Scoping meetings to explore possible changes to the 2020 Columbia River salmon/steelhead environmental impact statement have been delayed again.
The number of gray wolf packs in Washington increased slightly in 2024, according to the Washington Gray Wolf Conservation and Management 2024 Annual Report, released by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, while the state’s wolf count declined overall. Based on wolf biology and long-term population trajectory, WDFW wolf biologists do not believe wolf recovery is threatened at this time.
Climate change could pose a dual threat to native species by reducing their suitable habitats and increasing predation pressure from non-native species, a new study by Oregon State University researchers finds.
Fishery managers from Oregon and Washington took joint state action Wednesday (April 9) to add another six days of recreational spring Chinook salmon fishing in the mainstem Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam. This fishery had closed on Monday April 7 per the preseason schedule adopted in February.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued a Secretarial Memo to establish an “Emergency Situation Determination” on 112,646,000 acres of National Forestry System (NFS) land, including the national forests of the Pacific Northwest.
The Bureau of Reclamation today announced a $134 million award for the proposed Sites Reservoir Project. This new water storage project would be the second largest off-stream reservoir in the nation and would increase Northern California’s water storage capacity by up to 15 percent.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District says it will not perform a deep drawdown at the Willamette Valley’s Detroit Reservoir in the fall of 2025.
The U.S. has paused negotiations with British Columbia on a modernized Columbia River Treaty that was nearly complete after both the U.S. and Canada reached an Agreement in Principle in 2024.
This spring, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff deployed large nets in northeast Oregon’s Wallowa Lake to monitor fish population trends and assess the impact of lake trout on other species.
Recreational harvest of eulachon smelt on Oregon’s Sandy River took place Thursday, March 27 from noon to 7 p.m.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold a virtual public meeting on April 1, from 6–8 p.m., to discuss potential harvest management strategies for Lower Columbia River tributary fisheries.
West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network partners are reporting upwards of 100 calls a day reporting sea lions and dolphins affected by the algal toxin, domoic acid.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has two new Oregon Members. Gov. Tina Kotek appointed Margaret Hoffmann and Chuck Sams, and the Oregon Senate has confirmed their appointments to the Council.
On March 18, 2025, the Nez Perce Tribe announced the appointment of Joseph Y. Oatman as Manager of the Nez Perce Tribe Department of Fisheries Resources Management (“DFRM”).
Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) invites the public to comment on the Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) Report for the Upland Operable Unit (OU) of Bradford Island in Cascade Locks, Oregon.
A recent study brings to light the dangers of a little-known life stage in which spring Chinook salmon in the Columbia River basin generally incur high mortality – incubation in the gravel.
Tribal and Washington fishery managers are doubling down on recovering threatened spring Chinook salmon in the Tucannon River in Eastern Washington by raising juveniles originating from the river at a hatchery 300 miles downstream.
Oregon and Washington fishery managers on March 13 closed the only area where recreational anglers can currently catch and keep white sturgeon on the mainstem Columbia River – the John Day Dam pool up to The Dalles Dam.
2025 is forming to be the third consecutive year of low Columbia River basin water supplies, with the latest forecast April-September at The Dalles Dam of just 85 percent of the 30-year average, according to a NOAA water supply briefing this week.
An economic study of its fish hatcheries that was funded over the past year by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife found that trout are by far the least expensive fish to produce at less than $10 per fish harvested, while summer steelhead costs the state nearly $500 per fish harvested, according to a presentation by ODFW before the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission in February.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of revamping the dam’s northern-most fish ladder near the Washington shore at a cost of some $8 million. According to the Corps, the project is changing out a portion of the fish ladder, which spans 800 feet from top to bottom, that was originally a serpentine passage of concrete walls, called baffles, with a newer baffle design more friendly to lamprey.
New research shows that wild birds can account for much of the avian influenza virus evidence found in wastewater in Oregon, suggesting wastewater detections of the virus do not automatically signal human, poultry or dairy cattle cases of bird flu.
Salmon are swimming again in California’s North Yuba River for the first time in close to a century. The fish are part of an innovative pilot project to study the feasibility of returning spring-run Chinook salmon to their historical spawning and rearing habitat in the mountains of Sierra County.
The Center for Biological Diversity has sued five cabinet-level agencies seeking to stop the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its DOGE teams from taking further actions against multiple environmental agencies until each team fully complies with the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife reports that the state currently has seven known wolf families amid changing pack dynamics and areas of new wolf activity. California now has around 50 known wolves, according to the state wolf coordinator — up from around 49 at the end of 2023. That modest increase comes despite…
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