A panel of scientists completed this month its fourth review since 2012 of a master plan for Yakima River fisheries submitted by the Yakama Nation. The master plan describes a far-reaching plan to use hatcheries to boost tribal fisheries in the Columbia River.
Thirteen new Deschutes River basin habitat, water quality and fish passage projects are getting a combined $4.5 million in funding, with individual grants ranging from $51,000 for an Upper Deschutes Watershed Council fish passage project to $1.25 million for a Priday Ranch steelhead conservation project.
Since 2015, when the efforts to suppress or eradicate non-native northern pike from Lake Roosevelt began, nearly 13,000 of the voracious fish have been removed from the huge reservoir that backs up behind Grand Coulee Dam on the upper Columbia River.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Monday to provide the Spokane Tribe of Indians compensation for the lands taken by the United States as part of building Grand Coulee Dam in the 1930s and 1940s.
Although the 289 acres of waterfront land along the lower White Salmon River is currently not for sale, the land’s owner, PacifiCorp, said it has signed an agreement with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation giving the Nation the right of first offer when and if the property does go up for sale.
This week in a public announcement at their ancient fishing grounds at the former Celilo Falls, the Yakama Nation, with support of the Lummi Nation from northern Washington, demanded the removal of three lower Columbia River hydroelectric dams.
Tribes will resume commercial gillnetting this week for fall chinook, but for the second time in two weeks one of the four lower Columbia River tribes disagreed with the decision.
As efforts continue to curb the proliferation of northern pike in the Columbia River Basin, the state of Washington and co-management agencies are pursuing additional funding and flexibility to respond to the voracious predators entering the “anadromous zone” downstream from Grand Coulee Dam.
NOAA Fisheries has released a draft plan for public comment to remove and kill as many as 416 California and Steller sea lions each year in a 180 mile stretch of the Columbia River from just downstream of Bonneville Dam at river mile 112 upstream to McNary Dam at river mile 292.
Pacific Rivers and Idaho Rivers United filed a petition in Multnomah County circuit court Tuesday challenging the issuance of the water quality certification by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for the Hells Canyon Complex. The Nez Perce Tribe filed a challenge in Oregon’s Marion County circuit court.
Tribes will again fish in waters upstream of Bonneville Dam with next week -- the second two-day commercial gillnet period for Treaty Tribes during this year’s summer chinook period. The two-state Columbia River Compact signed off Thursday, June 27, on the additional days as they also heard that the U.S. v Oregon Technical Advisory Committee, which met Monday, had downsized the anticipated run of sockeye salmon to 58,000 fish.
The Nez Perce Tribe recently filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the Midas Gold Idaho, Inc., alleging the mining company has been illegally discharging arsenic and other pollutants at Stibnite Gold Project site in the headwaters of the South Fork of the Salmon River.
Treaty platform fishing and commercial treaty gillnetting will begin this month for summer chinook and sockeye salmon. Tribes had not had a commercial gillnet fishery during the spring chinook run.
The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon are now the custodians of 1,200 additional acres of critical habitat along the Middle Fork John Day River, thanks to a recent land transaction with The Nature Conservancy.
A seven year web project funded by the Columbia Basin Fish Accords was highlighted at this week’s meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Predation on listed salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River basin – by birds, by sea lions and even by other fish – has reached high proportions but it is difficult to know how reductions in predators impact the number of fish returning to spawning grounds.
A high flying habitat restoration project is underway in Washington’s Yakima Basin, with a heavy helicopter delivering logs to the streambeds and flood plains of seven Yakima River tributaries.
The Chelan County Public Utility District commission at its meeting Sept. 18 approved a resolution to enter into a long-term, 15-year agreement with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation for coho salmon hatchery fish rearing.
Less than a month after a scientific review of its coho salmon master plan, the Yakama Nation broke ground on the Melvin R. Sampson Hatchery last week, which will eventually produce up to 700,000 coho smolts each year for release into the Yakima River.
A program that has consumed an average of 18 percent of the Bonneville Power Administration’s fish and wildlife budget each year and has cost the agency over $560 million over its 10-year life is coming to end, although it may be extended.
After a review requested by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee, the Independent Scientific Review Panel found the Yakama Nation’s coho plan for the Melvin R. Sampson coho facility in the Yakima River sub-basin to be a well-conceived plan for coho salmon reintroduction and supplementation.
The owner of an unpermitted, private dam that failed last year at the headwaters of Rattlesnake Creek in southeast Washington’s Asotin County has agreed to a multi-million-dollar restoration plan.
The first few phases of a long-range plan by tribes to restore Pacific lamprey runs into Columbia River tributaries through artificial propagation and translocation was given a tentative approval this week by the Fish and Wildlife Committee of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The number of summer chinook salmon expected to enter the Columbia River took another nose dive last week when biologists that estimate those numbers downgraded the run another 15 percent.
A scientific panel completed its review of Northwest tribes’ master plan outlining activities to recover Pacific lamprey in the Columbia River basin, saying that the plan meets scientific review criteria with some qualifications.
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