Modernizing Columbia River Treaty: B.C. Report On Community Meetings Says This Time Basin Residents, Indigenous Nations Will Be ‘Meaningfully Consulted’
August 6th, 2020
A British Columbia Province Report on recent Columbia River Treaty community meetings notes “there was a lack of consultation with Basin residents and Indigenous Nations when the Treaty was first negotiated, and feelings of hurt and anger remain to this day.”
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With Flow Agreements Protecting Salmon Lifecycle, Hanford Reach Fall Chinook Productivity Over The Years Has Increased 217 Percent
July 16th, 2020
Although the 50-mile long Hanford Reach has long been considered the last free-flowing stretch on the Columbia River above Bonneville Dam, it’s actually tucked into a large and very complex system of hydroelectric dams.
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Public Comments Favor Fish Passage At Crooked River’s Bowman Dam (Central Oregon) Or Increased Downstream Mitigation
July 9th, 2020
Public comment that closed June 22 for the most part favored providing anadromous fish passage at Bowman Dam on the Crooked River in Central Oregon. But if passage is not possible due to the costs, then other comments asked for far more habitat mitigation in the river downstream than was proposed the dam’s operator Ochoco Irrigation District.
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NMFS BiOp Says Lethally Removing Beavers In Oregon Does Not Jeopardize ESA-Listed Salmon/Steelhead; ODFW Commission Mulls Beaver Work Group
June 25th, 2020
A biological opinion of a US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Service’s management program to lethally remove beavers in Oregon and the program’s impacts on fish species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act was completed June 8 by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
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Oregon DEQ Says Trump Administration’s New Clean Water Act Rule Has ‘Serious And Potentially Damaging Implications’
June 25th, 2020
A new federal rule went effect Monday (June 22) that has “serious and potentially damaging implications for ensuring clean, safe and healthy water in Oregon and elsewhere,” said the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in a statement this week.
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EPA Nears Completion On Plan For 12 Columbia River Cold Water Refuges For Migrating Salmon/Steelhead; May Add Umatilla River As 13th
June 18th, 2020
The Columbia River is warming and salmon and steelhead are taking advantage of cold water refuges in their migration, an adaptation to climate change, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
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Groups File Lawsuit Challenging EPA’s Withdrawal Of Washington State’s Water Quality Standards
June 12th, 2020
Regional tribes, environmental groups, water quality advocates and fishing organizations filed a lawsuit this week challenging what they say is the Trump administration’s “latest effort to dismantle laws that protect Washington State’s clean water and public health.”
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Borax Lake Chub Delisted From Endangered Species Act; Fourth Oregon Fish Delisted In Last Five Years
June 12th, 2020
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is delisting the southeast Oregon’s Borax Lake chub from the Endangered Species Act, saying the threats to Borax Lake and the fish have been eliminated or greatly reduced, and the fish no longer meets the ESA definition of an endangered or threatened species.
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After Comments, ODFW Not Proceeding With Sandy River Proposal To Expand Fishing By Boat
June 12th, 2020
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is holding off on a proposal to allow more fishing from a boat or other floating device on the Sandy River starting in 2021 in order to reduce interactions between hatchery and wild fish.