The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission this week presented its “2022 Energy Vision For The Columbia River Basin” to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, with recommendations to get “energy production off the backs of salmon.”
The U.S. Senate last week unanimously approved the nomination of Charles “Chuck” Sams III as National Park Service director, which will make him the first Native American to lead the agency.
Alongside national tribal leaders and federal partners at this week’s 2021 White House Tribal Nations Summit, the Environmental Protection Agency announced renewals of the Tribal Treaty Rights Memorandum of Understanding and the Sacred Sites Memorandum of Understanding.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission announced that Aja K. DeCoteau was selected as the organization’s new executive director at its October meeting, effective November 1.
Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland has signed the Confederated Salish and Kootenai-Montana Compact, formally executing the Montana Water Rights Protection Act enacted by Congress late last year.
The abundance in the Columbia River basin of a fish species rich in nutrients that provides a source of food for numerous riverine birds and animals, as well as Native Americans, has been in decline over the past 20 years, according to a presentation this week at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee meeting.
The White House has announced the intent to nominate Northwest Power and Conservation Council member Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III as Director of the National Park Service. The nomination will now be considered by the U.S. Senate. Sams has represented Oregon on the Council since April.
Lorraine Loomis, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission chairperson and Swinomish fisheries manager, passed away August 10 at the age of 81.
Act now and act together, or watch salmon runs continue to plummet in the Northwest. That was the message Wednesday (July 7) when tribal leaders from throughout the Columbia Basin gathered for a “salmon and orca summit” organized by the Nez Perce Tribe and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.
In an important move to restore Tribal homelands, the Department of the Interior announced this week the transfer of all lands comprising the National Bison Range, approximately 18,800.22 acres, to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be held in trust for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation in Montana. The lands, which are completely within the boundaries of the reservation, were transferred to the Bureau from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
In an effort to return numbers of bull trout to self-sustainable levels, Yakama Nation Fisheries and their partners last week released 531 bull trout into Kachess Reservoir and 61 bull trout into Gold Creek, a tributary to Keechelus Reservoir.
On April 23, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice will convene the first White House Council on Native American Affairs meeting of the Biden-Harris administration. Secretary Haaland will serve as the Council’s Chair.
The Department of the Interior announced this week that it will host initial consultations with Tribal leaders next month.
Many of the 100 tagged, hatchery surplus adult summer chinook salmon released in August by the Colville Tribes in the Sanpoil River above Grand Coulee Dam built nests and through tracking have provided important baseline information for the possible reintroduction of salmon and steelhead above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council Wednesday approved a $41 million Yakama Nation hatchery master plan aimed at increasing harvest of coho and chinook salmon in both the mainstem Columbia River and Yakima River.
The seventh annual “One River, Ethics Matter” conference will be held during the COVID-19 pandemic by videoconference on December 9 and 10. It will focus on the lower Columbia River estuary and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.
Only about 25 percent of salmon and steelhead smolts produced in the Yakima River basin make it to McNary Dam on the Columbia River. Spring chinook do better than that, but poor survival of juvenile fall and summer chinook drag that number down.
A British Columbia Province Report on recent Columbia River Treaty community meetings notes “there was a lack of consultation with Basin residents and Indigenous Nations when the Treaty was first negotiated, and feelings of hurt and anger remain to this day.”
Hundreds of trout anglers will head to Montana’s Flathead Lake this fall to compete in a fishing derby where the goal is not to catch the biggest trout, but to reel in the most. The daily bag limit for this contest may be surprising. Organizers encourage anglers to catch as many as 100 lake trout per day.
In their zeal to promote the importance of climate change as an ecological driver, climate scientists increasingly are ignoring the profound role that indigenous peoples played in fire and vegetation dynamics, not only in the eastern United States but worldwide, according to a Penn State researcher.
Whoops and cheers erupted from the crowd - the sound of singing and hand drums alive in the background - as community members of the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation gathered at the edge of Hangman creek near Tensed, Idaho. All eyes were turned to the water and to the trucks full of chinook salmon.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission has assumed stewardship of a nationally renowned ocean and estuary research institution to better link knowledge of the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife anticipates that nearly $16 million in federal relief aid will be available for Oregon’s marine-related and coastal fishery sectors experiencing significant economic impacts from the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross this week announced the allocation of $300 million in economic relief to U.S. fishermen and seafood industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds were allocated as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, signed into law on March 27 by President Trump.
On May 12-14, NOAA Fisheries will convene a task force to make recommendations on the proposal to expand the lethal take of sea lions in the Columbia River basin. The sea lions have had a significant negative impact on salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act, and they also consume species of concern -- lamprey and sturgeon.
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