begin effective immediately. In this role, Morrison will administer conservation efforts spanning one ocean, four states and multiple territories and time zones.
Dredging will begin in areas of the lower Snake River this month that will solve an issue raised in recent years by federal, state and tribal fisheries managers – how to drop the Lower Granite Dam pool to improve summer conditions for salmon and steelhead that are at risk at the same time the Port of Clarkston needs more depth in the river to unload barges.
In mid-September 2022, Central Oregon’s Crooked River became the first river in the state to close to recreational angling specifically due to drought-related low flows. It reopened October 31 after six weeks of extremely low water levels that left as much as 50 to 90 percent of the river’s channels dry.
Due to ongoing low returns of upriver summer steelhead in the Columbia Basin, fishing restrictions will continue in the new year in the Columbia River mainstem upstream of The Dalles Dam and in the John Day and Walla Walla Rivers.
Twelve scientists are urging the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to promptly protect the Pacific walrus under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity first submitted a petition to list the Pacific walrus as threatened or endangered in 2008, more than a decade ago.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, after completing its review of a petition to list a Columbia/Snake river basin snail under the Endangered Species Act, found that listing the Columbia Oregonian is not warranted at this time.
It was a typical cold, December day in central Idaho with rain down low and snow in the mountains. While many anglers might have been thinking about ice-fishing, winter steelhead, or even putting a fresh coat of wax on their skis and hitting the slopes, Joey Walton had other plans: big Smallmouth bass. Knowing he had to make the long run across the reservoir, he set out early in search of a trophy.
The recent article in the CBB about NPDES permits for the four lower Snake River dams includes a proposal to draw the reservoirs down to reduce heating of the water. This is a fool’s errand based on widespread misinformation.
One way to cool overheated summer and fall Columbia River waters might be to lower reservoir levels at the river’s dams. Drawdowns could reduce the size of the reservoirs so there is less water to heat under the summertime sun and it could reduce travel time for juvenile salmon and steelhead through the dams as the river would take on more of the characteristics of a free flowing stream.
Americans are leaving many of the U.S. counties hit hardest by hurricanes and heatwaves—and moving towards dangerous wildfires and warmer temperatures, finds one of the largest studies of U.S. migration and natural disasters.
On Dec. 7, I was sworn in as B.C.’s new Minister of Finance. I was also honoured to retain my role as minister responsible for the Columbia Basin Trust, Columbia Power Corporation and the Columbia River Treaty. As 2022 comes to a close, it’s worth reflecting on this year’s progress towards a modernized Columbia River Treaty.
In 2022, anglers caught and removed more than 140,000 northern pikeminnow from the Columbia and Snake rivers, which the Bonneville Power Administration says is protecting hundreds of thousands of young salmon and steelhead from predation.
National and community-based environmental groups filed a legal challenge today to stop the Department of the Interior’s lease sale in Cook Inlet, Alaska. Lease sale 258, scheduled for Dec. 30, would auction off nearly a million acres of federal waters in southcentral Alaska, opening the door to decades of future oil and gas drilling.
Ecosystem decline in Washington state is a sign that the state’s “no net loss” policy governing environmental safeguards is not working, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. WDFW is recommending to the Washington legislature a step up in protections to a “net ecological gain” standard.
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