The Bureau of Reclamation has released the Hood River Basin Study, which assesses current and future water supply and demand in the Hood River Basin in Oregon and adjacent areas.
If there was a common weather theme across the Columbia River basin in 2015, it would be the difficulty of forecasting how much water would be available in rivers later in the summer.
Eradication of northern pike -- an invasive and voracious predator -- in the Columbia River basin took on a more urgent tone this week with the announcement that a northern pike may have been caught in the reservoir backed up behind the John Day Dam.
Pacific lamprey have evolved to migrate from freshwater to saltwater based on environmental cues, such as high water and rain events, rather than migrating at a specific time as do other anadromous fish, according to a recent study of lamprey in the Sacramento River system.
A warming ocean that began long before the most recent El Niño is causing a West Coast drought, first in California and now in the Northwest.
Northwest rivers had unseasonably high temperatures this summer, warm enough to kill thousands of migrating sockeye salmon headed to the mid-Columbia and lower Snake rivers.
A comprehensive report published by the U.S. Geological Survey provides new knowledge and tools to aid in the management of critical Columbia Plateau resources while coping with declines in groundwater levels and the uncertainties of climate change.
Abnormally low and warm water this spring contributed to one of the worst seasons for juvenile chinook and steelhead survival through Snake and Columbia river dams in the past 17 years.
Toxic runoff from highways, parking lots and other developed surfaces is killing many of the adult coho salmon in urban streams along the West Coast, according to a new study that for the first time documents the fatal connection between urban stormwater and salmon survival.
Even though cooler temperatures and fall colors are returning, Washington’s historic drought isn’t over.
Snowpack in California's Sierra Nevada in 2015 was at the lowest level in the past 500 years, according to a new report led by University of Arizona researchers.
For 25 years, methodical research by scientists has investigated the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 on Alaskan communities and ecosystems.
U.S. Geological Survey hydrologic technicians are currently taking measurements from hundreds of streams and rivers across the western United States as part of a low flow study.
The Lower Granite Dam tailrace temperature is holding at around an average of 66 degrees Fahrenheit, a couple of degrees lower than the maximum 68 degree water temperature set by a NOAA Fisheries biological opinion for Columbia/Snake river salmon and steelhead.
Similar to the situation in the Columbia River basin, sockeye salmon heading to Canada’s Fraser River to spawn might not make it at all due to lack of snowmelt combined with record-high temperatures.
A variety of fishing restrictions have been imposed across the Columbia River Basin due to low water and high water temperature conditions, but bright spots are shining on waters below Libby Dam in Montana.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has lifted fishing restrictions the lower Deschutes River. Anglers can now fish after 2 p.m. from Macks Canyon to the mouth of the river. The change is effective immediately.
State fishery managers are working to minimize the effects of drought on fish at hatcheries across Washington state.
Water rights that were among the earliest in the Washington Territory be used for irrigation have been shut off in tributaries of the Yakima River due to extreme drought conditions.
Warm water temperatures came earlier than usual to many of Idaho's fishing waters, but it's unlikely to lead to fishing closures or restrictions similar to those that neighboring states have implemented.
As many as 80 large, broodstock-sized sturgeon were found dead this week in the Columbia River upstream of Bonneville Dam, triggering a complete closure of fishing for what some are calling “valuable, almost irreplaceable fish.”
A teleconference was held Tuesday in Portland to provide an update on some of the water management gymnastics that federal agencies are engaged in to optimize river flows for fisheries and other purposes throughout the Columbia/Snake river basin in one of the worst low-water years seen in decades.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has curtailed fishing hours on most of Oregon’s rivers to avoid additional stress on native fish already suffering from high water temperatures and low stream flows from this year’s drought.
More than a quarter of the rain and snow that falls on continents reaches the oceans as runoff.
Dead and distressed sockeye salmon found this past weekend in the Deschutes River appear to have been fish from the Columbia River bound for other upriver locations that likely swam into the Deschutes in search of cooler water.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
