The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 6-1 to deny a petition that requested crab fishery rules be modified to further reduce the risk of whale entanglement.
A federal judge signaled that he could accept at least some operational changes at lower Columbia and Snake river dams proposed by the state of Oregon and conservation groups in October.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an agency that regulates dams and power plants across the U.S., is seeking comments from the public on a draft supplemental environmental impact statement for Idaho Power’s Hells Canyon complex of dams on the Snake River.
In a strongly-worded rebuttal to a December motion to dismiss by federal defendants in U.S. District Court, plaintiffs challenging the operation and maintenance of the Columbia/Snake river hydroelectric system of dams questioned why, after 24 years and eight complaints since 2001, that the federal government is now moving to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
The Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking action to clean up contaminated areas at Bradford Island, part of Bonneville Dam, including a former pistol range and landfill.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Simon on Dec. 19, 2025, released his order that sets the date for oral arguments in the case for the afternoon of Feb. 6 in Portland.
Many years ago, people built a dead end where two rivers met — and blocked an ancient pathway for migrating salmon and steelhead.
A proposed preliminary injunction calling for changes to Snake and Columbia river federal dam operations aimed at protecting endangered salmon and steelhead would lower the amount of electricity that could be generated by the dams, costing the region more for electricity, while also resulting in higher releases of carbon dioxide when making up for those losses, according to briefs submitted this week in U.S. District Court.
Slightly more spill, restrictions on flow fluctuations at federal Columbia and Snake River dams, more habitat projects, along with more predator management of sea lions, sea birds and fish are among changes the Northwest Power and Conservation Council is proposing as amendments to its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lost 18% of its staff under the Trump administration, dropping from 9,957 to 8,179, nationwide between 2024 and the end of May. The reduction in biologists and other staffers was discovered in data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Center for Biological Diversity.
After four humpback whales were entangled this year in Oregon commercial Dungeness crab fishing gear, conservation groups have formally petitioned the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to adopt measures to reduce risk to the endangered animals.
Most Pacific Coast salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the federal Endangered Species Act have increased in abundance over a 25-year span, but most still remain far under their recovery goals, according to a recent study by NOAA Fisheries scientists.
A 2022 petition to list Oregon Coast and Northern California Coastal Chinook salmon as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act was denied by NOAA Fisheries this week.
A 2022 rule by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission that allows trap, haul and trucking of fish over barriers, in addition to the already allowed volitional passage for fish, was overturned by the Oregon Court of Appeals.
In a continuing disagreement between the Yakama Nation and the Bonneville Power Administration over the expiration of the Columbia Basin Fish Accords and carryover funds, the power agency says it had hoped to continue talks that would extend some form of the Accords long-term.
The Bonneville Power Administration allowed the long-running Columbia Basin Fish Accords with tribes and states to expire Sept. 30, 2025 and it’s unclear if future agreements that would benefit salmon and steelhead recovery in the basin will materialize. Although BPA says it is open to discuss future Accords agreements with tribes, so far that has been more aspirational than substantive, at least according to one tribe.
A draft evaluation of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Willamette River basin dams that includes analyses of a deeper drawdown at Detroit Dam and a cessation of hydropower is up for public review. However, in the draft the Corps’ preferred alternative maintains hydropower at the dams.
The most recent filings in U.S. District Court in Portland by plaintiffs in the latest challenge to the biological opinion of the federal Columbia/Snake river hydropower system’s impacts on salmon and steelhead does not have to do with impacts by the federal dams, but instead it is a plea to dismiss a nearly two-year old counterclaim by the state of Idaho.
How and where water bird predation impacts juvenile salmon and steelhead must be considered on a case- by-case basis before taking action against the birds, according to a new report being considered at this week’s Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting.
The state of Washington and Columbia River tribes are lining up in U.S. District Court to support a request for a preliminary injunction filed Oct. 14 by Earthjustice seeking emergency operational changes at federal Columbia and Snake river dams aimed at protecting endangered salmon and steelhead from harms caused by dam operations.
A federal court ruled this week that the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service broke multiple environmental laws in approving the Knotty Pine logging project in the Kootenai National Forest. The proposed project is deep in the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear recovery zone of northwest Montana.
In a wild two weeks in the U.S. District Court in Portland, federal government attorneys asked the court on Oct. 2 to put a hold on renewed litigation that challenges federal environmental impact statements and biological opinions regarding the impact of operations of Columbia and Snake river federal dams on imperiled salmon and steelhead. The hold in litigation, they said, is due to the government shutdown.
In response to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and Bird Alliance of Oregon, a federal judge found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2022 determination that the streaked horned lark is threatened and not endangered is unlawful. The court ordered the Service to reconsider within one year whether the lark warrants endangered species protections.
After lifting the stay Sept. 11 on long-running litigation that challenges federal environmental impact statements and biological opinions regarding the impact of operations of Columbia and Snake river federal dams on imperiled salmon and steelhead, a federal judge last week set a court schedule that continues the legal battles.
Plaintiffs in long-running court battles that since 2001 have challenged environmental impact statements and biological opinions regarding the impact of operations of Columbia and Snake river federal dams on imperiled salmon and steelhead are heading back to court, according to a filing by the groups this week in U.S. District Court in Oregon.
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