Canada and the United States met on December 9 to advance talks on the modernization of the Columbia River Treaty. During this round, the United States and Canada discussed ecosystem priorities, post-2024 flood risk management, and Canada’s desire for more operational flexibility.

Some 427,000 acre feet of water was available this year from the upper Snake River to augment flows for juvenile and adult salmon and steelhead migrating in the lower river.

Our rivers are a powerhouse for every living thing. But for how long? With high demand for water and most of Oregon experiencing drought amid a warming climate, the future of our rivers is threatened. This year, the Deschutes River experienced the lowest period of natural flow since irrigation districts began using Wickiup Reservoir to store water in 1949.

Mountain snowpacks around the world are on the decline, and if the planet continues to warm, climate models forecast that snowpacks could shrink dramatically and possibly even disappear altogether on certain mountains, including in the western United States, at some point in the next century.

As severe drought conditions continue, the Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project began the 2022 water year with 3.21 million acre-feet of water—one of the lowest starting points in recent years at 52 percent of a 15-year average.

A recent study has made a direct connection between the severity of gas bubble trauma in juvenile salmonids caused by total dissolved gas at dams and the pressure experienced in deeper water where the severity of GBT is less.

The Bureau of Reclamation has released the Missouri River Headwaters Basin Study that provides options to meet the increased water demand and a change in the timing of the snowmelt runoff in the Missouri River Basin above Fort Peck Reservoir. The basin covers about 50,000 square miles and is the primary water source for 320,000 people and about 1.1 million acres of irrigated lands.

Yakama Nation Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been working together to help some of the thousands of sockeye salmon in peril due to the abnormally warm water temperatures across the Columbia River Basin.

Due to drought and poor water conditions in the Klamath River, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife successfully relocated 1.1 million juvenile, fall-run Chinook salmon from its Iron Gate Fish Hatchery in Siskiyou County.