Tribal officials on Tuesday spoke Tuesday on the need to enlist the aid of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council in work aimed at, first, determining the feasibility of reintroducing salmon to long-blocked habitat above central Washington’s Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams on the Columbia River, and potentially following through.

Zachary L. Penney, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, has been selected to lead the Fishery Science Department of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission beginning March 2.

Federal, state, local and tribal officials from both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border gathered Oct. 9 at the top of Idaho’s panhandle to celebrate the latest, large step toward fulfillment of long-held dream held, most particularly, by the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho.

Religious and indigenous leaders this week transmitted to U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper a “Declaration of Ethics and Modernizing the Columbia River Treaty,” which they say should serve as the foundation for international negotiations regarding renewal of the Columbia River Treaty.

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and its member tribes (Umatilla, Yakama, Warm Springs and Nez Perce) this week announced the release of the first update to their comprehensive, gravel-to-gravel, fisheries restoration plan, Wy-Kan-Ush-Mi Wa-Kish-Wit (Spirit of the Salmon).

Just like the rivers he spent a lifetime working to protect, tributes continue to flow in for Billy Frank Jr., the Nisqually tribal leader who died unexpectedly on Monday at the age of 83.

Yakama Nation Fisheries biologists on Wednesday begin releasing approximately 280 “reconditioned” adult steelhead into the Yakima River basin so that the fish – called kelt – can select mates and spawn again.

For the first time in well over 100 years a Cle Elum Lake-origin sockeye salmon spawner is chilling in those cool waters, and Yakama Nation biologists hope there are many more to come.

Touched with success, Yakama Nation Fisheries efforts to build returns of once-extinct coho salmon to the mid-Columbia River region are branching out, with hopes of infusing fish into the fingertips of central Washington’s Yakima River basin.

For the second straight year, state and tribal fishery managers are joining forces to remove invasive, non-native northern pike from Box Canyon Reservoir on the Pend Oreille River in northeast Washington.