An effort to return the remains of the “Ancient One,” also known as Kennewick Man, to Columbia Basin tribes cleared a significant hurdle last week after the U.S. Senate passed the Water Resources Development Act of 2016. The bill now moves to the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) have introduced legislation that they say would help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration better assess and protect fisheries.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins this week (Aug. 18) announced the U.S. Forest Service has filed a proposed rule to rescind in its entirety the national 2001 Roadless Area Conversation Rule, a tool environmentalists consider crucial in protecting the nation’s national forests.
Water in Lower Granite Dam’s tailwater continues to run several degrees cooler than the 68 degrees Fahrenheit upper temperature limit set by NOAA Fisheries’ 2014 biological opinion for Columbia/Snake salmon and steelhead, and the result has been improved passage for sockeye salmon.
Five conservation groups gave notice last week that they will pursue a lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency if the agency fails to finalize a pollution budget under the Clean Water Act for the Columbia River and lower Snake River that it was near finalizing in 2003.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking data and public comments on a petition to list the southern resident killer whale under the California Endangered Species Act. The southern resident killer whale is a distinct population segment of killer whale found along the Pacific Coast between southeast Alaska and Point Sur, Calif. Southern...
A July 21 letter from the Bonneville Power Administration’s CEO Steve Wright reiterates the agency’s intent to defer funding for new Nez Perce tribal hatchery facilities while the project’s full biological benefits are weighed in an ongoing court-ordered process.
U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. D-WA, has introduced H.R. 9637, the Protecting Columbia River Salmon Act, a bill which would allow Southwest Washington’s Indian Tribes to lethally remove California and Steller sea lions in specific portions of the Columbia River. The bill is part of an effort by Gluesenkamp Perez to modify the Marine Mammal...
Conservation groups have sued the Trump administration over what they say is a decision to strip endangered species of protections for the places where they live, “a decision that contradicts all scientific and legal understanding of the importance of habitat to America’s most vulnerable plants and animals.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National...
With advice from a variety of sources now in hand, Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff will begin piecing together a recommendation for how available fish and wildlife monies will be spent in fiscal years 2007-2009.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, has finalized its plan for operating the Willamette Valley’s 13 federal dams by executing a Record of Decision.
NOAA has announced the allocation of $123.6 million in fishery resource disaster funding, appropriated by Congress in the American Relief Act, 2025.
After a year and a half of deliberations and extensive public input, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council approved this week its 2026 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. The Program will inform hydroelectric operations and be included in the Council’s 2026 Power Plan. A Power Plan draft will be completed for public review...
Under an agreement signed last week, the financial burden for evaluating contamination levels in the upper Columbia River, and resulting risks to human health, will shift from U.S. taxpayers to the Canadian zinc producer that long used the river as a waste repository.
The federal government unilaterally reduced spill at the John Day Dam this week, the second time in the last two weeks state and tribal salmon managers of the interagency Technical Management Team have been left out of an important river operations decision.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a draft recovery plan and recovery implementation strategy to guide conservation efforts for the coastal distinct population segment (DPS) of the Pacific marten, a federally threatened mammal.
At its May meeting this week the Northwest Power and Conservation Council hashed out the few remaining issues in its draft Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. However, the Council members continue to be divided over whether the Program should include August spill for salmon, an issue that one member worried could “unravel” the...
The Washington Department of Ecology is seeking public input on plans to clean up contamination from the former Columbia Gorge Aluminum smelter near the John Day Dam.
U.S. Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA), Co-Chair of the Puget Sound Recovery Caucus, has introduced her “6PPD Task Force Act.” The bill creates a task force to bridge together federal, state, tribal, and industry voices to coordinate further 6PPD-quinone research.
For the litigation over river operations for Columbia/Snake River salmon and steelhead, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has set a briefing schedule for the federal government’s appeal of rulings by a lower court in Portland. But the Court has yet to say whether it will stay the lower court’s rulings as the legal wrangling...
The Oregon’s State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) has been officially approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This milestone marks the final step in adopting the 2026 SWAP.
Federal defendants in a long-running case in U.S. District Court challenging NOAA Fisheries’ biological opinion governing operations to prevent harm to salmon and steelhead at Columbia River federal hydroelectric system of dams raised the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in late March.
A month after a U.S. District Court in Portland issued a partially favorable ruling to plaintiffs on a preliminary injunction directing Columbia and Snake river dam operations designed to aid salmon and steelhead, federal agency defendants challenged the decision at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The defendants notified the District Court of the challenge Friday, March 27.
The Center for Biological Diversity has notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service it intends to sue the agency for failing to make a timely decision on whether the western ridged mussel should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The imperiled mussels are disappearing from streams and rivers across the three West Coast states and Idaho and Nevada.
Beginning this spring, more water will be spilled at eight federal dams on the two rivers during spring, summer and fall/winter to aid the safe passage of juvenile salmon and steelhead, sending more of the fish over the dam rather than through turbines.
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