NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation awarded the Tribe $3.3 million to remove the 55-foot-tall, 425-foot-long Kwoneesum Dam on Wildboy Creek. The dam, which was removed in 2024, blocked upstream salmon and steelhead migration on the creek for almost 60 years.
The eastern North Pacific population of gray whales that migrates along the West Coast of the United States has continued to decline, with reproduction remaining very low. Two new Technical Memorandums from NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center report the estimated population size and calf productivity in 2025.
The Trump administration issued a memorandum this week that disrupts Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead recovery by rescinding a 2023 agreement that included the federal government, two states and four Columbia River tribes and funded that effort with nearly $1 billion.
The Wild Fish Conservancy filed a lawsuit this month in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. in an effort to speed up NOAA Fisheries’ review of the Washington-based conservation group’s proposal to list Chinook salmon in Alaska under the federal Endangered Species Act.
This spring, the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership broke ground on a large-scale salmon habitat restoration project on the lower East Fork Lewis River in Washington State. This project will support the recovery of threatened steelhead and salmon on one of the few undammed rivers in the Lower Columbia River watershed.
Due to a drier and warmer than normal April, the water supply forecasts for May-September for the Columbia and Snake river basins have dropped, according to NOAA’s Northwest River Forecast Center’s last water supply briefing of the season held online this month.
Growing communities and extensive agriculture throughout the Western United States rely on meltwater that spills out of snow-capped mountains every spring. The models for predicting the amount of this streamflow available each year have long assumed that a small fraction of snowmelt each year enters shallow soil, with the remainder rapidly exiting in rivers and creeks.
Stretches of coasts and their rivers form enormous salmon nurseries for the exploring juveniles, the scientists said. The researchers documented coho salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout using coastal rivers separated by salt water, and suspect other species may do the same.
President Donald Trump, in an April proposed rule, has directed the Secretary of Commerce, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to rescind the long-standing definition of “harm” to species covered by the federal Endangered Species Act. The existing definition of harm as the ESA is currently written, the Administration says, is contrary to the “best meaning” of the term “take.”
Mixed ocean conditions for Columbia River salmon and steelhead juveniles entering the ocean in 2023 translate to average runs of spring and fall Chinook when they return as adults in 2025, according to information from NOAA Fisheries presented to a changing Northwest Power and Conservation Council last week.
Spring spill at Columbia/Snake River dams to aid juvenile salmon and steelhead in their migration through the hydro projects and out to the ocean is in full motion with all of the lower eight dams on the two rivers initiating full spill by April 10.
Warmer temperatures with some snowmelt and near- or wetter-than-normal precipitation in much of the Columbia River basin in March led to some early runoff but overall resulted in higher April-Sept. water supply forecasts and a better outlook for stream flows in the basin that will aid juvenile and adult salmon and steelhead migrations this summer, according to a NOAA water supply briefing last week.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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...
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.
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.
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.
Hunting greater numbers of male deer can slow the spread of chronic wasting disease, a lethal wildlife disease, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
The tiny particles that shed from clothing, packaging and other plastic products are winding up in the fish that people eat, according to a new study from Portland State researchers, highlighting a need for technologies and strategies to reduce microfiber pollution entering the environment.
A drier than normal January is contributing to February’s lower Columbia River basin water supply forecasts for the months ahead.
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