Authorization that allows states and tribes to lethally remove hundreds of sea lions from the Columbia and Willamette rivers as a way to reduce predation on salmon and steelhead has been extended for five more years by NOAA Fisheries.
The Columbia River adult fall chinook return is decent this year for the most part, based on passage numbers at Bonneville Dam, but warm water temperatures are making it hard on the fish moving toward the lower Snake River and Upper Columbia.
Adult sockeye salmon migrating to Canada’s Okanagan River Basin will have a better chance to survive and spawn during drought years following a successful, “trap-and-haul” pilot project carried out July 16, 2025 by Grant PUD, Chelan PUD and Canada’s Okanagan Nation Alliance with ample support from agencies on both sides of the border.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has confirmed the presence of the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome on two bats captured at Libby Dam in Lincoln County.
Idaho Fish and Game is launching a conservation project this fall to protect native Yellowstone cutthroat trout in the Teton River Canyon. On Oct. 8, biologists will conduct a rotenone treatment on the lower 5.5 miles of Badger Creek to reduce non-native rainbow trout that pose a threat to the genetic integrity of native cutthroat.
Oregon may soon have a new wildlife area in Union County called the Qapqápa Wildlife Area (pronounced cop-COP-a). The property would be owned by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and co-managed with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, continuing a decades-long partnership.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District has awarded a $15 million construction contract to Syblon-Reid Co. to build a new fish ladder at the Mill Creek Diversion Dam in Walla Walla.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s recent legislatively adopted budget did not include funding to continue the operation of Salmon River Hatchery near Lincoln City, one of more than 30 hatcheries that ODFW maintains in the state.
A team of scientists has proposed additional guiding principles and performance measures -- based on the full lifecycles of salmon and steelhead -- that they believe will help with Columbia River estuary restoration.
The Trump administration released draft plans that could strip away protections for the greater sage grouse on about 50 million acres of public lands across the West. The Obama- and Biden-era greater sage grouse proposals were intended to prevent the extinction of the iconic dancing bird.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed a five-year status review of the Columbian white-tailed deer and found that it has met the criteria outlined in its recovery plan. As a result, the Service is recommending the deer be removed from the federal Endangered Species List.
A copper-based chemical treatment to rid a portion of the Snake River of invasive quagga mussels – the first to be found in any Columbia Basin stream – destroyed up to 90 percent of water-based macroinvertebrates (bugs), nearly all gastropods (snails and slugs) and most white sturgeon residing near the area where the poison was applied, according to a recent study.
In a draft report, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council says since the Northwest Power Act in 1980 its energy efficiency programs have saved some 8,000 average megawatts, enough to power seven cities the size of Seattle, while saving energy consumers some $5 billion in lower utility bills.
With what may have been the last round of federal funding support, a research team gathered offshore monitoring data throughout Puget Sound once more this summer.
Following a “thorough review of the best available scientific and commercial information,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it has determined that listing the Northern California-Southern Oregon distinct population segment of fisher under the Endangered Species Act is not warranted.
This summer, Idaho Fish and Game biologists are testing whether trail cameras can help estimate the number of black bears in one of the state’s most popular bear hunting areas, Unit 32A.
Idaho’s wolves will remain under state authority despite a judge’s recent decision that calls for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider a previous determination that relisting wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming under the Endangered Species Act was not warranted.
For years, scientists at Washington State University’s Puyallup Research & Extension Center have been working to untangle a mystery: Why do coho salmon in Puget Sound creeks seem to suffocate after rainstorms — rising to the surface, gaping, and swimming in circles before dying?
Predation by sea birds on salmon and steelhead smolts in some years is responsible for as much as 50 percent of all smolt mortalities during the outmigration to the sea from the Columbia and Snake river basins, according to a presentation this week at a meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
More than 7,000 Chinook salmon are expected to return to Whatcom Creek in downtown Bellingham, Washington this season thanks to an ongoing collaboration between Bellingham Technical College, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, and the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Indian Tribe.
For many reasons, 2023 was the “Holy Grail Year” for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ pallid sturgeon recovery efforts in the Yellowstone River drainage. That’s fisheries manager Mike Backes’ term for it. Fisheries crews were able to validate the spawning of two wild heritage females with a wild heritage male and an unknown male in the Tongue River after capturing larvae that matched the parental genetics from three of the fish.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced the next round of Wildlife Diversity Grant recipients, awarding approximately $1 million in funding for the next two years. This investment supports eight collaborative projects focused on some of Washington’s most at-risk wildlife species.
Idaho’s first endangered sockeye salmon arrived at a Sawtooth Basin fish trap July 23, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
A bleak preseason forecast for summer steelhead turned positive this week when a team of fisheries biologists recorded more steelhead passing Bonneville Dam than had been expected this year and nearly tripled the forecasted return.
Anticipating extra turbidity and an interruption of the clean drinking water it withdraws from the North Santiam River, the City of Salem declared a state of emergency at its City Council meeting last week. The expected turbidity is due to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ deep drawdown next year of its reservoir backed up behind Detroit Dam to aid juvenile salmon and steelhead passage, particularly for salmon and steelhead listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
