Salmon

Fishing and conservation groups want the Washington Department of Ecology to loosen up some regulations and allow more water to be spilled over dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. If the timing is done right, spilling more water over dams helps young salmon migrate down river to the ocean. Conservationists compare it to the...
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After a few brutal years, things are looking somewhat better for Oregon’s coastal salmon fishermen. The Pacific Fishery Management Council released its salmon forecast for 2010. Salmon numbers on the Sacramento and Klamath rivers are high enough to allow for some kind of commercial fishing season off Southern Oregon and California. Along the Northern Oregon and...
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Showing it knows how to read a judge’s memo, NOAA says it will spend the next three months reworking the Obama plan for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin. Friday’s announcement was a response to federal district court Judge Redden, who strongly suggested this action nearly two weeks ago.
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During Thursday’s Klamath Basin signing ceremony, one group was conspicuously absent, Oregon’s environmental community. Groups such as Oregon Wild and Water Watch, say they were kicked out of the talks that produced the two historic deals on Klamath Basin water sharing and dam removal. National groups such as American Rivers and Trout Unlimited did sign...
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Judging by the love fest inside the Capitol Rotunda this morning, it’s hard to imagine that the Klamath water wars ever existed. The room was filled with smiles, applause and some humor courtesy of Governor Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger joked it was finally time to say, “Hasta la vista to the dams.” The crowd ate it up.
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Interesting or newsworthy events from today until Sunday. THURSDAY: Klamath Basin Agreements Decades of fighting over water, salmon and dams in the Klamath Basin could come to a close Thursday in Salem. Governor Kulongoski, Governor Schwarzenegger and Interior Secretary Salazar will take part in a ceremony to sign two agreements that are designed to make sure...
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Cruise the Willamette downstream from central Portland and you’ll soon realize this is not the wild river our city founders knew.  Shipping terminals, cargo vessels, scrapyards, oil tanks, warehouses and gazillions of imported cars line the riverbank. This area, as city officials like to describe it, is a working river. An important area for...
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Several environmental groups are coming together with a new proposal for removing four hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River in Oregon and California. It’s response to an earlier agreement announced in September by the Interior Department. While that agreement laid the foundation for dam removal, many environmental groups were not satisfied with it. Today’s proposal is...
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When the chinook salmon return on the Columbia River next spring, get ready for massive numbers of fish. Wildlife officials say they’re expecting about 470,000 chinook for the spring run. If that prediction is accurate, it would be the biggest return of spring chinook since 1938. The announcement by Oregon Fish and Wildlife, Washington Fish and...
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