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.
A program that has lethally removed sea lions from sections of the Columbia River and at Willamette Falls since 2008 is saving thousands of salmon and steelhead, many listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. The program is significantly dropping the risk of extinction for wild winter steelhead in the Willamette River, according to biologists.
By anyone’s measure, sockeye salmon runs have skyrocketed since 1997 in the Okanogan River basin when a transboundary workgroup decided to begin efforts to reintroduce the fish into Okanogan Lake in British Columbia, according to tribal biologists speaking at this week’s Northwest Power and Conservation Council meeting.
A team of scientists generally gave good marks for a long-term, three-phase plan by the Upper Columbia United Tribes to reintroduce salmon and steelhead upstream of two major Columbia River dams that have blocked passage of the fish for 80 years.
NOAA Fisheries has approved $2.3 million for Trout Unlimited to conduct a planning and feasibility assessment for the removal of Enloe Dam on Similkameen River, a tributary of the Columbia River. The dam has blocked salmon and steelhead passage for 100 years and, if completed, its removal would be the largest habitat restoration action in the Columbia River Basin.
The owner of a wholesale fish processor, Native American Fisheries, was sentenced this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle to three years of probation for violating the Lacey Act by taking more than 7,000 pounds of illegally caught Columbia River salmon and selling it commercially.
A Nisqually Tribe study on the effects of gillnetting and releasing chinook salmon has produced promising results, and eventually could open the door for tribal fishers to catch more hatchery fish while still protecting the natural-origin resource for future generations.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing whitebark pine, a high elevation tree across the West, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
The Washington Department of Ecology has published a new report looking at projected streamflow changes in the state due to climate change and the projected impacts on salmonids.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum Thursday announced a historic $698 million dollar settlement with the Monsanto Company for its role in polluting Oregon with PCBs for the past 90 years.
Operations at thirteen federal dams in the Willamette River basin may soon be altered to aid threatened upper Willamette River spring Chinook, winter steelhead, and bull trout. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dams, released a draft operations and maintenance programmatic environmental impact statement late last week for public review until January 19, 2023.
Leaders of Northwest tribes on Wednesday welcomed new commitments from President Joe Biden and members of his administration at the first in-person Tribal Nations Summit held by the White House in six years.
The Biden Administration Wednesday issued new guidance for federal agencies regarding the use of Indigenous Knowledge in decision-making and issued new policies and procedures to fulfill the federal government’s responsibility for meaningful consultation with American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes.
NOAA has partnered with McKenzie River Trust to increase natural floodplain connectivity along Finn Rock Reach in Oregon’s McKenzie River. The project is restoring important habitat for threatened Upper Willamette River Chinook salmon.
Snowcapped mountains not only look majestic, they are vital to a delicate ecosystem that has existed for tens of thousands of years. Mountain water runoff and snowmelt flows down to streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans and today around a quarter of the world depends on these natural “water towers” to replenish downstream reservoirs and groundwater aquifers for urban water supplies, agricultural irrigation, and ecosystem support.
The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit today challenging what it says is the “failure of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a national gray wolf recovery plan under the Endangered Species Act.”
Oregon’s U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have announced a total of $5,041,495 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will be awarded to the Nez Perce Tribe, in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and other partners, to restore sockeye salmon habitat connectivity at the Wallowa Lake Dam in northeast Oregon.
The Bonneville Power Administration plans to capitalize on its strong 2022 fiscal year by holding its rates for electricity and transmission flat during the next rate case cycle, which is FY2023-25. In the same rate case, it is proposing to increase its Columbia River basin fish and wildlife mitigation expenses by 8 percent, the first time the power marketing agency has increased those costs since FY2018-19 when it vowed to keep fish and wildlife spending below the inflation rate.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
