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Oregon’s wolf population grew by 15% in 2024, marking the first year of double-digit growth since 2019, according to a report released by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
In addition, twenty-six wolf mortalities were documented during the year, including 22 that were human caused.

Anglers in Washington can expect similar salmon fishing opportunities in 2025-2026 compared to last season, that also includes a strong Puget Sound pink forecast, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fishery managers announced this week.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council this week recommended limited fishing opportunities for California’s recreational ocean salmon fisheries through the end of 2025. This decision will allow for the first recreational salmon fishing in California since 2022. The PFMC also recommended a repeat year of closure for California’s commercial salmon fisheries, the third year in a row.

American Rivers this week announced America’s Most Endangered Rivers in its 40th annual listing, with Idaho’s Clearwater River Basin ranked the seventh most endangered.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has named Eugenio Piñeiro Soler as Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. Piñeiro Soler has assumed his new position, taking the helm from Acting Assistant Administrator Emily Menashes, who will return to her previous position as Deputy Assistant Administrator for Operations.

The number of gray wolf packs in Washington increased slightly in 2024, according to the Washington Gray Wolf Conservation and Management 2024 Annual Report, released by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, while the state’s wolf count declined overall. Based on wolf biology and long-term population trajectory, WDFW wolf biologists do not believe wolf recovery is threatened at this time.

Climate change could pose a dual threat to native species by reducing their suitable habitats and increasing predation pressure from non-native species, a new study by Oregon State University researchers finds.

Fishery managers from Oregon and Washington took joint state action Wednesday (April 9) to add another six days of recreational spring Chinook salmon fishing in the mainstem Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam. This fishery had closed on Monday April 7 per the preseason schedule adopted in February. 

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued a Secretarial Memo to establish an “Emergency Situation Determination” on 112,646,000 acres of National Forestry System (NFS) land, including the national forests of the Pacific Northwest.

The Bureau of Reclamation today announced a $134 million award for the proposed Sites Reservoir Project. This new water storage project would be the second largest off-stream reservoir in the nation and would increase Northern California’s water storage capacity by up to 15 percent.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District says it will not perform a deep drawdown at the Willamette Valley’s Detroit Reservoir in the fall of 2025.

The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet. It consumes enormous quantities of tiny, shrimp-like animals known as krill to support a body of up to 100 feet (30 meters) long. Blue whales and other baleen whales, which filter seawater through their mouths to feed on small marine life, once teemed in Earth’s oceans. Then over the past century they were hunted almost to extinction for their energy-dense blubber.

As part of statewide efforts to help Californians and wildlife recover from the Southern California fires, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and its partners last month rescued 271 endangered Southern California steelhead trout from Topanga Creek, the last known population of this species in the Santa Monica Mountains.

New research from wildlife biologists shows that poachers play a bigger role in the deaths of eagles, hawks, and other birds of prey in the West than previously thought.

Two recent University of Montana studies are demystifying how increasing wildfires and hotter annual temperatures limit forest regeneration in the Western U.S., revealing that our capacity to plant trees can’t keep pace with reforestation needs.

As insect populations decrease worldwide — in what some have called an “insect apocalypse” — biologists seek to understand how the six-legged creatures are responding to a warming world and to predict the long-term winners and losers.

Fishery managers with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have scheduled opportunities for the public to provide input in 2025-2026 state-managed salmon seasons, beginning with a hybrid statewide forecast meeting on Friday, Feb. 28 in Olympia.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it could make hydroelectric dams on Oregon’s Willamette River safe for endangered salmon by building gigantic mechanical traps and hauling baby fish downstream in tanker trucks. The Corps started pressing forward over objections from fish advocates and power users who said the plan was costly and untested.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has denied petitions to remove Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears, finding that the imperiled animals still need federal protection.

As of Jan. 1, 2025, boaters in Washington waters must stay 1,000 yards away from Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW) at all times. 

The new year came with both joy and sadness for endangered Southern Resident killer whales. Researchers first spotted J35, also known as Tahlequah, carrying her deceased calf off Alki Point in West Seattle on December 31. Tahlequah is the same whale that garnered international headlines and concern in 2018 when she carried another deceased newborn calf for 17 days.

The U.S. Department of Energy, Washington State Department of Ecology, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have finalized an agreement that outlines a course for cleaning up millions of gallons of radioactive and chemical waste from large, underground tanks at the Hanford Site near the Columbia River.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has announced a $10,000 cash reward for information regarding a wolf poaching incident on private property in eastern Oregon’s Morrow County. The Oregon Wildlife Coalition has a standing reward of $10,000 for wolf poaching in that area, raising the reward total to $20,000.

In early 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to delist some populations of grizzly bears in the U.S. Northern Rockies. As Montanans consider their future with grizzly bears, University of Montana scientists are helping inform the social, ecological and policy aspects of the dialogue.  

The Great Salt Lake has lost more than 15 billion cubic yards of water over the past three decades, is getting shallower at the rate of 4 inches a year, and an analysis of its water budget suggests reducing irrigation is necessary for saving it.

The Department of Commerce and NOAA Fisheries has announced up to $99 million in funding through the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund for conservation and recovery projects focusing on Pacific salmon and steelhead. The funding — which includes $34.4 million from the Infrastructure Law — is aimed at advancing state and tribal efforts to restore salmon populations and habitats.

Emissions of carbon caused by fossil fuel pollution continued to grow slightly in 2023 to 36.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, setting yet another new record despite increasingly urgent warnings from scientists about the need for steep and immediate decreases.

Reservoirs, a major component of California’s water storage system, are a significant source of climate-warming emissions, releasing more greenhouse gases across the state than 300,000 gas-powered cars in a year, says a report by the Center for Biological Diversity.

The U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week announced nearly $46 million in investments from President Biden’s Infrastructure Law for ecosystem restoration activities that “address high-priority Klamath Basin water-related challenges in southern Oregon and northern California.”

On Oct. 17 the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife was alerted by Oregon State Police that a young adult male cougar was on a dock at the Embarcadero Resort in Newport. ODFW staff immediately responded and assessed the scene with local law enforcement.

The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a petition urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Cascade red fox under the Endangered Species Act. The Washington state foxes are threatened by climate change, small population size and a host of other threats.

The National Veterinary Services Laboratories has confirmed Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in 1 of 5 pigs living on a small farm in central Oregon’s Crook County.

New research from University of Montana underscores the critical role of genetic variation in the conservation of threatened fish species.

In response to a legal petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that the Crater Lake newt (also known as the Mazama newt) may qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation added an additional 1,073 acres to the Minam River Wildlife Area in northeast Oregon, expanding the protected acreage to 16,646. This collaborative effort, finalized last month, builds upon significant land acquisitions from 2021 and 2023.

The Biden Administration has announced that NOAA is designating 4,543 square miles of coastal and offshore waters along 116 miles of California’s central coast as America’s 17th national marine sanctuary.

A draft report to Congress briefly outlines progress the Northwest Power and Conservation Council made in fiscal year 2023 on its Power Plan and Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. The draft report was approved to go out for public comment until Dec. 10 by the Council last week at its meeting in Portland.

Worried about invasive, destructive zebra mussels coming into the state, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking aquarium and pet store shoppers in North Bend and Stayton areas who may have purchased marimo moss ball products in the last six months to contact the agency.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs last week announced a nearly $10 million investment to provide critical rehabilitation at Tribal fishing sites along the Columbia River.

Dwindling snowpack, rising sea levels and dangerous heat events are among climate change challenges Washington state agencies are planning for under the guidance of a new “climate response” strategy.

Harbor seals consume as many as a third of young steelhead smolts migrating out of the Nisqually River’s delta in southern Puget Sound, new research shows.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has finalized a drone use plan that authorizes staff to conduct pinniped research and management surveys in the state’s coastal and inland waters. Department staff and researchers will use drones to survey for seals and sea lions in the Department’s Southwest, Coastal, and North Puget Sound regions.

NOAA scientists have upgraded a crucial genetic reference tool for Chinook salmon conservation that allows researchers to pinpoint the river system individual fish come from, enabling more precise management and protection of threatened and endangered populations.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has published a new long-term management plan for invasive European green crabs (EGC). This harmful shore crab species is a threat to native shellfish, estuary habitats, eelgrass, Washington’s aquaculture industry, and other tribal, cultural, and environmental values.

The Center for Biological Diversity has reached an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that puts the agency on the path to protecting imperiled fish and southern resident killer whales from toxic cyanide in Washington state’s waters.

Scientists studied two populations of fish-eating killer whales — the Southern Residents and the southern Alaska residents – to find out if these two populations different things and how their diets change throughout the year.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed the 5-year status review and a Species Status Assessment for bull trout in the lower 48 states, recommending no change to the current threatened listing status of the bull trout under the Endangered Species Act.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers earlier this month received a report of a human-river otter incident that occurred at the Bremerton Marina in Kitsap County.

Greenhouse gas concentrations, the global temperature across land and oceans, global sea level and ocean heat content all reached record highs in 2023, according to an international State of the Climate report led by NOAA scientists.

The Colorado River and its tributaries provide water for hydropower, irrigation and drinking water in seven U.S. states and Mexico. Much of this water comes from the snowpack that builds up over the winter and then melts each spring. Every year in early April, water managers use the snowpack to predict how much water will be available for the upcoming year.

Oregon State University researchers are part of a team looking at reducing bird collision risks with wind turbines by painting a single blade of the turbine black.

The Center for Biological Diversity this week petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the highly imperiled Alvord chub under the Endangered Species Act.

New research from the U.S. Geological Survey links wildfires to increased mercury concentrations in Pacific Northwest headwater streams.

Idaho Fish and Game recently received test results confirming a positive case of chronic wasting disease in an adult female white-tailed deer roughly 3 miles outside of Bonners Ferry in hunting Unit 1. The deer was reported to Fish and Game by a landowner who found the dead deer in early July.

Yakama tribal leader Jeremy Takala was sworn in as the 2024-2025 Chair of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission at its July meeting, being hosted by the Warm Springs Tribe in Madras, Oregon. This is the second time Takala has served as the CRITFC Chair, previously occupying this position in 2020-2021.

As the world’s largest unfrozen freshwater resource, groundwater is crucial for life on Earth. Researchers at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have investigated how global warming is affecting groundwater temperatures and what that means for humanity and the environment.

Since 2006, a fast-moving disease known as white-nose syndrome has killed an estimated 6.7 million bats, wiping out entire colonies and decimating creatures that provide an integral means of pest control.

A bird that spends its entire life near mountaintops in the Pacific Northwest is likely to become in danger of extinction as a result of climate change, the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service has announced.

The 1.1 mile long North Cove beach is located along the north entrance to Willapa Bay in Pacific County and was once the fastest eroding ocean beach on the U.S. West Coast.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week affirmed a lower court ruling that prevents Scott Timber from clearcutting old growth trees within Oregon’s Elliott State Forest. The decision will protect marbled murrelets, which are a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Oregon State University researchers found that U.S. adults are fairly confident in linking wildfires and heat to climate change, but less confident when it comes to other extreme weather events like hurricanes, flooding or tornadoes.

A new West Coast collaboration for offshore wind science was announced last month. The Pacific Offshore Wind Consortium is a joint effort between three research centers: the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt, the Pacific Marine Energy Center at Oregon State University, and the Center for Coastal Marine Sciences at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Trail camera footage provided to Idaho Fish and Game staff confirms for the first time the presence of a grizzly bear west of Interstate 15 (in Game Management Unit 59).

Oregon investigators found a cow carcass laced with poison in a creek in the Imnaha River drainage. The target was likely a wolf, the latest poisoning in a disturbing trend that has killed 19 wolves in Oregon since 2015. Whatever the target, the collateral damage in northeast Oregon’s ongoing poisoning cases now includes golden eagles, dogs, and other carnivores.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission last week voted unanimously to select Debbie Colbert as the new ODFW Director.

Approximately 1 million young Chinook salmon have died at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Samish Hatchery near Burlington after a mechanical failure at 1 a.m. on Monday morning, April 29. 

Nearly 18,000 young salmon died after a vandal poured bleach into a southern Oregon Coast fish hatchery tank last week, according to law enforcement authorities.

FISH WAR, a documentary film produced by Northwest Treaty Tribes Media and North Forty Productions, will have its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 11, with an additional matinee screening at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 12.

2023 was a year of accelerated activity in the ongoing process of modernizing the Columbia River Treaty.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council acted unanimously to recommend closure of California’s commercial and recreational ocean salmon fisheries through the end of the year, mirroring recommendations made last year to close the fisheries in 2023.

The Center for Biological Diversity this week filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking Endangered Species Act protections for the ashy pebblesnail and shortface lanx.

The Department of the Interior announced a $19 million investment to install solar panels over irrigation canals in California, Oregon and Utah, simultaneously decreasing evaporation of critical water supplies and advancing clean energy goals. 

Four conservation and animal protection groups have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for denying their petition to protect gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains under the Endangered Species Act.

On March 29 near Lookingglass Hatchery in northeast Oregon, a fish tanker truck was involved in an accident while transporting approximately 102,000 spring Chinook smolts for release in the Imnaha River.

The famous work ethic of honey bees might spell disaster for these busy crop pollinators as the climate warms, new research indicates.

The escalation of extreme wildfires globally has prompted a critical examination of wildfire management strategies. A new study from the University of Montana reveals how fire suppression ensures that wildfires will burn under extreme conditions at high severity, exacerbating the impacts of climate change and fuel accumulation.

New research indicates that lynx might do well in the future in parts of Utah, central Idaho and the Yellowstone National Park region, even considering climate change and the lack of lynx in those areas now.

A very mild February wrapped up a record-warm winter for the U.S., according to experts from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has released a draft Interagency Northern Pike Rapid Response Plan that guides coordination and resources to prevent the spread of northern pike to new areas in Washington and develop long-term management plans for the voracious predator. The draft plan is undergoing a State Environmental Policy Act review. As part of that process, WDFW is asking members of the public for input.

Montana’s first mussel-fouled watercraft of the year was intercepted at the Anaconda watercraft inspection station on March 10. 

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s fish health lab has detected a novel parasite in sick rainbow trout that were raised at Klamath Falls, Rock Creek and Elk River hatcheries. The detection marks the first time this parasite has been associated with disease symptoms in Oregon’s fish.

Forests in the coolest, wettest parts of the western Pacific Northwest are likely to see the biggest increases in burn probability, fire size and number of blazes as the climate continues to get warmer and drier, according to new modeling led by an Oregon State University scientist.

On a research cruise focused on marine mammals and seabirds, Oregon State University scientists earned an unexpected bonus: The first-ever documented sighting of a hoary bat flying over the open ocean.

The Department of Commerce and NOAA has announced plans for $27 million to recover threatened and endangered Pacific salmon in the face of climate change.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a public scoping period to consider options for restoring grizzly bears to the Bitterroot ecosystem.

Oregon State University researchers have discovered vitamin B1 produced by microbes in rivers, findings that may offer hope for vitamin-deficient salmon populations.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff at the Ashland Boat Inspection Station found quagga mussels on a pontoon boat that was being transported from Lake Mead, Nev., into Oregon on Jan. 4.

Nearly 75 percent of the U.S. could experience damaging earthquake shaking, according to a recent U.S. Geological Survey-led team of over scientists and engineers.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, at a workshop last month, determined that revision of the Wolf Plan was not needed at this time, while directing staff to focus on addressing key challenges including wolf-livestock conflict, reducing illegal take, and population monitoring.

Last month, the Canadian Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, Diane Lebouthillier, and the British Columbia Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, Nathan Cullen, announced $86,119,340 for 58 projects receiving funding under the second phase of the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF).

Biden administration officials bound by court-ordered confidentiality declined to participate in a congressional oversight hearing Tuesday focused on a leaked draft settlement of the long-running salmon and dams litigation in the Columbia River basin.

The final winner in the Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program this year received a whopping $107,800 for their efforts to catch the aggressive predator of juvenile salmon and steelhead. Even the second-place angler received nearly $100,000 in winnings with a total catch of 9,786 pikeminnow.

In response to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Rivers, the National Marine Fisheries Service has made an initial finding that Endangered Species Act protections may be warranted for Washington coast Chinook salmon. The agency will initiate a status review for Washington coast spring-run and fall-run salmon populations.

NOAA this month announced the availability of up to $106 million in funding through the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund for Pacific salmon and steelhead recovery and conservation projects. This funding — which includes funding from the Infrastructure Law — will support state and tribal salmon restoration projects and activities to protect, conserve and restore these fish populations and their habitats.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public input on a draft recovery plan for the lower 48 distinct population segment of Canada lynx, informed by an updated species status assessment.

The Bonneville Power Administration says it ended fiscal year 2023 on solid financial footing, exceeding expectations of previous quarterly forecasts that indicated the agency would miss net revenues and expense targets. The agency’s annual report describes how the agency bounced back in the fourth quarter, offsetting cost pressures primarily from the 13th driest year on record.

A Pacific County judge has sentenced a recreational fisherman to 50 days in jail, fined him $1,500, and imposed a five-year fishing license suspension for repeat salmon snagging violations, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced.   

More than 15 Northwest Tribal Nations gathered in early November to share stories about salmon, orca, water, and the land — and to demand the federal government uphold Tribal treaty obligations to recover and restore salmon in the Snake River and Columbia River Basin.

When bottlenose dolphins nurse their young, they transfer toxic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and DDT to their calves through their milk. New research shows that the calves end up with higher concentrations of the toxins than their mothers.

The Biden Administration says $60 million will be available for NOAA Fisheries to invest in upgrades identified as tribal priorities for Columbia River Basin hatchery facilities that produce Pacific salmon through the Mitchell Act.

The Portland District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will gather the public’s perspective and opinions on the future of hydropower across the Corps’ Willamette Valley system of dams during three listening sessions – one in-person and two virtual.

In the early morning of October 6th, Kyriacos Panayiotou of McCall waded into the cool waters of the Clearwater River, Idaho’s legendary steelhead mecca. Using a two-handed spey rod, he began searching the water, hoping a steelhead would grab the fly.

This year, El Nino is in place heading into winter for the first time in four years, driving the outlook for warmer-than-average temperatures for the northern tier of the continental United States, according to NOAA’s U.S. Winter Outlook released this week by the Climate Prediction Center — a division of the National Weather Service.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s recent count of spring-run Chinook salmon returning to the South Umpqua River showed just 17 wild adult fish detected during snorkel surveys. This dismal return is 12% of the 10-year average of 139 fish returning to the river and “signals an urgent need for federal Endangered Species Act protections,” says the Center for Biological Diversity.

NOAA Fisheries says the agency and its fishery management partners reached a major milestone this summer – the rebuilding of a 50th fish stock. The Snohomish coho salmon stock was declared overfished in 2018 and has now rebuilt to its sustainable level.

Matt Hosking of Lewiston, Idaho caught a colossal coho in the Clearwater River in on October 13th, setting a new state record for coho salmon.

On Oct. 3, the Bonneville Power Administration made its annual payment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for the 40th consecutive year on time and in full, bringing cumulative payments to approximately $34.6 billion over this period. The total payment for fiscal year 2023 was $1.02 billion.

With the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference just a few weeks away, countries will soon take stock of their progress in the worldwide effort to slow and adapt to global warming. Better known as COP28, the conference offers the chance for countries to meet and coordinate their climate-mitigating pledges, like achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 or peak emissions by 2030.

The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded a coalition of academic and oceanographic research organizations including Oregon State University a five-year, $220 million cooperative agreement to continue operating and maintaining the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

This is what we believe is wrong with the dam breaching concept.  There were far more fish that returned in the first 15 years of the 21st century than ever did in the 20th century, fully 25 years after construction of the last dam on the lower Snake River.  That is the case for both steelhead and spring and summer chinook. 

If you live or recreate close to a river or stream in the Willamette Valley, you might come across salmon carcasses or see Oregon Department Fish and Wildlife staff and volunteers slinging carcasses into the water during September and October.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories has confirmed that three adult harbor seals in Puget Sound have tested positive for the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 strain. The seals stranded on Marrowstone Island on August 18 and 25. This confirms initial testing by the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, which indicated the presence of H5N1 in these seals. No seal pups have tested positive.

The Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $24 million for projects that will address climate change by researching marine carbon dioxide removal strategies, with $14 million going toward 10 projects that examine how effectively and safely strategies like enhancing ocean alkalinity or sinking seaweed remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Forest thinning is improving the robustness of older trees and enhancing native biodiversity on federal lands in eastern Oregon, evidence that collaborative efforts to restore forests are working, research by Oregon State University shows.

At the Aug. 4 meeting of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, not an empty seat could be found. Members of tribes in Oregon, Washington and Idaho filled the 150 chairs set out at the department headquarters in Salem. Dozens more crowded around the edges of the room.

The effects of a dry, cold winter and higher-than-expected supplemental power purchase expenses continue to weigh on the Bonneville Power Administration’s finances three-quarters of the way through the fiscal year. Agency net revenue is now forecast to be negative $382 million, which is $56 million below this year’s performance target.

California has a new gray wolf pack in Tulare County, says the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. This is the Golden State’s southernmost pack and it is at least 200 air miles from the nearest known pack in northeastern California.

A large marine heatwave that developed offshore has reached the coast of Oregon and Washington. It increases the potential for harmful algal blooms and other impacts on the coastal ecosystem and marine life in the coming weeks and months.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking public input on a draft periodic status review for northern spotted owl that includes a recommendation to keep the owl on the state’s endangered species list. The public comment period is open from Aug. 1 through Oct. 29.

Conditions are ripe for an accelerated transition to electric vehicle use in the United States. The Biden-Harris administration has set a target that 50 percent of newly purchased cars in 2030 be electric. In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides significant tax incentives for purchasing electric vehicles and for companies that produce them.

Four decades of conservation spending totaling more than $9 billion in inflation-adjusted tax dollars has failed to improve stocks of wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin, according to Oregon State University research.

The popular Lower Deschutes River will remain open by permanent rule for steelhead fishing through at least Sept. 14 after meeting a key threshold in its fish management framework.

Last year, the Flathead Watershed and its five tributaries were so choked with snowmelt and spring moisture that Flathead Lake overfilled naturally for the first time since 1964, when historic floods devastated local communities and reset the record books. This year, dam operators responsible for controlling the outflow of Flathead Lake began refilling the basin a full six weeks early, desperately trying to capture the region’s scant mountain runoff as forecasts showed lake levels dropping to historic lows.

In the Columbia River Basin, where dramatic and extensive alterations to habitat for fish and wildlife have occurred, the Columbia Basin Partnership Taskforce estimated that 35% of historical populations of anadromous salmon and steelhead have been extirpated.

The Department of the Interior has announced significant action to better facilitate species recovery by providing more flexibility for the introduction of threatened and endangered species to suitable habitats outside their historical ranges.

Oregon State University researchers estimate that gray whales feeding off the Oregon Coast consume up to 21 million microparticles per day, a finding informed in part by poop from the whales.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries are proposing regulations the agencies say will restore protections for species, strengthen consultation and listing processes, and “reaffirm the central role science plays” in decisions that guide the protection and recovery of endangered and threatened wildlife.

The Ktunaxa, Secwépemc and Syilx Okanagan Nations and their members will benefit from new interim agreements that share revenue generated from the Columbia River Treaty.

In a settlement agreement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to reconsider whether West Coast fishers in northern California and southern Oregon warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The rapid growth of harmful algae along parts of the Southern California Coast is believed to have killed hundreds of California sea lions and close to 60 dolphins in the first weeks of June.

Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Troopers discovered fish with embedded hooks, sliced fins, circular scabs, and other evidence of illegal tactics, while assisting ODFW hatchery staff during the spring salmon spawning season.

An Oregon State University researcher has been awarded a three-year, $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to lead a study about the movement of fish stocks due to changing climate conditions and the potential geopolitical tensions that could result from that shift.

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s authorization of the killing of up to 72 grizzly bears on public land just outside of Yellowstone National Park violated federal law.

Fishery managers from Washington and Oregon added eleven recreational fishing days (Thursday, May 25-Sunday, June 4) to the ongoing spring Chinook fishery downstream of Bonneville Dam during a joint state hearing Wednesday.

In 1957 Celilo Falls, a fishery that was pivotal to the lives of many Native Americans along the Columbia River, was lost when it was flooded and destroyed by the construction of The Dalles Dam.

Negotiating teams for Canada and the United States met in Kelowna, British Columbia for the 17th round of negotiations toward a modernized Columbia River Treaty.

The Yaqan Nukiy Lower Kootenay Band will release more than one million burbot in a restored wetland in the Creston Valley this year.

The Bonneville Power Administration’s Columbia Generating Station is shutting down this spring, as it does every two years, to replace about a third of the fuel from the nuclear plant’s core.

Increasing caribou populations in northeastern British Columbia demonstrate that partnerships between Indigenous and colonial governments can reverse prolonged declines, yet the emphasis must now be placed on establishing culturally significant restoration objectives, assert a collective of scholars and community members in a recent publication featured in Science this week.

Feeling crowded out of the prime fishing spots in the Clearwater Basin, the Nez Perce Tribe will experiment with gill nets and drift nets during the spring chinook fishing season.

Oregon and Washington fishery managers recently finalized seasons and regulations for 2023 Columbia River summer and fall recreational salmon and steelhead fisheries. The harvest would come amidst the potentially lowest return of upriver summer steelhead to the Columbia since 1938.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has appointed Thomas L. (Les) Purce to serve on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.