NOAA Status Review Says Sacramento Winter-Run Chinook Remain Endangered, Serious Threats From Climate Change, Disease
February 23rd, 2024
Though agencies and partners have pulled together to support the recovery of endangered Sacramento winter-run Chinook salmon in the last few years, NOAA Fisheries says the species is still in trouble, facing threats from climate change and other factors.
Read the Full Article
Basin Water Supply Dropping With Most Watersheds Well Below Normal, Setting Up Low Expectations For The Year
February 16th, 2024
After nearly a month of cold weather and heavy snow across the Columbia River basin, giving fisheries managers hope that there would be plenty of streamflow this summer for salmon and steelhead, February has been drier and warmer than normal, leaving the basin water supply at just 75 percent of average, as measured at The Dalles Dam.
Read the Full Article
Salmon Recovery MOU A Secret, Radical Deal? Republicans Say Yes, Administration Officials Say Brings Stability, Helps Fish, Contains Costs
February 2nd, 2024
Senior members of the Biden administration and Republican members of Congress painted vastly divergent pictures Tuesday of the agreement that could pause litigation over Snake River dams and salmon for the next decade.
Read the Full Article
NW GOP House Members Push Legislation To Prohibit Use Of Federal Funds For Implementing Salmon Recovery MOU, Dam Breaching Prep
February 2nd, 2024
U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) has introduced the Defending Against Manipulative Negotiators Act (DAMN ACT) to prohibit the use of federal funds from being used in breaching or altering the Lower Snake River Dams and to prohibit the implementation of the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative.
Read the Full Article
With Higher Spill At Dams, Detecting Survival Of PIT-Tagged Juvenile Salmon, Steelhead Extremely Elusive, Creating Key Data Gap
January 5th, 2024
The precision of estimating salmon and steelhead smolt survival rates through Snake and Columbia river dams during the 2023 spring outmigration is remaining elusive. This is the fifth straight year that high levels of court-ordered spill at Columbia and Snake river dams have impacted detection rates of the tagged juveniles as they migrated downstream through eight dams.
Read the Full Article
Biden Administration, Two States, Treaty Tribes Reach MOU On Columbia River Basin Salmon Recovery, Litigation Paused For At Least Five Years
December 15th, 2023
The Biden Administration, Columbia River treaty tribes and the states of Oregon and Washington agreed Thursday to work to restore wild salmon populations in the Columbia and Snake river basins and to delay ongoing litigation for five years, with an option for the delay to go as long as 10 years.
Read the Full Article
Senators Push Biden, Trudeau To Swiftly Complete New Columbia River Treaty Before Canada Flood Control Goes From Certainty To ‘Called-Upon’
December 15th, 2023
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and U.S. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging them to finalize an agreement between the U.S. and Canada to modernize and strengthen the treaty.
Read the Full Article
Burns Paiute Tribe Calls On FERC, Biden Administration To Identify Measures To Return Salmon To Malheur River Basin Upstream Of Hells Canyon Dams
December 13th, 2023
The Burns Paiute Tribe of southeastern Oregon has sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking that action be taken to identify measures to return salmon to the Malheur River Basin upstream of Idaho Power’s three-dam Hells Canyon Complex on the Snake River along the Idaho-Oregon border. Idaho Power, in the midst of relicensing those dams, says salmon and steelhead were extirpated before the dams were built and the complex was not central to these losses.
Read the Full Article
Oregon’s Clackamas River Seeing Impressive Return Of Coho, Wild Spring Chinook, Utility Cites Modernized Fish Passage Systems At Dams
December 13th, 2023
More than 17,000 adult coho salmon and nearly 5,000 wild spring Chinook salmon returned to Portland General Electric’s North Fork Dam on the Clackamas River this fall, according to the utility.