Nez Perce Tribal officials are backing a process to remove wolves from the federal list of endangered species in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
A 20-year survey of conservation science shows a disturbing disconnect between the world’s most pressing ecological issues and what researchers are actually studying, with some less serious problems getting the most attention while more critical concerns get largely ignored.
A new survey by researchers at Oregon State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of more than 600 rivers and streams in the western United States found widespread mercury concentrations in fish.
The federal judge who in 2001 triggered a three-year reassessment of West Coast salmon and steelhead Endangered Species Act listings is once again fielding arguments about how hatchery produced fish should be accounted for in evaluating species status.
Anglers may continue fishing for hatchery spring chinook salmon in the lower Columbia River from the Interstate 5 bridge downstream to Buoy 10 through April 15 under an agreement reached Thursday by Washington and Oregon fishery managers.
An Idaho water users group this week cited results from a 2006 study as proof that migrating juvenile salmon do not suffer ill effects from passing down through four lower Snake River federal hydroprojects, and nor does barging the young fish through the hydrosystem hinder their chances of surviving to adulthood.
The federal agency charged with protecting Northwest salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act today approved a far-reaching plan to recover threatened chinook in Puget Sound.
A recent hydrosystem operations/fish and wildlife project funding agreement between the Bonneville Power Administration and five Columbia River tribes was described Wednesday as a step toward a broader agreement on how funding resources should be directed across the basin.
A solicitation for "innovative" fish and wildlife project proposals was approved this week, but its fleshing out awaits a Bonneville Power Administration determination on what it is willing to fund and how much it is able to spend.
A signed agreement filed Tuesday in federal court promises the support of five Columbia River tribes for a specific set of 2007 federal dam operations designed to improve salmon and steelhead survival in exchange for the promise of funding for more than $5 million worth of fish and wildlife projects.
A larger scale evaluation of the survival of transported juvenile Snake River fall chinook salmon compared to those that migrate in-river is in jeopardy due to a lack of available fish this year to launch the experiment.
The sudden realization that infrastructure-damaging zebra mussels can literally leapfrog across the country could well reinvigorate Columbia River basin officials in their effort to build a defense against such an invasion.
The Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery experienced a significant loss of spring chinook fry in its incubators Tuesday morning.
A new piece has been thrown into the puzzle that is Snake River fall chinook salmon life history.
New research shows that a certain share of juvenile fish not only scatter throughout the Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem to prepare for ocean life, but also settle in freshwater below Bonneville Dam for the winter.
The forecast 2007 return of 78,500 adult upriver spring chinook salmon to the mouth of the Columbia River, if it holds true, would be the lowest since 1999 when only 42,500 made their way back from the ocean.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council last week approved a $657,800 within-year budget request to shore up a Kootenai white sturgeon hatchery water supply system that was overtaxed this year by high flows.
A new study indicates that Snake River spring/summer chinook salmon and steelhead transported downstream in barges as juveniles have more trouble than in-river migrants in finding their natal streams and passing dams when they return as adults to spawn.
NOAA Fisheries scientists said this week that ocean conditions this year are about average for juvenile salmon entering the Pacific Ocean and vastly improved over the poor conditions observed in 2005, which should be good for adult salmon returns to Pacific Northwest rivers over the next two years.
Recent research takes a detailed look at one of the most misunderstood aspects of salmon migration – homing movements – and why some Columbia River basin adult salmonids fail to pass dams, as well as why some fish fall back over dams.
Timing, not the stress from barge travel, is the most likely reason that transported juvenile Snake River spring chinook salmon have greater overall post-Bonneville Dam mortality than those migrating in-river to the ocean, according to an article published in the November edition of the American Fisheries Society's on-line journal “Transactions.”
The number of returning Columbia River fall chinook salmon next year will likely fall below 400,000 adult fish for the second year in a row, according to a preliminary forecast issued this week by the Oregon and Washington departments of fish and wildlife.
A long-running terminal fishing program in the Columbia River estuary costs more than the benefit it generates but does perform better economically than other basin harvest-producing enterprises, according to a recently completed draft report.
An increasingly volatile climate over the past decade provides environmental clues to better predict just when Columbia River basin spring chinook salmon will make their spawning surge upriver, according to a study conducted this year by University of Idaho researchers.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday announced that they had made official their intent to disperse a majority of the world's largest colony of Caspian terns from their East Sand Island nesting site in the Columbia River estuary.
Fish management agencies from Oregon, Washington and Idaho announced this week that they have asked the federal government for permission to use lethal means, as a last resort, to remove individual California sea lions that prey on chinook salmon and steelhead below the Columbia River's Bonneville Dam.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
