The rapid growth of harmful algae along parts of the Southern California coast is producing high concentrations of a toxin that affects California sea lions. It has led to strandings of more than 60 of the marine mammals since mid-August. Many have acted erratically, suffered from seizures, and in some cases died.
Crossings over highways intended to preserve biological diversity also appear to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions in Washington state, saving roughly $235,000 to $443,000 every year per structure.
Leadership from the Ports of Longview and Kalama, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have agreed to fund an estimated $2.1 million study that will investigate what changes or improvements engineers can make to turning basins in the Columbia River to help larger, deeper-drafting vessels, safely navigate when turning.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has hired Ann E. Gravatt to be its communications and public affairs director. She will join the Council on September 28.
The challenge of managing harvest of a decent run of salmon heading up the Columbia River that is mixed with populations listed under the federal Endangered Species Act came home to roost to Thursday just before what was expected to be a busy weekend of recreational angling below Bonneville Dam.
Did last week’s release of the final “Lower Snake River Dams: Benefit Replacement Report” by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray move the needle in seeking regional consensus on a comprehensive plan to improve the condition of Columbia/Snake River salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act? If public reaction is any indication, the answer is no.
Breaching the four lower Snake River dams to improve salmon runs is only feasible after state and federal officials have replaced or mitigated the benefits of the dams, said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) in releasing Thursday the final “Lower Snake River Dams: Benefit Replacement Report.”
A new acoustic receiver developed by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory sends near-real-time fish tracking data to the digital cloud, providing timely information to dam operators and decision-makers about when, where, and how many fish are expected to pass through dams.
The Portland City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve an ordinance prohibiting new or expanded fossil fuel terminals in Portland, Oregon. The move comes after a report earlier this year from Multnomah County and the City of Portland documented risks posed by existing fossil fuel terminals and found that the expected Cascadia Earthquake could cause 397 storage tanks to spill oil and other petroleum chemicals.
Stormwater runoff containing a toxic compound from automobile tires that washes into streams is lethal to protected coho salmon, Pacific steelhead, and Chinook salmon, according to new research published today. In contrast, sockeye salmon seem largely unaffected by the same compounds.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 90-day finding on a petition to delist the southern sea otter says it presents substantial information that the petitioned action may be warranted. The species was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1977.
If not for the flexibility provided by the federal Columbia/Snake river hydroelectric system, including the four lower Snake River dams, it is not clear how the Northwest could have balanced energy supply and demand during an extreme low water event in February 2019, according to a recent study commissioned by the Public Power Council, an opponent of breaching the dams.
Well, it’s happened again. C.J. Strike Reservoir in southwestern Idaho – typically known for abundant crappie and smallmouth bass – has once again produced an eye-popping state record fish.
Wind energy continues to see strong growth, solid performance, and attractive prices in the U.S., according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Energy and prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. With levelized costs of just over $30 per megawatt-hour for newly built projects, the cost of wind is well below its grid-system, health, and climate benefits.
California lives with a sleeping giant — an occasional flood so large that it inundates major valleys with water flows hundreds of miles long and tens of miles across.
Seven interior Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead species listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act should retain their current listing status, according to five-year status reviews released by NOAA Fisheries. The listed species are in the mid- and upper-Columbia River basin and the Snake River basin.
The Center for Biological Diversity notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week that it intends “to sue over the agency’s failure to develop a national wolf recovery plan as required by the Endangered Species Act.” The planned lawsuit would seek to require the Service to draft a recovery plan that includes all populations of wolves in the contiguous United States.
Urgent and comprehensive large-scale actions in the Columbia River basin will be needed to meet mid-range salmon and steelhead abundance goals set by the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force in 2020, according to a draft report by NOAA Fisheries released nearly a month ago by the White House. The agency is now taking comments until the end of the month on a report that could play a key role in the Biden Administration’s efforts to collaboratively move forward on Columbia/Snake river salmon recovery.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan Wednesday announced a $79 million investment from the infrastructure bill aimed at reducing toxic contaminants in the Columbia River Basin.
Idaho’s ten-year plan for conserving and managing the state’s most at-risk fish and wildlife and the habitat they depend on says that climate change is one of the stressors impacting all of the state’s animals and lands.
A Seattle federal district court judge ruled this week that NOAA Fisheries’ authorization of the Southeast Alaska troll fishery violated the Endangered Species Act by approving harvest levels that fail to protect Southern Resident killer whales and wild chinook listed under the ESA.
The Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are partnering to protect winter-run Chinook salmon in a crucial year of their life cycle at the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery at Shasta Lake during the third consecutive drought year in California.
Under a directive from Congress, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service evaluated the feasibility of reintroducing sea otters to their historical range along the West Coast of the contiguous United States. The Service focused the assessment on northern California and Oregon, where potential sea otter reintroduction would have the greatest conservation value.
Oregon State University scientists are proposing management changes on western federal lands that they say would result in more wolves and beavers and would re-establish ecological processes. They suggest reducing by 29 percent the amount of western public lands allotted annually for livestock grazing.
As glaciers worldwide retreat due to climate change, managers of national parks need to know what’s on the horizon to prepare for the future. A new study from the University of Washington and the National Park Service measures 38 years of change for glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park, a stunning jewel about two hours south of Anchorage.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
