More than 94 percent of migrating juvenile yearling chinook salmon pass upper-Columbia River publicly-owned dams safely, according to two studies by two of the dams’ owners.
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.
Environmental conditions and management actions in 2021 resulted in a year with low flow, warmer than average water temperatures and an extremely high percentage of spill for fish during the spring migration season, according to a recent NOAA Fisheries preliminary memorandum on juvenile salmon and steelhead survival through Columbia and Snake river dams.
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.
Data gathered by backcountry skiers, avalanche forecasters and other snow recreationists and professionals has the potential to greatly improve snowpack modeling, research by the Oregon State University College of Engineering indicates.
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.
Due to drought conditions and low water levels, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has lifted all size limits (minimum and maximum), daily limits for all species of fish and gear limits from Oct. 11 through Dec. 31, 2021, in the Malheur Reservoir.
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.
Intensive pumping of aquifers during drought can speed up deterioration of groundwater quality, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The results highlight clean drinking water supply vulnerabilities in California and other western states currently experiencing record drought conditions.
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.
Federal storage dams in the Willamette River basin are at an average of just 37 percent of capacity, hit hard this year by drought. Overall, they should be at nearly twice that – 68 percent capacity. And there is little in the weather forecast that will change that over the next few weeks.
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.
An informal coalition of fisheries-focused conservation groups is urging the fish and wildlife commissions in Oregon and Washington to step up to save summer steelhead in a year when their returns are at the lowest numbers since Bonneville Dam was built and in a year when water temperatures threaten their migration.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries announced this week a “Voluntary Drought Initiative” designed to protect populations of salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon from the effects of the current unprecedented drought.
“Severe and sustained droughts are part of life in the Western U.S., resulting in water shortages, affecting agriculture, municipalities, tribes and ecosystem functions,” says the Bureau of Reclamation in a new web portal providing real-time drought-related information and details of drought actions.
In recent years, wildfires on the West Coast have become larger and more damaging. A combination of almost a century of fire suppression and hotter and drier conditions has created a tinderbox ready to ignite, destroying homes and polluting the air over large areas.
After proposing numerous measures aimed at cooling Lower Granite Dam tailwater temperature to aid salmon and steelhead passage, hydro and fisheries managers agreed this week to a measure that would actually heat the tailwater by as much as 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit for the next few weeks.
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.
At the end of February, much of the Columbia River basin showed near to above normal water supply forecasts. But with dry weather taking hold in March, and staying there, the picture now is quite dire, with some areas facing the driest April-September water volume on record.
Oregon today proposed a suite of six modifications aimed at keeping lower Snake River water at Lower Granite dam cool for sockeye salmon, while also extending the availability of cold flow augmentation water from Idaho’s Dworshak Dam out through the end of August.
Idaho Fish and Game initiated the first fish salvage order of 2021 in mid-June due to low water, which is earlier than usual and signals more challenges ahead as summer progresses. With drought in some areas and near-record high temperatures throughout the state in late June, conditions may become hazardous for fish.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is implementing emergency regulations that began July 1 in several angling zones as Oregon faces a severe drought this summer, putting the state’s salmon, steelhead, trout and sturgeon at risk.
Idaho proposed today (Friday, July 2) the first of what could be several changes at Lower Granite and Little Goose dams on the lower Snake River to maintain cooler water temperatures in a river facing extreme environmental conditions as endangered sockeye begin to move up the overheated river.
Idaho will begin a trap and haul operation at Lower Granite Dam July 6 to rescue endangered Snake River sockeye salmon, an operation they first did during the heat-caused sockeye die off in 2015.
The Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office, Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have created a new software tool, IrrigationViz, to help analyze the costs and benefits of irrigation modernization.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
