Columbia Basin Bulletin - December 11, 2024

Steelhead Numbers Decline, Historic Dam Removal, 6, NOAA Awards $9.2M... and more

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Columbia Basin Bulletin
December 11, 2024

A NOAA Fisheries biological status review team has determined that the summer and winter Olympic Peninsula steelhead are at moderate risk of extinction, a reversal of the previous status review in the 1990s that had determined the fish were not at risk of becoming threatened or endangered then or in the future.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has seen the first returns of threatened coho salmon to the upper Klamath River Basin in more than 60 years following historic dam removal completed last month.

Using smaller hooks, avoiding landing nets, and de-hooking and measuring fish in water are three of 15 solutions University of British Columbia researchers recommend to help released salmon thrive.

The change from the Biden to the Trump administration is primed to alter the trajectory of salmon recovery in the Snake and Columbia river basins.

By Eric Barker, Lewiston Tribune

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has directed Washington state agencies to take all actions necessary, in cooperation with the state of Oregon and four lower Columbia Basin treaty tribes, to fulfill the State of Washington’s commitments to the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative.

The Bonneville Power Administration plans to spend next year $41 million more in fish and wildlife projects in the Columbia River basin than it actually spent in 2023, and five million more than what was budgeted for 2024, for which actual spending is not yet available.

In just its second year of court-ordered drawdowns at two Willamette River dams to aid passage of threatened spring Chinook salmon and winter steelhead, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced just prior to Thanksgiving that it halted the drawdown at one of the dams due to water quality issues at three municipalities downstream.

Washington's Industrial Stormwater General Permit, which covers nearly 1,200 facilities, has new requirements to ensure cleaner stormwater is flowing into local waterways, and is less harmful to salmon.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it is taking two significant steps to support the conservation and recovery of the threatened Canada lynx population in the lower 48 states.

The Center for Biological Diversity has filed petitions with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking Endangered Species Act protections for the Owyhee hot springsnail and Owyhee upland pyrg.

Just the third executive director of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council in 45 years is about to leave. After nearly five years in the position, Executive Director Bill Edmonds is planning to step down in spring 2025.

Comment Re: CBB article of November 26, 2024, entitled “2024 Survival Rate Of Migrating Juvenile Salmon In Columbia/Snake Rivers? Hard To Say With Yet Another Year Of Low Detection, Tagging Rates.”