As climate change accelerates, mature forests may struggle to survive. A recent study reveals that older trees retain a ‘memory’ of past water conditions, making it harder for them to adapt to drier environments.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is seeking public input on a potential project that would place nearly 53,000 acres of private timberland in northwest Montana under a conservation easement and protect working lands, public recreation access, and wildlife habitat.
The Columbia-Snake River System, a critical trade corridor supporting $24 billion in commerce annually, will pause operations for two weeks beginning March 9, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, conducts its annual navigation lock maintenance.
University of Idaho researchers have developed a mathematical model that simplifies the way scientists understand changes in glacier movement. This new approach demonstrates that diverse patterns of ice flow — ranging from short-term fluctuations to multiyear trends — can be explained using a single set of fundamental equations.
Oregon’s U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden—along with Oregon U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Val Hoyle, Andrea Salinas, Maxine Dexter, and Janelle Bynum — joined over 100 Members of Congress to demand that the Trump Administration stop and reverse its “dangerous efforts to fire employees and defund programs” that serve Tribes and Tribal members.
The Washington Department of Ecology is hosting a public meeting March 17 to discuss how it will implement a long-awaited Total Maximum Daily Load plan for temperature in the Columbia and lower Snake rivers. The two rivers are included in Washington’s 303(d) list of impaired bodies of water due to their persistent high water temperatures…
From the Columbia River Estuary to the farthest reaches of the stormy Gulf of Alaska in the middle of winter, Dr. Laurie Weitkamp has gone far and wide to study and better understand the salmon and steelhead that are the lifeblood of Northwest rivers and cultures. Last month the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society presented Weitkamp with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Pacific Salmon Commission’s Northern and Southern Funds have selected 83 projects to receive a total of $9.5M USD in funding for 2025.
Since the 1990s, the decline in numbers of southern resident killer whales in Puget Sound has followed a biennial pattern; births decline and deaths rise in even-numbered years. That biennial pattern matches the decline of Chinook salmon spawner abundance while abundance of pink salmon in the North Pacific and in Puget Sound rivers has risen, according to a study published this month.
Forecasted returns of salmon and steelhead to the Columbia River this year are showing small changes in run size from the returns of 2024, with the exceptions of sockeye salmon with a run size predicted to drop by more than 50 percent of 2024’s record run and wild winter steelhead forecasted to drop 31 percent, according to an annual staff report by Oregon, Washington and Tribal fish and wildlife agencies.
At a joint Columbia River Compact hearing this week (Feb. 20), Oregon and Washington fisheries managers set the 2025 early season recreational harvest dates for spring Chinook salmon in the mainstem Columbia River. Angling downstream of Bonneville Dam will begin March 1 and it will begin April 1 upstream of the dam to the Oregon/Washington border.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is still determining “how to proceed” in implementing actions directed by the 2024 Water Resources Development Act and a new jeopardy biological opinion for its 13 Willamette River projects completed by NOAA Fisheries Dec. 26. The Corps says that it still needs funds from Congress that it could get…
Local and national conservation groups have sued the U.S. Forest Service to challenge its approval of the Stibnite Gold Project, an open-pit cyanide leach gold mine in Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains. The groups say the mine would jeopardize public health and clean water, harm threatened plants and animals, and permanently scar thousands of acres of public land in the headwaters of the South Fork Salmon River.
U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Oregon Democrats, said this week they are demanding President Trump answer questions about his administration’s deep job cuts at the Bonneville Power Administration and “how those reckless and financially ludicrous decisions add up to undermine the dependability of the electric grid for Oregon and the entire Pacific Northwest.”
In a collaborative effort to increase the sustainability of California’s salmon populations, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has partnered with the Department of Water Resources, as well as ocean and inland fishing groups to continue a pilot project aimed at diversifying salmon hatchery release strategies.
Higher power purchase expenses due to low stream flows and dry winter weather have resulted in the Bonneville Power Administration forecasting agency net revenues of negative $44 million, $114 million below the agency target of $70 million.
The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet. It consumes enormous quantities of tiny, shrimp-like animals known as krill to support a body of up to 100 feet (30 meters) long. Blue whales and other baleen whales, which filter seawater through their mouths to feed on small marine life, once teemed in Earth’s oceans. Then over the past century they were hunted almost to extinction for their energy-dense blubber.
As part of statewide efforts to help Californians and wildlife recover from the Southern California fires, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and its partners last month rescued 271 endangered Southern California steelhead trout from Topanga Creek, the last known population of this species in the Santa Monica Mountains.
New research from wildlife biologists shows that poachers play a bigger role in the deaths of eagles, hawks, and other birds of prey in the West than previously thought.
Two recent University of Montana studies are demystifying how increasing wildfires and hotter annual temperatures limit forest regeneration in the Western U.S., revealing that our capacity to plant trees can’t keep pace with reforestation needs.
As insect populations decrease worldwide — in what some have called an “insect apocalypse” — biologists seek to understand how the six-legged creatures are responding to a warming world and to predict the long-term winners and losers.
Fishery managers with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have scheduled opportunities for the public to provide input in 2025-2026 state-managed salmon seasons, beginning with a hybrid statewide forecast meeting on Friday, Feb. 28 in Olympia.
Earthwise Knowledge Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing public understanding of environmental and sustainability issues, has acquired the Columbia Basin Bulletin (CBB).
Two federal agencies are extending the public scoping period for the Columbia River System Operations Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS.)
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has announced the selection of 15 projects that will receive funding for the restoration, enhancement and protection of salmon and steelhead (anadromous salmonid) habitat in California watersheds.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
