In the battle to block destructive zebra and quagga mussels from infesting Pacific Northwest waters, the four states at watercraft inspection stations in 2021 intercepted 55 more fouled boats than last year even though the number of total inspections were substantially less than in 2020.
Condit Dam was removed from the White Salmon River in 2011, opening up 33 miles of new habitat for salmon and steelhead. A 2021 salmon spawning survey is offering a snapshot of recolonization post-dam removal for Chinook salmon.
The spring Chinook return to the Columbia River basin is heating up as fisheries and hydro managers monitor juvenile and adult salmon passage carefully at Lower Monumental Dam while spillbay repair work continues. And good angling has led to the recreational fishery closing a day early, though fish passage counts at Bonneville Dam are currently above average.
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced an extension to the recreational and commercial fishing closure for the Elwha River and its tributaries through June 30, 2023.
The Department of the Interior this week announced that $10.65 million provided by the infrastructure bill approved last year will be used for repairs and upgrades for Bureau of Indian Affairs-owned water systems, including improvements to three Columbia River tribal fishing access sites.
Columbia Riverkeeper’s Board of Directors unanimously named Lauren Goldberg the organization’s new Executive Director starting August 1, replacing Brett VandenHeuvel.
The Bonneville Power Administration has joined the Western Energy Imbalance Market, which the agency says gives it another tool for marketing surplus power from the Federal Columbia River Power System.
Following a petition, the National Marine Fisheries Service has announced that a shark found off the Northwest coast may warrant protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Staggering declines in bird populations are taking place around the world. Loss and degradation of natural habitats and direct overexploitation of many species are cited as the key threats to avian biodiversity. Climate change is identified as an emerging driver of bird population declines.
As greenhouse gas emissions continue to warm the world’s oceans, marine biodiversity could be on track to plummet within the next few centuries to levels not seen since the extinction of the dinosaurs, according to a recent study in the journal Science by Princeton University researchers.
A new study provides the first direct evidence that translocations of Pacific Lamprey from lower Columbia River dams to the Snake River basin boosted larval abundance, increased juvenile production in the interior Columbia River and demonstrated successful migration to the Pacific Ocean.
Since about 1900 Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula has lost half of its glacier area and since 1980, 35 glaciers and 16 perennial snowfields have disappeared.
Pacific Northwest seafood lovers may see more Humboldt squid but less sockeye salmon on restaurant menus in the near future due to climate change.
In a split 4-3 vote at its meeting in Astoria Friday, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission decided to not release hatchery summer steelhead smolts into the North Umpqua River this year and eliminate the Rock Creek summer steelhead hatchery program.
The Department of the Interior said this week it is seeking information on the potential of offshore wind energy farms off the coast of Oregon.
The Hood River Canal Bridge is a major source of mortality for migrating steelhead smolts, according to new research by NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center scientists and the non-profit Long Live the Kings. Approximately half the smolts tracked by researchers died attempting to get past the bridge or soon after.
Two California Department of Fish and Wildlife fish hatchery facilities in the eastern Sierra have recently detected an outbreak of Lactococcus petauri, a naturally occurring bacteria that sickens fish. Biologists speculate Pacific Flyway birds may have carried the disease from Mexican fish farms to the hatcheries.
In 2021, an angler brought in a cool $61,409 for hooking 7,185 salmon-eating northern pikeminnows from the Columbia River. That guy or gal could make even more this year.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, joined with science leaders to help break ground on a $75 million facility that will boost clean energy adoption and make the nation’s power grid more resilient, secure and flexible.
This note responds to John McKern’s letter printed in the latest CBB.
In early September 2020, severe winds, high heat, and prolonged drought conditions led to the explosive growth of wildfires along the western slopes of the Cascades Mountains in the Pacific Northwest. The fires engulfed enormous tracts of forestland, destroyed communities, took dozen of lives, and cost hundreds of millions to fight.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers were forced to shut down commercial salmon fishing on the lower Columbia River Wednesday after the gillnetters caught far too many upriver spring Chinook. Several future fishing periods already approved were rescinded during a period of high prices for salmon.
Wild Columbia River summer steelhead have been declining since 2009, and Bonneville Dam counts in 2021 showed the lowest returns since 1997.
Changing climate and oceans are affecting the nation’s living marine resources and the people, businesses and communities that depend on them. From warming oceans and rising seas, to droughts and ocean acidification, these impacts are expected to increase with continued changes in the planet’s climate system.
The minimum known count of wolves in Oregon at the end of 2021 was 175 wolves, an increase of two wolves over the 2020 minimum known number of 173, according to the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management 2021 Annual Report released this week.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
