Currently browsing: Public Articles

A warming global climate could cause sudden, potentially catastrophic losses of biodiversity in regions across the globe throughout the 21st century, finds a new study.

An Oregon State University-led research program has been awarded a $12.7 million grant to serve the Pacific Northwest by studying harmful chemicals found at federally designated hazardous waste sites.

State wildlife biologists counted 158 wolves in Oregon this past winter, a 15 percent increase over last year’s count of 137, according to the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management 2019 Annual Report released this week.

An analysis by NOAA Fisheries is showing so far that West Coast fisheries have been taking a small proportion of available chinook salmon favored by endangered Southern Resident killer whales.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife this week announced that recreational fishing, shellfish harvesting and spring turkey and bear hunting seasons will be delayed in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19.The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife also this week announced that recreational salmon and steelhead fishing in Oregon waters of the Columbia River will remain closed indefinitely.

The Snake River’s white sturgeon population received a boost recently with the stocking of more than 1,800, year-old white sturgeon.

While the state of Oregon is currently not recommending out-of-state residents visit the state for recreation due to the Governor’s Stay Home, Save Lives order, all watercraft entering Oregon are still required to be inspected at an aquatic invasive species station when the stations are open. This includes commercial watercraft, which, will account for most of the inspections while the stay-at-home order remains in effect.

Recent years have brought unusually large and damaging wildfires to the Pacific Northwest – from the Carlton Complex Fire in 2014 that was the largest in Washington’s history, to the 2017 fire season in Oregon, to the 2018 Maple Fire, when normally sodden rainforests on the Olympic Peninsula were ablaze. Many people have wondered what this means for our region’s future.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt signed a final decision to construct and maintain a system of up to 11,000 miles of strategically placed fuel breaks to control wildfires within a 223 million- acre area in portions of California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

One of the most recognizable names in Columbia River basin salmon recovery circles, retired U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden, died last week (March 31) at age 92.

On Tuesday, April 7, the California Fish and Game Commission announced that it would meet remotely Thursday in an emergency meeting to discuss “delegating temporary authority to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to delay, suspend or restrict sport or recreational fishing if the director of CDFW, in consultation with the president of the Commission, finds that such action is necessary to protect against the threat from COVID-19 based on state, federal, local, and tribal public health guidance and public safety needs.”

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has written a letter to the Northwest congressional delegation objecting to proposals by the Trump administration to force the Bonneville Power Administration to sell electricity at market rates rather than its cost of generation and also sell the federal high-voltage transmission system, which BPA operates.

Thirteen members of the Northwest congressional delegation, all Democrats from Washington and Oregon, asked the federal government this week to extend the comment period on the draft environmental impact statement on Columbia/Snake River dams until 30 days after the Covid-19 public health emergency is over.

As of this week, Idaho Fish and Game has not closed any fishing or hunting seasons in response to Covid-19, and the department is providing guidelines in accordance with Gov. Brad Little’s orders for social distancing at least six feet apart, including while fishing and at access sites and boat ramps.

Inspectors at the Dillon, Montana watercraft inspection station had a busy start to early season boat inspections, with Covid-19 news prompting Canadian boaters in the United States heading north for the border.

The Interior Department this week announced $227,125,000 will be distributed from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to states and territories for park and outdoor recreation and conservation projects.

As the climate is changing, so too are the world’s forests. From the misty redwoods in the west to the Blue Ridge forest of Appalachia, many sylvan ecosystems are adapting to drier conditions.

Increasing numbers of bison in Yellowstone National Park in recent years have become a barrier to ecosystem recovery in the iconic Lamar Valley in the northern part of the park, according to a study by Oregon State University scientists.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Wednesday temporarily closed recreational fishing and shellfishing statewide in the wake of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s order directing Washingtonians to stay home to limit the spread of coronavirus/COVID-19. A few hours later the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that it will close recreational angling for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River, effective Thursday, March 26 at 11:59 p.m.

A new study shows that two important indicators for understanding and predicting the effects of climate variability on eastern North Pacific marine ecosystems are less reliable than they were historically. This finding has important implications for fisheries and ecosystem management from Alaska to California.

With warm, dry weather forecasted, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, is refilling its 13 Willamette Valley Project reservoirs and two Rogue River Basin Project reservoirs to prepare for the spring and summer conservation seasons.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission on March 20 approved spring chinook fishing on the Clearwater, Snake, Salmon and Little Salmon rivers to start April 25, 2020 and run until closed by the Fish and Game director.

An analysis of two walleyes found last year in Upper Thompson Lake confirmed the non-native fish were illegally introduced on separate occasions from the Lower Clark Fork reservoir system.

A new study led by the University of Washington finds dramatic increases in the abundance of a worm that can be transmitted to humans who eat raw or undercooked seafood. Its 283-fold increase in abundance since the 1970s could have implications for the health of humans and marine mammals, which both can inadvertently eat the worm.

Many wildlife species need large landscapes to survive and thrive. Elk often summer at higher elevations and move 10-50 miles to find winter ranges at lower elevations. Songbirds that summer in Idaho can winter in the Southwest US, Mexico, or even further abroad. Wildlife make these movements without compass or GPS, just using the instincts they were born with. While we know these facts in our heads, we get jaded to them over time, because that is just the nature of our busy lives. But every once in while we get an opportunity to see them again for the first time, and we should be amazed.

Biologists with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, in cooperation with Idaho Department of Fish And Game, were to resume gill netting efforts this week in Lake Coeur d’Alene to reduce pike predation on native, lake-run cutthroat trout in select areas.

NOAA Fisheries scientists are part of an international team that set sail on March 11 to study the the impacts of continued warm ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska on Pacific salmon survival.

Researchers have studied how different soils respond to the delivery of “salmon-derived nutrients” in forested ecosystems in Alaska’s coastal temperate rainforest.

Summer streamflow in industrial tree plantations harvested on 40- to 50-year rotations was 50% lower than in century-old forests, data from the long-term Alsea Watershed Study in the Oregon Coast Range showed.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration, that agencies which operate the Columbia and Snake River dams, sent out this notice by email this morning, March 12:

Lingering offshore heat worked against recovery of salmon stocks and reduced fishing success off the West Coast, a new analysis reports.

A number of rule changes affecting Washington sturgeon fisheries went into effect beginning Monday (March 9), the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced.

Fishermen from California to Washington caught almost all the available legal-size male Dungeness crab each year in the last few decades. However, the crab population has either remained stable or continued to increase, according to the first thorough population estimate of the West Coast Dungeness stocks.

Mid-February to mid-March often hosts the highest numbers of adult burbot in Idaho, and it’s the best time for anglers to go after them.

Fishery managers say the coming year may be another tough one for anglers in Washington, with low salmon returns expected again in 2020.

Decades-old fish stored at Oregon State University proved valuable in learning more about parasites that infect a family of fish that includes salmon and trout in the Pacific Northwest.

NOAA last week announced the appointment of Carrie Selberg Robinson as the new Director of NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation.

Arctic sea ice has important implications for coastal environments, economic development, and global weather patterns. And the ice is melting rapidly. Measurements last year revealed the second lowest extent of Arctic sea ice on record, and NOAA scientists and colleagues expect the melting to accelerate in coming decades.

In 2018, U.S. fishermen landed 9.4 billion pounds of fish valued at $5.6 billion at ports around the nation, with Dutch Harbor , and New Bedford dominating the list of top ports, according to an annual report released this week by NOAA Fisheries.

Massive freshwater river flows stemming from glacier-fed flooding at the end of the last ice age surged across eastern Washington to the Columbia River and out to the North Pacific Ocean, where they triggered climate changes throughout the northern hemisphere, new research published this week in Science Advances shows.

Using data from tens of thousands of stations worldwide, NOAA scientists have developed a method to estimate how the average global temperature may rank year-to-year in subsequent years. The method indicates a strong probability that future years will continue to be among the hottest on record.

A secret to survival amid rising global temperatures could be dwelling in the tidepools of the U.S. West Coast. Findings by University of California, Irvine biologists studying the genome of an unusual fish residing in those waters offer new possibilities for humans to obtain dietary protein as climate change imperils traditional sources.

The 2013 to 2016 marine heatwave—known as “The Blob”—is the largest warm anomaly ever recorded in the North Pacific. In the Gulf of Alaska, scientists have connected low numbers of Pacific cod larvae, juveniles, and adults to loss of spawning habitat.

As with many things in our salmon and steelhead world, clipping or not clipping hatchery fish can get a little complicated. Some hatchery steelhead smolts are released with their adipose fin still intact on purpose. But, a lot of thought and coordination with our partners goes into making decisions for these programs.

Accurately predicting biodiversity loss from climate change requires a detailed understanding of what aspects of climate change cause extinctions, and what mechanisms may allow species to survive.

Diners may soon find more farmed oysters and fewer Atlantic salmon on their plates as climate change warms Canada’s Pacific coast.

The Bonneville Power Administration, with several federal, state and local partners, is embarking on a project that will reconnect vital floodplain habitat to the Columbia River. The Steigerwald Floodplain Restoration Project is the largest estuary restoration project BPA has sponsored.

The University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group has released “Shifting Snowlines and Shorelines: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere and Implications for Washington State.”

A nuclear war, even a relatively contained conflict, wouldn’t just have devastating consequences for life on land. It could also take a toll on the oceans, according to recent research led by the University of Colorado Boulder and Rutgers University.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Walla Walla District recently concluded fish survival testing for a new fixed blade hydroelectric turbine that showed improved fish passage survival.

Idaho Fish and Game has a new estimate of the statewide wolf population through its new survey method using game cameras and mathematical modeling, which will be repeated annually and fine-tuned during the next few years.

A new study by the University of Washington and The Evergreen State College analyzes whether accounting for climate change in conservation planning can protect future biodiversity more effectively than current approaches, and what the costs of implementing these solutions might be.

A new NOAA-funded study has documented for the first time that ocean acidification along the Pacific Northwest coast is impacting the shells and sensory organs of some young Dungeness crab, a prized crustacean that supports the most valuable fishery on the West Coast.

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has appointed Patty O’Toole to the position of Fish and Wildlife Division Director. She had been the division’s acting director since August 15, 2019.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife this week approved an application from Cooke Aquaculture to farm all-female, sterile (triploid) rainbow trout/steelhead in Puget Sound.

The waters of Puget Sound support many species, including mussels, salmon and killer whales. But researchers know that runoff from land in the urbanized areas might contain chemicals that could harm these creatures, even if it’s not always clear which chemicals are the most harmful.

Four hundred years ago, the Pilgrims sailed to New England and encountered Native Americans. The historical narrative from that point tells of Native Americans clearing forests with fire for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in America.

Tests conducted by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife veterinarians confirmed that Epizootic hemorrhagic disease is responsible for the die-off of an estimated 2,000 white-tailed deer in eastern Oregon.

As it does every year at its January meeting, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council elected a new chair and vice-chair to serve in 2020. It elected Richard Devlin of Oregon as Chair, replacing outgoing chair Jennifer Anders of Montana at its Portland meeting, Tuesday, Jan. 14. Devlin had served as the Council’s Vice Chair since Jan. 16, 2019.

Earth’s warming trend continued in 2019, making it the second-hottest year in NOAA’s 140-year climate record just behind 2016.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife last Friday (Jan. 10) was working to locate and retrieve an empty net pen structure that came unmoored along the Columbia River one day earlier, but severe weather hampered search efforts.

Nearly half of the fish caught worldwide are from stocks that are scientifically monitored and, on average, are increasing in abundance. Effective management appears to be the main reason these stocks are at sustainable levels or successfully rebuilding.

Conservation groups sent a notice this week of their intent to sue the Trump administration for failing to prot

A study commissioned by the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association says the removal of four lower Snake River dams would cost the U.S. over $2.3 billion over the next 30 years.

The harvesting of bull trout on Montana’s Lake Koocanusa is closed in an effort to improve the diminished population of the species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The move comes after 2019 spawning redds declined substantially, prompting concerns about the impacts of angler harvest.

The Washington Department of Ecology has issued a $1.065 million penalty to the U.S. Department of Energy for restricting access to what the state says is critical data.

The most powerful low-frequency PIT tag detection system in the world was installed last month at Lower Granite Dam — the first system capable of detecting fish rushing with water through the spillway at one of the federal dams.

Boaters helped the state celebrate a record year for efforts to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species into Washington’s waterways, including zebra and quagga mussels, aquatic plants, and fish and amphibian diseases.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has named Laura Watson director of the Washington State Department of Ecology today. She replaces Maia Bellon, who Inslee appointed in 2013.

It’s a familiar scene to anyone who’s watched footage of brown bears catching sockeye salmon in Alaska: They’re standing knee-deep in a rushing river, usually near a waterfall, and grabbing passing fish with their paws or jaws.

The Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Program paid out in 2019 nearly $1,162,000 in rewards and removed 146,225 fish. The top angler earned $53,107.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Monday to provide the Spokane Tribe of Indians compensation for the lands taken by the United States as part of building Grand Coulee Dam in the 1930s and 1940s.

The larger, older chinook salmon that orcas crave have mostly disappeared from the West Coast. A new University of Washington and NOAA study points to the recent rise of resident killer whales, and their insatiable appetite for large chinook salmon, as the main driver behind the decline of the big fish.

With new research predicting that climate change will cause damage to Washington’s environment and economy, the Washington Department of Ecology is recommending the state make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and eliminate nearly all sources of carbon pollution by 2050.

Meeting by conference call on Wednesday, Dec. 18, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission reopened steelhead fishing in the Clearwater River and lower Snake River downstream of Couse Creek Boat Ramp, beginning on Jan. 1. Daily bag limit in those sections is limited to one adipose-clipped steelhead per day, none over 28 inches in length.

U.S. Columbia River Treaty Negotiator Jill Smail will lead a town hall on December 16 in Richland, Washington, on the modernization of the Columbia River Treaty regime.

A federal judge in Montana signed an order this week requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review the status of grizzly bears by March 2021.

A study by Oregon State University researchers has identified forests in the western United States that should be preserved for their potential to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration, as well as to enhance biodiversity.

New England has a proud tradition of commercial fishing. But will it survive as the planet warms? For decades the biggest threat to the industry has been overfishing, but it is no longer the only threat. According to new research at the University of Delaware, fluctuations in the climate have already cost some New England fishermen their jobs.

It’s been a tough couple of years for one of the Columbia River Basin’s most iconic fish – wild Idaho steelhead. After 30 years of recovery efforts, return numbers for the long-distance, high country steelhead are currently close to where they were when listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1997.

Following a recent die-off of fall chinook salmon in the Wilson River, excessive pre-spawn mortality of fall chinook in other nearby rivers has prompted fishery managers to close the entire North Coast to all salmon angling, effective Dec. 13 – 31.

Warm waters are a threat to cold water fish like salmon and trout. But a study led by researchers at University of California, Davis suggests that habitats with abundant food sources may help buffer the effects of increasing water temperature.

A pair of studies in a special edition of the North American Journal of Fisheries Management focus on taking an integrated approach to the management of invasive quagga and zebra mussels, including using hungry fish for biological control.

A recent die-off of fall Chinook salmon in the Wilson River on the Oregon coast near Tillamook has prompted fishery managers to close the river to all salmon angling, effective Dec. 7 – 31.

In about two months the Trump Administration will tell us what it thinks about breaching the four lower Snake River dams. The news will come in the form of a draft Environmental Impact Statement from federal agencies that is due February 2020.

The El Niño/Southern Oscillation is neutral is present and expected to persist through the winter and into the spring. The temperature outlook favors above-average temperatures across the western, southern, and eastern parts of the nation, and Alaska and Hawaii.

New University of British Columbia research suggests restoring habitat may not be enough to save threatened woodland caribou—an iconic animal that’s a major part of boreal forests in North America and a key part of the culture and economy of many indigenous peoples in Canada.

In a boon to wind farms, average daily wind speeds are picking up across much of the globe after about 30 years of gradual slowing. Research led by a team at Princeton University shows that wind speeds in northern mid-latitude regions have increased by roughly 7% since 2010.

During the past 30 years, salmon runs have declined 80% in southwest Washington’s Chehalis River basin due to habitat degradation, development, and climate change. By the end of the century, the basin’s spring chinook salmon could become functionally extinct, with fish numbers dropping too low to sustain the population.

The vast marine heatwave that spread warm temperatures across the northeast Pacific Ocean late in the summer and fall of 2019 has declined in size and pulled back from the West Coast, possibly reducing its immediate impacts on coastal ecosystems, says NOAA Fisheries.

New research shows that many larval fish species from different ocean habitats are ingesting plastics in their preferred nursery habitat.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has published preliminary harvest and value figures for the 2019 Alaska Commercial Salmon Fishery – 206.9 million fish, chinook catch low.

Scientists at the University of British Columbia are getting a rare glimpse into the underwater behavior of northern and southern resident killer whales off the B.C. coast, with the help of aerial drones.

A global coalition of scientists led by William J. Ripple and Christopher Wolf of Oregon State University says “untold human suffering” is unavoidable without deep and lasting shifts in human activities that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and other factors related to climate change.

People who identify as politically conservative are more like to support climate change mitigation policies if they have report experiencing personal harm from an extreme weather event such as a wildfire, flood or tornado, a new study indicates.

Forty years of reduced mercury use, emissions, and loading in the Great Lakes region have largely not produced equivalent declines in the amount of mercury accumulating in large game fish, says a new study.

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a grant offering for projects aimed at reducing toxics in the Columbia River Basin. The agency expects to fund approximately $1 million worth of projects.

The Gill-Oxygen Limitation Theory, known as GOLT, explains the biological reasons that force fish, particularly larger or older ones, to move poleward when the waters in their habitats heat-up due to climate change.

The first responders to wildfires in the remote areas of the Great Basin of Oregon and Idaho are increasingly volunteer groups of private landowners that have been authorized and trained in partnership with federal and state agencies.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife technicians intercepted and decontaminated two inflatable kayaks at the Ontario Watercraft Inspection station Sunday. The kayaks were just in Lake Powell at or near Bullfrog Marina, and the next planned launch site was the Deschutes River.

First the sea stars wasted to nothing. Then the purple urchins took over, eating and eating until the bull kelp forests were gone. The red abalone starved. Their fishery closed. Red sea urchins starved. Their fishery collapsed. And the ocean kept warming.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks biologists found two walleyes in Upper Thompson Lake this month during a routine fisheries survey. This is the first documented detection of the predacious non-native fish in Lincoln County and is an illegal introduction.

A new report from the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, in partnership with the International Arctic Research Center and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, describes major changes in temperature, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, plants, animals, and oceans the past five years.

Warmer-than-average temperatures are forecast for much of the U.S. this winter, including the Pacific Northwest, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

For years, fisheries managers have struggled to find a delicate balance between competing financial and ecological needs. Now, a team of researchers led by a Florida State University faculty member is working toward integrating a third factor — the social and cultural needs of different groups of people.

A boat from Chicago bound for Seattle was quarantined and decontaminated at the Ravalli watercraft inspection station operated by the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes after an inspection found adult zebra mussels attached to the vessel.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has sent a letter to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife asking for changes to the gray wolf recovery program.

State, federal, and tribal governments will come together Oct. 23 at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area for the first on-the-ground exercise in the Columbia River basin to prepare for an infestation of quagga and zebra mussels.

Every five years since 1998, the Council and its closest counterpart agency in British Columbia, the Columbia Basin Trust, have co-sponsored a conference on the international Columbia River. This year, the conference was in Kimberley, British Columbia from September 12 through 14. A total of 288 people from Canada and the United States attended.

A draft report that, among other things, lists Oregon’s water quality impaired waters has been released by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for review until December 2.

As part of an early-detection partnership, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Washington Sea Grant Crab Team found evidence of European green crabs in Drayton Harbor near the Canadian border during regular monitoring, and then trapped 17 green crabs during a two-day rapid response in late September. This is the highest number of green crabs trapped in such a short period of time from any one area along Washington’s inland shoreline.

Believing in climate change has no effect on whether or not coastal homeowners are protecting their homes from climate change-related hazards, according to a new study from the University of Notre Dame.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has begun a 21-day public comment period regarding Cooke Aquaculture’s proposal to farm sterile (triploid) rainbow trout/steelhead in Puget Sound.

Two 7-foot long sturgeon were transported 190 miles from the Hagerman Fish Hatchery to the Snake River in Idaho Falls after spending the first 25 years of their life in a IDFG display pond, but these long-lived giants still have a long life ahead of them.

The Bonneville Power Administration made its 36th consecutive U.S. Treasury payment today on time and in full. This year’s $1.06 billion payment brings BPA’s cumulative payments to the Treasury during those 36 years to over $30 billion.

What some call the most unique fishing derby in the nation, the Seventh Annual CCA King of the Reach Live Capture Derby, aims to improve hatchery production through angler assistance this month on the Hanford Reach section of the Columbia River.

The high temperatures that came with the marine heatwave known as the Blob led to unprecedented mixing of local and subtropical species. There were, often with new and unpredictable outcomes. Out of that mix came one unexpected winner: West Coast rockfish. These bottom-dwelling species, which that had previously collapsed in the face of overfishing during the 2000s, thrived under the new conditions.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind has authorized the incremental removal of wolves from the Grouse Flats pack in southeast Washington in response to repeated depredations of cattle.

Last month Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks discovered an established population of New Zealand mud snails at a private commercial fish hatchery south of Hamilton.

Since 1970, bird populations in the U.S. and Canada have declined by 29%, or almost 3 billion birds, signaling a widespread ecological crisis, a study published in the journal Science reveals.

Fisheries managers are seeking public comments through Oct. 17 on a state proposal to reinstate a year-round fishing season on the Colville River in northeast Washington.

Researchers have identified six corporate actions that, combined with effective public policy and improved governmental regulations, could help large transnational corporations steer environmental stewardship efforts around the world, a new paper suggests.

Another Oregon fish — the Foskett speckled dace — is now being delisted from the federal list of threatened and endangered wildlife because it has recovered and no longer meets the definition of threatened under the Endangered Species Act, says the U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership and the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership will share $1.2 million in funding under the EPA National Estuary Program.

About five years ago “the Blob” of warm ocean water disrupted the West Coast marine ecosystem and depressed salmon returns. Now, a new expanse of unusually warm water has quickly grown in much the same way, in the same area, to almost the same size.

Stone tools and other artifacts unearthed from an archeological dig at the Cooper’s Ferry site along the Salmon River in western Idaho suggest that people lived in the area 16,000 years ago, more than a thousand years earlier than scientists previously thought.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock has appointed Bo Downen, director, environmental and regional affairs at the Public Power Council, a regional association of consumer-owned electric utilities, to replace Tim Baker as a Montana member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

State and tribal leaders in Washington State have agreed to a plan that will enhance coho salmon and steelhead populations diminished by the Wynoochee Dam in Grays Harbor County.

Due to lower forecasts of upriver summer steelhead, the Columbia River is closed to steelhead retention through September from the river’s mouth up to the John Day Dam. However, tributaries of the river remain open for steelhead fishing and retention, and in the Snake River and tributaries, fishing either is continuing, as it is in Idaho, although with a reduced bag limit, or just opening, as in tributaries of the Snake in Oregon, also with a reduced bag limit.

Whooshh Innovations next month will demonstrate at Chief Joseph Dam its fish passage technology, which moves adult salmonids over a dam through tubing rather than up fish ladders.

New videos show how large tsunami waves are likely to impact the coast of Washington state.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking information relevant to the proposed listing of Northern California Summer Steelhead as an endangered species.

A team of scientists successfully moved sage-grouse, a threatened bird species in Washington state, from one area of their range to another to increase their numbers and diversify their gene pool.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is canceling a series of in-person wolf post-recovery planning open houses and will schedule online, interactive webinars this September and October.

Starting in September and going through November of 2019, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will partner with Washington State University on a research project to use drone technology to advance conservation efforts for summer chinook salmon.

On the morning of Aug. 16, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife lethally removed the four known remaining members of the OPT wolf pack. A series of WDFW investigations had shown the pack responsible for 29 depredation incidents.

A new U.S. lawsuit filed Monday seeks to establish a whale protection zone for endangered orcas in the Pacific Northwest.

In most years, Idaho Fish and Game’s hatchery managers wait patiently for Chinook salmon to return to hatcheries, but this summer, they gave them a helping hand at the Sawtooth Hatchery near Stanley. In August, Fish and Game staff and volunteers held a Chinook salmon roundup in the Salmon River downstream from the hatchery and trapped and transported nearly 250 fish that were holed up downstream and refusing to make the final swim.

A new study provides evidence that increasing the abundance of a threatened or endangered species can deliver large benefits to the citizens of the Pacific Northwest.

An unprecedented survey has revealed the loss of about 85 percent of historical tidal wetlands in California, Oregon, and Washington.

The public is invited to attend a series of committee meetings comprised of members of the Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife commissions to discuss next steps in the review of salmon management on the Columbia River.

A new State of the Climate report confirmed that 2018 was the fourth warmest year in records dating to the mid-1800s, and Alaska reported its second warmest in its 94-year record.

Having productive conversations about climate change isn’t only challenging when dealing with skeptics, it can also be difficult for environmentalists, according to two studies presented at the recent annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

Hundreds of endangered Northern Leopard frogs have taken a leap back into the wild in recent weeks at the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge in Washington State’s Grant County.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Monday announced a proposal to list the Pacific Northwest’s Franklin’s bumble bee as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has opened a public comment period to gather input on how the department will manage wolves in Washington post-recovery.

The most productive places on Earth for solar power are farmlands, according to an Oregon State University study. The study, published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, finds that if less than 1% of agricultural land was converted to solar panels, it would be sufficient to fulfill global electric energy demand. The concept of co-developing the same area of land for both solar photovoltaic power and conventional agriculture is known as agrivoltaics.

Tribal commercial sturgeon setline fishing in the John Day Dan pool will end nine days early as catch rates far exceeded expectations in the fishery that began July 26 and was to initially have ended August 17.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission last week approved moving forward on a request to the State Legislature to increase Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife funding.

Approximately 10,000-12,000 harbor seals make the Oregon coast their home year-round but there’s little data on these seal populations.

New meters will be installed at BPA’s transmission substations for eight of the “Big 10” hydro facilities in the Federal Columbia River Power System, the agency said in a press release this week.

More than one million plant and animal species worldwide are facing extinction, according to a recent United Nations report. Now, a new University of British Columbia-led study suggests that Indigenous-managed lands may play a critical role in helping species survive.

That destructive, invasive zebra and quagga mussels – dreissenids — have not found a new home in the Columbia River basin is a success story.

Scientists at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center, the University of Washington, and the Skagit River System Cooperative have shown that eDNA is just as effective in tracking threatened chinook populations as casting nets into the water to catch the fish swimming by.

Pacific Rivers and Idaho Rivers United filed a petition in Multnomah County circuit court Tuesday challenging the issuance of the water quality certification by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for the Hells Canyon Complex. The Nez Perce Tribe filed a challenge in Oregon’s Marion County circuit court.

Four population groups of Pacific salmon in California, Oregon, and Idaho are especially vulnerable to climate change, according to a new study.

The Bonneville Power Administration has established rates for its power and transmission services for the 2020-2021 rate period that the agency says reflects “significant efforts to manage program costs and strengthen financial health.”

Salmon and steelhead soon will have access to more than 82 miles of streams in Washington, thanks to $25 million in grants to remove fish passage barriers.

For the first time, researchers have used a novel genomics-based method to detect the simultaneous presence of hundreds of organisms in a stream.

New acoustic observations mapping the changing face of the LeConte Glacier in southeast Alaska show that the rate of submarine melt is much higher than previously predicted by scientific theory, a new study published this week in the journal Science shows.

How many wolves are on the landscape in Idaho? That’s an often-asked question that Idaho Fish and Game is aiming to answer using game cameras during a new statewide population monitoring program.

In an effort to boost native westslope cutthroat and bull trout populations, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is proposing to remove non-native trout species in Cooney Creek, a tributary of the upper Swan River in northwest Montana.

Is there a species anywhere in the United States that crosses and involves more governmental jurisdictions than Columbia River basin salmonids?

For the second year in a row, fishing for wild fall chinook salmon will be restricted in coastal rivers, due to poor escapement in 2018 and poor forecasted returns this year.

While recent rain is helping many parts of the state, more than a few scattered showers are needed to fix Washington’s drought. For the past few months, Washington’s weather has been all over the map, says a Washington Department of Ecology blog post.

U.S. House Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) have reintroduced the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act that would dedicate roughly $1.4 billion to the Wildlife Conservation Restoration Program. The money would fund voluntary efforts led by the states, territories and tribal nations to prevent vulnerable wildlife from becoming endangered.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind reauthorized WDFW staff to lethally remove wolves from the Old Profanity Territory pack in northeast Washington.

Right now, early summer 2019, half the rivers in Washington State are in the bottom 10 percent of average flows measured for this time of year. Five percent of rivers show record low flows. Many of these waterways bear spawning salmon and steelhead, including those listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Beginning in 2022, fish farms will no longer be allowed to raise non-native fish in Washington’s waters. Until then, updated permits from the Washington Department of Ecology require Atlantic salmon farms to step up their monitoring, inspections and reporting, and to have emergency response plans, the agency said Thursday.

The Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife commissions will meet together Aug. 1 to continue their discussions of the joint state Columbia River salmon management policy. Although the public is invited to attend the nearly all day meeting in Salem, public testimony will not be taken.

The U.S. State Department has set a Columbia River Treaty town hall in Boise, Idaho next week.

Extreme precipitation events have grown more frequent since the start of the twentieth century, and such events are likely to become even more frequent over the twenty-first, says NOAA in a new posting at Climate.Gov, science and information for a climate-smart nation.

Dungeness crab is Oregon’s leading commercial seafood product, bringing in an estimated $75 million in 2018, yet little is known about how far crabs will venture in search of food.

A total of 46 whales were confirmed as entangled in fishing gear off the West Coast in 2018, more than the previous year, but slightly lower than the historic highs of 2015 and 2016. The number of entanglements remained above levels prior to 2014, when the average number was less than 10.

Three years ago was the first time in 20 years a white sturgeon fishery in Lake Roosevelt was open to the public. That year more than 17,000 anglers took to the water to bag a prehistoric fish that can grow to more than 12 feet long and weigh hundreds of pounds.

What’s the economic cost to the region if invasive, voracious northern pike find their way out of Lake Roosevelt and downstream into the Columbia River mainstem, and into salmon and steelhead spawning beds in its tributaries?

In one of the driest years recorded for the Kootenai River Basin, extremely low spring precipitation combined with well below average winter snowpack and runoff will keep Lake Koocanusa significantly lower than normal this summer.

Steelhead anglers are asked to watch for tagged steelhead they might catch during the 2019-20 steelhead fishing seasons, and report tagged fish if they catch one.

When an unusually strong marine heat wave warmed the ocean off the West Coast from late 2014 to 2016, the effects reverberated through the marine ecosystem. One of the telltale changes was in copepods, tiny crustaceans that provide essential food for juvenile salmon as they first enter the ocean. Instead of energy-rich copepods that help the fish grow quickly, leaner copepods with less energy began to dominate. That left young salmon facing tougher odds in the ocean.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality concluded the on-site investigation this week into reports of drums at the bottom of Wallowa Lake labeled with the herbicides “2,4-D or 2,4,5-T.”

Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s Salmon Workgroup, formed to help shape the state’s salmon recovery policies, will hold its first meeting June 28 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Idaho Room at the Idaho State Museum in Boise.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recently released a statement essentially patting themselves on the back for maintaining the status quo in response to a growing problem on Washington’s salmon and steelhead streams.

So in chatting with an acquaintance this past weekend, he asked me if the salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River are recovering? My casual, unsatisfying answer was “depends on what fish and where.” But it’s a good question.

Mitigation plans that will benefit juvenile salmon on a large urban island in the Columbia River are out for review.

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe this spring found bigger-than-expected coho smolts headed out of Lake Sutherland, connected to the Elwha River on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

The Public Power Council announced this week that Scott Simms has been selected as Executive Director, effective August 12. Simms will be the ninth Executive Director in the 53-year history of PPC.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife today released an investigation into last December’s generator failure at Minter Creek Hatchery that resulted in the loss of millions of salmon fry.

In a win for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and Washington State, the U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to hear a case regarding discharges of toxic waste into the Columbia River.

The frequency of marine heatwave days increased by 50 percent over the past century but our ability to predict them has been limited by a lack of understanding around the key global processes that cause and amplify these events.

Is it possible to fill the vast North Pacific Ocean with too many salmon? Hard to fathom, but apparently so.

U.S. Senators from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Washington have sent a letter to Premier John Horgan of British Columbia urging attention and action on key issues related to transboundary mining practices.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality are working to remove this summer drums containing herbicides at the bottom of Wallowa Lake in northeast Oregon.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to revise Washington’s water quality standards. The lawsuit asks the court to block the EPA from revising the standards.

Pictures of the earth’s water cycle used in education and research throughout the world are in urgent need of updating to show the effects of human interference, according to new analysis by an international team of hydrology experts.

The Trump Administration Thursday said it will change the definition of high-level waste stored at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and other nuclear waste sites across the country, “opening the door for the federal government to walk away from its obligation to clean up millions of gallons of toxic, radioactive waste at Hanford,” say Washington State officials.

A major focus of hatchery reform is the genetic management of broodstocks, but a recent study shows that how hatchery juveniles are raised is equally important.

A new study on the California Coast shows that microplastic particles are not only common from the surface to the seafloor, but they’re also being eaten by animals and incorporated into marine food webs.

The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife will open a harvest fishery for white sturgeon in Lake Roosevelt starting June 15.

Mineral prospectors will now need to get a Hydraulic Project Approval (HPA) to suction dredge in Washington. The new HPA requirement, effective Nov. 1, will help protect fish and reduce the risk of spreading invasive species.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide continued its rapid rise in 2019, with the average for May peaking at 414.7 parts per million (ppm) at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory.

Restoring native salmon and steelhead runs in the Columbia River basin is the largest ecological restoration effort in the United States. Yet, after nearly 30 years and the spending of billions in public dollars, salmon and steelhead that spawn in the drainage of the nation’s second largest river remain in peril.

NOAA Fisheries is declaring an unusual spike in strandings of gray whales along the West Coast an Unusual Mortality Event (UME), providing additional resources to respond to the strandings and triggering a focused scientific investigation into the cause.

A mass die-off of seabirds that feed on fish in the Bering Sea may be partially attributable to climate change, according to a new study.

Chemical signatures imprinted on tiny stones that form inside the ears of fish show that two of Alaska’s most productive salmon populations, and the fisheries they support, depend on the entire watershed.

A new study finds that the low-cost, extreme draining of a reservoir in Oregon aided downstream migration of juvenile chinook salmon – and led to the gradual disappearance of two species of predatory invasive fish in the artificial lake.

Concentrations of antibiotics found in some of the world’s rivers exceed ‘safe’ levels by up to 300 times, the first ever global study has discovered.

Hassan Latif, Egyptologist and a former curator at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, and Aaron Wolf, a geography professor at Oregon State University, will discuss how the movement and availability of water change cultures and influence politics at the June 3 Science Pub Corvallis.

Changes to alpine streams fed by glaciers and snowfields due to a warming climate threaten to dramatically alter the types of bacteria and other microbes in those streams, according to a research team.

A collaborative effort between state and federal agencies, conservation groups, timber and energy companies, and a public land trust to acquire and conserve 13,398 in northwest Montana has received international recognition and accolades.

A trio of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory fish researchers recently published a video journal article on how to properly implant miniature acoustic tags in juvenile Pacific Lamprey and American Eel and how the tags could benefit migration.

Updated guidance is now available to identify and assess fish passage barriers in Washington streams.

Based on current low passage numbers for Columbia River spring chinook, projected returns to some upriver hatcheries may not meet escapement goals, the Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife departments said Thursday.

For 20 years the Columbia Basin Bulletin has offered readers in-depth news coverage of Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead recovery, the most extensive and expensive ecological restoration effort in the United States. Your Paid Membership will allow the CBB to continue reporting the important details of Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead recovery and other fish and wildlife issues.

Runs of Columbia River summer and fall chinook salmon, sockeye salmon and upriver steelhead are predicted to again have a poor year, but the forecasted run of coho will be higher than recent runs of the fish.

Runs of Columbia River summer and fall chinook salmon, sockeye salmon and upriver steelhead are predicted to again have a poor year, but the forecasted run of coho will be higher than recent runs of the fish.

Biologists know that the number of eulochon entering the Columbia River this year, as well as over the last few years, is relatively low. But harvest management of the fish, better known as smelt, suffers from a deficiency of run size and run timing data, according to a recent report to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

Washington and Oregon fishery managers last week left angling for spring chinook salmon closed downstream of Bonneville Dam, but reopened for two days this weekend fishing from the dam to the states’ border upstream of McNary Dam.

Five public meetings in the Willamette Valley are scheduled to provide and accept information about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ environmental impact statement process at its Willamette Valley dams.

A recent Idaho study has offered a better understanding of the behavior of smallmouth bass in the Snake River and its tributaries.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Friday announced an agreement in principle with the city of Portland and state of Oregon to help fund cleanup plans for the 10-mile Portland Harbor Superfund.

The Port of Kennewick and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District, have signed a cost share agreement to create a living shoreline, provide benefits for endangered and threatened salmonid species and enhance recreational access to the Columbia River.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed five bills into law Thursday aimed at protecting the Southern Resident orca.

Washington state and the Forest Service signed an agreement this week to work collaboratively to improve forest health.

Idaho Fish and Game biologists are in the midst of a multi-year study in four Idaho reservoirs to evaluate the performance of hatchery-stocked chinook salmon, and how they can be best used to improve certain fisheries around the state

Anglers who fish for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River basin will no longer be required to purchase an endorsement to do so beginning July 1

Oregon and Washington have opened this year a portion of the lower Columbia River to spring chinook fishing four times since March 1.

This year’s Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery in the Columbia and Snake rivers opens Wednesday, May 1.

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon are now the custodians of 1,200 additional acres of critical habitat along the Middle Fork John Day River, thanks to a recent land transaction with The Nature Conservancy.

The Columbia Basin Transboundary Conference: One River, One Future is offering a limited number of scholarships of up to $400 CAD to registered post-secondary students and non-profit professionals who plan to attend or have already registered for the conference.

Spring chinook passage at the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam through April 23 totaled 1,250 fish, which is the second lowest passage in the last 10 years and only 6 percent of the 10-year (2009-2018) average cumulative count (22,499) for that date.

Spring chinook fishing in Idaho will open on April 27, with a two-day-a-week season on the Clearwater River and a four-day-a-week season on the Salmon and Little Salmon rivers. The season will run until sport anglers’ shares of the harvest are met (which varies by river) or Aug. 11 — whichever comes first.

High flows and low visibility during last weekend’s limited spring chinook salmon two-day salmon opening resulted in just 20 fish caught by a limited number of anglers braving the poor conditions, prompting the two-state Columbia River Compact this week to add two more days of fishing this weekend, April 20 and 21.

The threatened Oregon Spotted Frog, which has lost habitat to development, agriculture and invasive species has found refuge in what may seem like an unlikely place: beneath the high-voltage power lines of the Bonneville Power Administration, said the agency in a press release.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife released its draft proposed Wolf Conservation and Management Plan Monday at www.odfw.com/wolves

The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Anaconda watercraft inspection station intercepted a boat carrying invasive mussels Monday.

The boat was being transported from the Great Lakes area to Bellingham, WA, by a commercial hauler. The boat was last used on Lake Huron and had been in dry dock since October.

Anglers can expect a mixed bag of salmon fisheries this year with increased coho opportunities in the ocean and the Columbia River, but additional necessary restrictions to protect chinook in Puget Sound.