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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.

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information that leads to a civil penalty or criminal conviction of the boater observed driving through resting California sea lions in the Columbia River on April 3, 2023, near Hayden Island, Oregon.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission accepted a petition to list the Southern Resident killer whale Distinct Population Segment as endangered under the Oregon Endangered Species Act.

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that the Tribal Ceremonial and Subsistence fishery for coho salmon on the Elwha River will be open for a limited time during fall 2023. Additionally, the Tribe, ONP, and WDFW agreed to extend the closure of other recreational and commercial fisheries in the Elwha River for another year.

One hunter-harvested mule deer, a buck from El Dorado County, was confirmed to be infected with SARS-CoV-2. The deer was harvested in 2021 and sampled by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for chronic wasting disease surveillance. It was negative for CWD and did not show any outward signs of illness.

Earlier this month, Ryan Mejaski and Joe Wilhite were fishing for kokanee on the Deschutes arm of central Oregon’s Lake Billy Chinook without much luck when they decided to move spots. After casting into a group of small kokanee that were jumping to the surface, his secret lure sank to about five feet when he got a big strike that took off screaming.

Video of a wolverine crossing Hwy 20 east of Santiam Pass on April 6 was confirmed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. ODFW Deschutes District staff confirmed tracks near the video location on the day of the sighting.

To address the continued potential for low run-off conditions and unprecedented water shortages in the Colorado River Basin, the Bureau of Reclamation this week released a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to potentially revise the current interim operating guidelines for the near-term operation of Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams.

Work has officially begun on removing the four dams that comprise the Lower Klamath Hydropower Project.

Oregon’s Marine Reserves Program will take part in a groundbreaking new study designed to estimate how Oregonians assign value to the reserves beyond traditional economic impacts.

Jennifer Quan is the new Regional Administrator for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. She will assume her new duties on April 23, 2023.

The Eurasian strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI H5N1) was detected in two mountain lions in Mono County in December 2022 and January 2023, according to wildlife health experts with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. While additional disease testing is being conducted to rule out the possibility of co-infections, HPAI H5N1 is suspected to be the cause of the death for both mountain lions.

A wolverine was sighted by two people who were fishing on the Columbia River near Portland on the morning of Monday, March 20. Wolverine, rare and listed as threatened in Oregon, are the largest member of the weasel family and resemble a small bear. This is the first confirmed report of a wolverine outside of the Wallowa Mountains in over 30 years.

On March 21, Hayden Lake in North Idaho produced a new certified state record northern pike. The record fish weighed a whopping 40.76 pounds, was 49 inches in length and 26.5 inches in girth – a true monster of a fish.

One hunter-harvested mule deer, a buck from El Dorado County, was confirmed to be infected with SARS-CoV-2. The deer was harvested in 2021 and sampled by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for chronic wasting disease surveillance. It was negative for CWD and did not show any outward signs of illness.

Anticipating good conditions for the survival of hatchery-produced Chinook salmon throughout the Sacramento River and tributaries, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife will release both spring and fall-run Chinook during the historic rain and snowfall the state is experiencing. Several releases have already happened, and others are planned over the next few weeks to utilize good in-river habitat conditions for these young salmon.

Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels will require severely cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. Doing so calls for the immediate, large-scale adoption of renewable energy like solar and wind, electrified transportation, energy-efficient systems, alternative fuels, and carbon capture and storage technologies across all sectors globally.

The 2013-2016 marine heat wave known as “The Blob”  warmed a vast expanse of surface waters across the northeastern Pacific, disrupting West Coast marine ecosystems, depressing salmon returns, and damaging commercial fisheries. It also prompted a wave of research on extreme warming of ocean surface waters.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has appointed Ed Schriever, retired executive director of Idaho Fish and Game, to a seat on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, replacing longtime Council member Jim Yost.

All but the most resilient marine species off the West Coast are likely to be vulnerable to climate change, according to a new NOAA Fisheries assessment. It will help inform fisheries management and species protections as the climate changes in the coming decades.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, and Whale and Dolphin Conservation have filed a petition to protect Southern Resident orcas under the Oregon Endangered Species Act. As of the most recent census, just 73 Southern Resident orcas remain, divided among three family groups.

Recent reports (Columbia Basin Bulletin, February 2 and Eric Barker, Lewiston Tribune, February 5) claim that overall upriver returns to the Columbia basin are “on an upward swing.” Such a claim ignores context and perspective.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has extended an offer to Jim Fredericks to serve as the new director of Idaho Fish and Game. Fredericks has been a deputy director for Fish and Game since 2021 and is a former fisheries bureau chief.

A new report on the status of U.S. wildlife conservation reveals that 40% of animals, 34% of plants and 40% of ecosystems nationwide are at risk. The analysis — Biodiversity in Focus: United States Edition — was compiled by NatureServe, a nonprofit organization that assembles conservation data from a national network of scientists and organizations.

Talk to people who knew Larry Cassidy and the accolades run as thick as the Columbia River’s famed salmon and steelhead runs in the days before hydroelectric dams forever changed the system.

Fleeing isn’t the only way by which songbirds can protect themselves against predators. Many songbird species are known to engage in mobbing, where they gather aggressively around a bird of prey, flying rapidly while making stereotypic movements and loud vocalizations. Mobbing is risky for both parties: birds of preys have been observed to attack their mobbers, while cases are known of birds of prey getting injured by mobbing songbirds.

The American Fisheries Society Governing Board issued a policy statement this month calling for breaching the lower Snake River dams to “safeguard” Snake River basin salmon and steelhead from going extinct.

Even without hunting rifles, humans appear to have a strong negative influence on the movement of wildlife. A study of Glacier National Park hiking trails during and after a COVID-19 closure adds evidence to the theory that humans can create a “landscape of fear” like other apex predators, changing how species use an area simply with their presence.

Three Montana juvenile grizzly bears tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus this fall.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack this week announced expanded efforts to reduce wildfire risk across the western U.S. aimed at protecting at-risk communities and critical infrastructure across 11 landscapes in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

Fishery managers from Oregon and Washington today closed sturgeon retention in Bonneville Pool as of Jan. 12.

Hugh Morrison has been selected to serve as Regional Director of the Pacific Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Morrison, who has been the acting regional director since May 2022, will begin effective immediately. In this role, Morrison will administer conservation efforts spanning one ocean, four states and multiple territories and time zones.

It was a typical cold, December day in central Idaho with rain down low and snow in the mountains. While many anglers might have been thinking about ice-fishing, winter steelhead, or even putting a fresh coat of wax on their skis and hitting the slopes, Joey Walton had other plans: big Smallmouth bass.  Knowing he had to make the long run across the reservoir, he set out early in search of a trophy.

The recent article in the CBB about NPDES permits for the four lower Snake River dams includes a proposal to draw the reservoirs down to reduce heating of the water. This is a fool’s errand based on widespread misinformation.

On Dec. 7, I was sworn in as B.C.’s new Minister of Finance. I was also honoured to retain my role as minister responsible for the Columbia Basin Trust, Columbia Power Corporation and the Columbia River Treaty. As 2022 comes to a close, it’s worth reflecting on this year’s progress towards a modernized Columbia River Treaty.

National and community-based environmental groups filed a legal challenge today to stop the Department of the Interior’s lease sale in Cook Inlet, Alaska. Lease sale 258, scheduled for Dec. 30, would auction off nearly a million acres of federal waters in southcentral Alaska, opening the door to decades of future oil and gas drilling.

The owner of a wholesale fish processor, Native American Fisheries, was sentenced this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle to three years of probation for violating the Lacey Act by taking more than 7,000 pounds of illegally caught Columbia River salmon and selling it commercially.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing whitebark pine, a high elevation tree across the West, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Leaders of Northwest tribes on Wednesday welcomed new commitments from President Joe Biden and members of his administration at the first in-person Tribal Nations Summit held by the White House in six years.

The Biden Administration Wednesday issued new guidance for federal agencies regarding the use of Indigenous Knowledge in decision-making and issued new policies and procedures to fulfill the federal government’s responsibility for meaningful consultation with American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes.

NOAA has partnered with McKenzie River Trust to increase natural floodplain connectivity along Finn Rock Reach in Oregon’s McKenzie River. The project is restoring important habitat for threatened Upper Willamette River Chinook salmon.

Oregon’s U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have announced a total of $5,041,495 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will be awarded to the Nez Perce Tribe, in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and other partners, to restore sockeye salmon habitat connectivity at the Wallowa Lake Dam in northeast Oregon.

There is an increase in the number of stranded California sea lions along the entire Oregon coast due to leptospirosis, a naturally-occurring bacteria that can also sicken dogs, people, other wildlife, and livestock.

Washington U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray announced $36 million in grant funds to state, local, Tribal and federal partners to support the continued conservation and restoration of Puget Sound.

This year La Niña returns for the third consecutive winter, and starting in December 2022 through February 2023, NOAA predicts drier-than-average conditions across the South with wetter-than-average conditions for areas of the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest, according to NOAA’s U.S. Winter Outlook released today by the Climate Prediction Center — a division of the National Weather Service.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking for public feedback to inform the development of proposed fish passage and screening rules intended to support salmon and orca recovery.

Conservation and animal-protection groups are offering an increased reward of $51,400 for information leading to a conviction in the illegal poisoning deaths of six wolves in northeastern Washington earlier this year.

The Oregon Health Authority is issuing recommendations on the amount of lamprey from the Columbia River and its Oregon tributaries that people should eat after data showing high levels of contaminants in the fish.

Idaho’s Stanley Basin has long been one of the West’s most iconic roundup arenas. For 160 years, cowboys and their hooved counterparts have comingled out in the vast valley beneath the towering Sawtooth Mountains where they come together each fall to round up the herds.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week removed the snail darter from the endangered species list because the fish has recovered. Thanks to collaborative conservation efforts since it was protected in 1975, says USFWS, the little fish is no longer in danger of extinction.

Among the first cases to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court for the October 2022 term is Sackett v. EPA, No. 24-454 (2022). At stake is the definition of “waters of the United States” and the area of land that is subject to Clean Water Act wetlands protection or land available to be developed – an issue of enormous environmental and economic consequence.

The use of virtual fencing to manage cattle grazing on sagebrush rangelands has the potential to create fuel breaks needed to help fight wildfires, a recent Oregon State University and U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service study found.

Walleye have spread throughout the Columbia River basin following an unauthorized introduction to Lake Roosevelt in the mid-20th century. These fish have remained downstream of Idaho’s salmon and steelhead rivers until recently.

The lower Columbia River below Bonneville Dam will open additional areas for recreational salmon fishing beginning Oct. 1, fishery managers from Washington and Oregon announced Wednesday.

Starting Saturday, Sept. 24, anglers will be able to harvest coho salmon in the Grande Ronde River for the third time since they were reintroduced in 2017.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife researchers wrapped up a project this summer that could have important implications for how fishery managers design future coastal steelhead fisheries and prioritize habitat restoration projects.

The Department of the Interior this week released new guidance to improve federal stewardship of public lands, waters and wildlife by strengthening the role of Tribal governments in federal land management.

The U.S. effort to build a domestic supply of clean energy often begins with critical materials produced in far-off — and geopolitically sensitive — countries. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory recently contributed to a series of reports aimed at securing America’s clean energy supply chain and minimizing potential disruptions. 

Leadership from the Ports of Longview and Kalama, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have agreed to fund an estimated $2.1 million study that will investigate what changes or improvements engineers can make to turning basins in the Columbia River to help larger, deeper-drafting vessels, safely navigate when turning.

Well, it’s happened again. C.J. Strike Reservoir in southwestern Idaho – typically known for abundant crappie and smallmouth bass – has once again produced an eye-popping state record fish.

Wind energy continues to see strong growth, solid performance, and attractive prices in the U.S., according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Energy  and prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. With levelized costs of just over $30 per megawatt-hour for newly built projects, the cost of wind is well below its grid-system, health, and climate benefits.

The Center for Biological Diversity notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week that it intends “to sue over the agency’s failure to develop a national wolf recovery plan as required by the Endangered Species Act.” The planned lawsuit would seek to require the Service to draft a recovery plan that includes all populations of wolves in the contiguous United States.

Oregon State University scientists are proposing management changes on western federal lands that they say would result in more wolves and beavers and would re-establish ecological processes. They suggest reducing by 29 percent the amount of western public lands allotted annually for livestock grazing.

Hundreds of endangered northern leopard frogs will leap back into the wild at the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge in Washington’s Grant County this month.

The states of Washington and Oregon, and a coalition of organizations, joined together to send a letter to President Joe Biden Tuesday calling for increased funding at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Columbia Riverkeeper is a non-profit organization that for many years has been involved in key legislation regarding efforts to protect and restore the water quality of the Columbia River and its tributaries. It focuses on environmental laws to stop illegal pollution, protect salmon habitat, and challenge fossil fuel terminals.

A team of scientists concluded in a recent paper that breaching four dams in the Lower Snake River Basin in Washington provides the best and only reasonable opportunity to promote recovery of key fish species, including salmon and steelhead.

Though 100 degree-plus weather is on its way next week, unanticipated cool, wet weather in May and June prompted the Washington Department of Ecology to cancel the drought declaration for Central and Eastern Washington.

ODFW marine biologists and fishery managers continue their work to decrease whale entanglements in crabbing gear with good success. The frequency of entanglements has lessened over the last few years across the West Coast.

The ill-fated “Into the Wild” adventurer chronicled by author Jon Krakauer and film director Sean Penn may have been able to cross the river that turned him back had he tried a day earlier or later, research by Oregon State University suggests.

NOAA Fisheries is recommending more than $95 million in funding for 19 new and continuing programs and projects to support West Coast salmon and steelhead populations, ranging from funds for efforts to reintroduce salmon and steelhead above Grand Coulee Dam, $24 million for habitat restoration in Washington and $7.2 million to Idaho Governor’s Office of Species Conservation to “fund projects that are compatible with the Columbia Basin Collaborative sustainability goals.”

The latest technology to study glaciers fits in a backpack and can be carried up steep mountains.

A federal district court this week restored comprehensive Endangered Species Act regulatory protections to hundreds of species and the places they call home.

Idaho Fish and Game staff have confirmed three separate incidents of bears attacking and killing livestock in the Panhandle’s Bonner and Boundary counties.

With numerous whales in poor body condition and several pregnancies reported, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Thursday issued an emergency order requiring commercial whale-watching vessels to keep at least one-half nautical mile away from endangered Southern Resident killer whales this summer, and all boaters are urged to Be Whale Wise and do the same.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a revised penalty to the Port of Morrow for additional violations involving overapplication of wastewater containing nitrogen to agricultural fields in the Lower Umatilla Basin, an area with longstanding groundwater contamination.

At a signing ceremony on Saturday, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the five Tribes of the Bears Ears Commission formalized and celebrated their partnership for co-management of the Bears Ears National Monument.

Last week, an angler reported to Idaho Fish and Game that he had recently caught a walleye on the Snake River below Swan Falls Dam in Southwest Idaho. The angler provided photos, allowing fisheries biologists to confirm that it was a walleye. The angler will also provide the carcass to IDFG.

The Department of the Interior today transferred fish production at Dworshak National Fish Hatchery to the Nez Perce Tribe, which the agency says is “an important move underscoring the Biden Administration’s commitment to empowering Indigenous communities and supporting Tribal trust responsibility.”

Cultural resource specialists with the Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and partners have finalized an agreement that will enhance the protection of historic and cultural resources across the Willamette Valley, where the Corps manages 13 dams and reservoirs in addition thousands of acres of land, while carrying out critical Corps projects.

Last summer was particularly dry and hot in much of Idaho, renewing concerns among some trout anglers about fishing when water temperatures climb. Anglers are often concerned that maybe they shouldn’t be fishing on the hottest days for fear that they might be reducing trout populations, but a recent study on Idaho rivers during a hot summer showed catch-and-release angling did not harm the trout population.

Idaho Fish and Game has received confirmation that six bats tested positive for a fungus that leads to a deadly disease known as “white-nose syndrome.” The bats were located in Minnetonka Cave in Bear Lake County, and it’s the first case of the fungus ever being detected in Idaho after a decade of testing.

With another low run of summer steelhead forecast, angling closures for steelhead, bass and salmon will be in effect for parts of the Deschutes River this summer starting as early as June 1.

The U.S. government promised Native tribes in the Pacific Northwest that they could keep fishing as they’d always done. But instead of preserving wild salmon, it propped up a failing system of hatcheries. Now, that system is falling apart.

Travis Wendt of Lewiston, Idaho hooked a massive 23.5-inch smallmouth bass while fishing Dworshak Reservoir on May 10th. After a quick photo, Travis released the bass back into the lake, and secured a new catch-and-release state record.

Northern crayfish were found in the Ashland canal, marking the first documented existence of this non-native species in Oregon.

Columbia Riverkeeper and Weyerhaeuser Company reached an agreement this week settling Riverkeeper’s Clean Water Act lawsuit against the timber giant at its Longview mill. The consent decree must undergo a 45-day review period for the U.S. Department of Justice and then be approved by a federal district court judge before it can go into effect.

On Saturday, May 7, off-duty Regional Fisheries Biologist Mike Thomas was fishing the Boulder Creek arm of Lake Cascade with local angler Chris Weber, when Weber landed an illegally stocked, 20-inch, nearly 3-pound mature male walleye. This is the second report of walleye in Lake Cascade in the past four years – with the first report back in 2018, when an angler reported catching a 19-inch walleye near Crown Point.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking public input on its draft periodic status review for snowy plover.

Columbia Riverkeeper’s Board of Directors unanimously named Lauren Goldberg the organization’s new Executive Director starting August 1, replacing Brett VandenHeuvel.

The Hood River Canal Bridge is a major source of mortality for migrating steelhead smolts, according to new research by NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center scientists and the non-profit Long Live the Kings. Approximately half the smolts tracked by researchers died attempting to get past the bridge or soon after.

In 2021, an angler brought in a cool $61,409 for hooking 7,185 salmon-eating northern pikeminnows from the Columbia River. That guy or gal could make even more this year.

Last week, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, joined with science leaders to help break ground on a $75 million facility that will boost clean energy adoption and make the nation’s power grid more resilient, secure and flexible.

This note responds to John McKern’s letter printed in the latest CBB.

Growing up in a Northern Californian fishing town, NOAA Fisheries scientist Nate Mantua’s family owned a business connected to the local salmon fishing industry. When one of the worst El Niño events ever recorded hit the West Coast in 1982 and 1983, the salmon fishery his family relied on suffered. Mantua would go on to study how to predict El Niño events in graduate school. Now he works to understand the impacts of climate change.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit this week to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether Suckley’s cuckoo bumblebees warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.

In the late 90s when we at the Walla Walla District, Corps of Engineers, came up with the concept for making spill safer for fish, our first idea was to dedicate one spill bay for overflow for juvenile fish passage. 

Anglers in Washington can expect similar salmon fishing opportunities this year compared to 2021, with some improved opportunities in the ocean driven by strong expected coho returns, state fishery managers have announced.

Spring Chinook fishing will open under normal permanent regulations on Oregon’s Umatilla River this year for the first time since 2018.

Following a thorough review of the best available science, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reaffirmed the listing of the streaked horned lark as threatened under the Endangered Species Act with a revised 4(d) rule.

As a Fish and Wildlife Biologist for the Walla Walla District, Corps of Engineers from 1971 to 2000, I was there when disinformation and misinformation began to spread and hints of breaching the four lower Snake River dams started. 

Fishery managers from Washington and Oregon last week approved an opportunity to catch and retain legal-size white sturgeon in the lower 40 miles of the Columbia River beginning May 11.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks fisheries biologists began tagging northern pike in portions of the Bitterroot, Clark Fork, and Clearwater rivers this week as part of a new study on pike movement in the Missoula area. The success of the study depends on reports from anglers who catch tagged fish.

The Oregon Ocean Science Trust has awarded $1.1 million in state funding to ocean researchers to help Oregon better understand and monitor and ocean changes.

Traces of DNA that fish species leave behind in the water can reveal the abundance and distribution of fish over large areas of the ocean as accurately as conventional fisheries survey methods, new research shows.

Dworshak Reservoir is expected to be teeming with kokanee in 2022 based on annual surveys conducted in late summer 2021 that revealed record-high kokanee abundance in the reservoir, says Idaho Fish and Game.

An angler caught a smallmouth bass on Feb. 19 while fishing on the Gardner River at its confluence with the Yellowstone River, just outside of Yellowstone National Park.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine takes center stage, remote areas of the Arctic are thrust to the front row of global impacts to the environment, economics and human security.

NOAA issued its U.S. Spring Outlook today and for the second year in a row, forecasters predict prolonged, persistent drought in the West where below-average precipitation is most likely.

NOAA Fisheries has approved a Habitat Conservation Plan and Safe Harbor Agreement with California’s largest owner of private forestlands to protect habitat for salmon and steelhead.

Contending there is a global extinction crisis, more than 150 groups are urging Congress to significantly increase the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s budget for endangered species conservation from $300 million to $704 million — an increase of more than $400 million over the fiscal year 2022 budget.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking additional help marking more than 110 million hatchery salmon and steelhead to identify them as hatchery fish before being released into state waters in 2022.

Washington fishery managers have unveiled salmon run forecasts for state waters in 2022, with many forecasts looking similar to last year’s predictions, and some slight improvements or declines by area. Columba River fall chinook are forecasted to be well below the 10-year average, with coho double the average.

The US Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District, in another stage of a $73 million project, has completed assembly on the second of three new advanced-designed hydroelectric turbines and begun its installation at Ice Harbor Lock and Dam, one of four dams on the lower Snake River.

The U.S. Geological Survey selected the Willamette River Basin in the Pacific Northwest as the latest location for an in-depth examination of factors affecting water supply and demand.  

Martha Williams has been sworn in as Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. Williams has been serving as Principal Deputy Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service since January 20, 2021, exercising the delegable authority of the Director.

If you have something on your mind about Columbia Basin salmon recovery and other fish and wildlife and natural resource issues, we want to hear from you. That’s why I am launching Letters To The Editor.

This past December, a mind-boggling 18 feet of snowfall fell in the California Sierra Nevada Mountains! How does so much snow fall in one place in such a short period of time? One of the primary phenomena responsible for such extreme rain and snowfall, particularly in regions like the western U.S., is the atmospheric river. Like their terrestrial counterparts, atmospheric rivers carry tremendous amounts of water over thousands of miles. These aerial versions, however, often bring both severe disruption and great benefit through the heavy rain and mountain snows that they produce.

The first year-class of white sturgeon reared in Idaho’s Niagara Springs Sturgeon Hatchery recently underwent genetic testing to ensure that all fish released into the Snake River are capable of reproducing. These fish are unique from a typical hatchery fish, like rainbow trout, which are typically sterile when they are stocked so they can’t successfully spawn with wild fish.

Hatchery crews at Hoodsport Hatchery on Washington state’s Hood Canal identified a loss of more than 3.5 million chum salmon fry early Monday morning following extreme flooding that resulted in significant debris in the hatchery’s water intake system.

In an effort to meet management objectives and provide necessary protection for dwindling wild steelhead populations, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Wednesday announced a full closure to all sport fishing

Conservation and animal-protection groups announced a combined $22,500 reward this week for information leading to a conviction in the killing of a collared wolf outside the town of Cove in northeast Oregon.

The likelihood of hot, dry, windy autumn weather that can set the stage for severe fires in California and western Oregon has increased 40% due to human-caused climate change, new computer models show.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking public input on its draft status report for the Cascade red fox.

Interesting things are happening in Oregon’s Willamette River basin when it comes to salmon and steelhead recovery. Maybe even a little overlooked for their significance. An Oregon federal judge is running the river, issuing significant directions for how federal dams and reservoirs should be operated to benefit fish.

A federal judge last week restored protection to some gray wolf populations, reversing a Trump-era rule that removed Endangered Species Act protection from the animals across most of the country. Today’s ruling prohibits wolf hunting and trapping in states outside of the northern Rocky Mountains.

Several bureaus across the Department of the Interior submitted to Congress their fiscal year 2022 blueprints for spending over $30 billion implementing the infrastructure bill approved last year.

Abnormally low water this time of year in south coast streams is leaving native fish and redds vulnerable to disturbance. Wild winter steelhead are just starting to spawn while fall chinook fry are leaving their redds and emerging from stream gravel.

The Bonneville Power Administration this week reports that its “strong 2021 financial performance” has carried into the first quarter of 2022. BPA’s current net revenue forecast is $456 million compared to a rate case net revenue forecast of $178 million.

The Deschutes River Conservancy is receiving $1.3 million as part of the Bureau of Reclamation’s $20.5 million package for a suite of 13 long-term drought resiliency projects in five Western states. The Deschutes Basin was the only project site to be selected in the Northwest.

Beating the bite of mosquitoes this spring and summer could hinge on your attire and your skin. New research led by scientists at the University of Washington indicates that a common mosquito species — after detecting a telltale gas that we exhale — flies toward specific colors, including red, orange, black and cyan.

Whether the lower Snake River dams should be breached to revive flagging wild salmon and steelhead runs is certainly a top regional issue. And what the impacts would be to the Northwest power supply is a key factor in the breach/no breach debate.

At the Third NPAFC-IYS Virtual Workshop on Linkages between Pacific Salmon Production and Environmental Changes that took place in May 2021, we hypothesized that an overabundance of salmon, combined with effects of recent marine heat waves, may have been responsible for unexpectedly low returns of all five species of Pacific salmon across the North Pacific in 2020.

Hatchery crews at Lyons Ferry Hatchery in southeast Washington state detected a loss of roughly 249,770 steelhead smolts late last week due to an equipment failure that allowed smolts to escape a rearing pond and make their way into the mainstem Snake River.  

On a map, the heart of Idaho is the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, and its nearly two million-acre watershed. This is a big, wild heart. 

Idaho’s wolf population has remained stable and consistent over the last three years based on camera surveys done last summer and since 2019. The 2021 population estimate for Aug. 1 was 1,543 wolves. The 2020 and 2019 estimates were 1,556 and 1,566.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced $25 million in funding to support increased research, development, and demonstration of technologies that harness wave power to create electricity. The funding supports eight projects that will make up the first round of open-water testing at the PacWave South test site off the Oregon coast.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking updated information for 14 wildlife species as part of a periodic review of species that are state-listed as endangered, threatened, or sensitive.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Forest Service Chief Randy Moore have launched a comprehensive response to the nation’s growing wildfire crisis – “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests.”

Idaho Power, PacifiCorp and the Bonneville Power Administration have reached a non-binding agreement that they say would “help meet growing customer demand, improve safety and reliability, and reinforce the Pacific Northwest transmission system.”

In 2020, carbon dioxide emissions from Pacific Northwest power plants that burn coal and natural gas totaled 45.64 million metric tons, the lowest in at least 25 years and a roughly 20-percent decline from emissions in 2019 (2020 is the latest year for which emissions data is available). The data reflects emissions from electricity generation at power plants and does not account for ‘upstream’ emissions from, for example, coal mining and gas production.

The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission has initiated a new program to prevent delays during the transport of watercraft destined for the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. The program, “Call Before You Haul,” provides a toll-free phone number boat transporters can call prior to transporting watercraft from outside the Pacific Northwest to one of the states. The program is currently being piloted in 10 states and is intended to be expanded to all states in 2022.

The year 2021 was marked by extremes across the U.S., including exceptional warmth, devastating severe weather and the second-highest number of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters on record. 

Alex Dietz of Bend was fly fishing with an egg pattern on the Deschutes River outside Warm Springs on Dec. 19, 2021 when he hooked a 5 pound 12 oz, 24-inch long mountain whitefish with a 14 inch girth.

The Department of the Interior announced today that it is seeking nominations for members of the new Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names. The committee will identify geographic names and federal land unit names that are considered derogatory and solicit proposals on replacement names.

NOAA Fisheries is seeking information about the sunflower sea star, a large sea star native to the West Coast. The agency is trying to determine whether the species warrants listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Thank you for your concise summary of a busy year in the region’s long-running efforts to recover salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin.  I share your view that Congressman Simpson did us a great service by coming forth with a bold proposal to remove the lower Snake River dams and invest in alternative ways of providing the dams’ benefits, and I am grateful for his leadership.

Canada and the United States met on December 9 to advance talks on the modernization of the Columbia River Treaty. During this round, the United States and Canada discussed ecosystem priorities, post-2024 flood risk management, and Canada’s desire for more operational flexibility.

The Bureau of Reclamation is launching a new prize competition for improved snowpack water forecast techniques throughout the West. Developing better techniques to determine the amount of water stored as snowpack provides water managers more accurate information to make better water management decisions.

Rewards topped $43,000 this week for information on poisoning of the Catherine wolf pack in Oregon earlier this year.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is announcing a Notice of Availability for the final Environmental Impact Statement to address a significant decline in the California bighorn sheep population on Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge.

Amid forecasts for low steelhead returns, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and tribal co-managers at the Hoh Tribe, Quileute Tribe, and Quinault Indian Nation, this week announced restrictions to sport and tribal fishing on Washington coastal rivers.

More than 13 miles of fish rearing and spawning habitat has been restored on Oregon’s Eagle Creek, a tributary of the Clackamas River, after the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and partners removed the Eagle Fern Dam earlier this year.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under its Columbia River Basin Restoration Program, is issuing two Request for Applications from eligible entities to improve water quality in the Lower Columbia River Estuary and/or the Middle and Upper Columbia River Basin through specific actions to reduce toxics, increase toxics monitoring, and/or increase public education and outreach on pollution prevention to reduce toxics.

In order to protect the long-term health of sage-grouse populations, review new science and comply with court direction, the Bureau of Land Management is beginning a process to consider updates to the range-wide management plans for sagebrush habitat adopted in 2015 and amended in 2019.

Alongside national tribal leaders and federal partners at this week’s 2021 White House Tribal Nations Summit, the Environmental Protection Agency announced renewals of the Tribal Treaty Rights Memorandum of Understanding and the Sacred Sites Memorandum of Understanding.

Researchers find that maintaining genetic variation is critical to allowing wild populations to survive, reproduce, and adapt to future environmental changes.

Former Oregon state legislator Ginny Burdick joined the Northwest Power and Conservation Council this month, replacing Richard Devlin.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is finalizing a revised designation of critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act for the northern spotted owl, returning to the designation millions of acres excluded by the Trump Administration.

NOAA this week announced it is seeking public comment on the first steps toward designating a new national marine sanctuary in a 7,000 square mile area off the central California coast, adjacent to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

The “Upper Columbia / Okanagan River 2021: One River, Ethics Matter” conference, hosted by Okanagan Nation Alliance and University of British Columbia Okanagan campus, will be held Nov. 17-18.

In drought years and when marine heat waves warm the Pacific Ocean, late-migrating juvenile spring-run Chinook salmon of California’s Central Valley are the ultimate survivors. They are among the few salmon that return to spawning rivers in those difficult years to keep their populations alive, says a new study.

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission announced that Aja K. DeCoteau was selected as the organization’s new executive director at its October meeting, effective November 1.

Puget Sound is not doing well, says the 2021 State of the Sound Report issued by the Puget Sound Partnership.

Scientists have collected genetic material from the beluga whale that was first sighted in Puget Sound in early October. It indicates that the whale is likely from a large population of beluga whales in the Beaufort Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska.

Data gathered by backcountry skiers, avalanche forecasters and other snow recreationists and professionals has the potential to greatly improve snowpack modeling, research by the Oregon State University College of Engineering indicates.

The Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board will accept grant proposals beginning in November for projects to remove barriers that prevent salmon and steelhead from swimming upstream.

Portland General Electric and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, co-owners of the Pelton Round Butte hydroelectric project on central Oregon’s Deschutes River, this week announced a $1 million grant to the Deschutes Land Trust for habitat restoration aiding migratory salmon in the Crooked River.

As severe drought conditions continue, the Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project began the 2022 water year with 3.21 million acre-feet of water—one of the lowest starting points in recent years at 52 percent of a 15-year average.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray are exploring options to breach the lower Snake River dams and replace the benefits they provide, Inslee told a virtual gathering of Washington environmentalists Thursday.

Due to drought conditions and low water levels, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has lifted all size limits (minimum and maximum), daily limits for all species of fish and gear limits from Oct. 11 through Dec. 31, 2021, in the Malheur Reservoir.

The Bonneville Power Administration made its 38th consecutive U.S. Treasury payment Oct. 5, on time and in full. This year’s $1.05 billion payment brings BPA’s cumulative payments to the Treasury to more than $32 billion since 1984.

A La Nina has developed and will extend through the second winter in a row, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center — a division of NOAA’s National Weather Service. La Nina is a natural ocean-atmospheric phenomenon marked by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator and is translated from Spanish as “little girl.”

The UW Climate Impacts Group, along with nine community, nonprofit, and university partners, is launching a program of community-led, justice-oriented climate adaptation work across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative will be founded with a five-year, $5.6 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is looking for public feedback on a scoping document to inform actions to conserve and rebuild Puget Sound Chinook salmon.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to remove 23 species from the Endangered Species Act due to extinction, including the ivory-billed woodpecker, last seen in 1944.

Starting next week, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council will be holding on-line public hearings in each of the four Northwest states on the draft 2021 Northwest Power Plan released by the Council last week.

An invasive fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, an often-fatal disease of hibernating bats, continues to spread in Washington. During spring and summer field work this year, scientists with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, in partnership and with funding from the U.S. Forest Service, detected the fungus or disease in at least three additional counties in the state.

The 2021 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Fishery season has been extended through Oct. 17 at select registration stations. The reward program, in its 31st season, pays anglers to catch qualifying northern pikeminnow in the Columbia River Basin.

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation recently dedicated an enhanced, state-of-the-art hatchery that is expected to double the number of spring chinook salmon released into the Walla Walla River Basin annually.

The National Science Foundation has selected Oregon State University and the University of Washington to lead a collaborative research hub focused on increasing resiliency among coastal communities in the Pacific Northwest.

Last week watercraft inspectors at Montana’s Nashua watercraft inspection station intercepted an outboard motorboat with mussels on the transducer, gimbal and other areas of the transom. The motorboat was traveling from Lake Erie to Kalispell. This is the 50th mussel-fouled boat intercepted this year, surpassing the total number of 35 mussel-fouled boats intercepted in 2020.

In the 1970s, the tiny, endangered Tennessee fish, the snail darter, was in the news regularly — the subject of a Supreme Court ruling, an act of Congress, and a giant proposed dam that threatened it with extinction.