Columbia Basin Bulletin - December 6, 2025

Yakama Nation Requests BPA Release $50 Million, Report on Climate 'Resilient' Strategies, Endangered Snake River Sockeye 2025 Return Near Average... and more

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Columbia Basin Bulletin
December 06, 2025

The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation publicly took a step this week towards recovering $50 million in Columbia Basin Fish Accord funds from the Bonneville Power Administration after the federal power marketing agency had allowed the Accords to expire at the end of September.

In its update to a 2007 climate report, a team of scientists noted that the rate and magnitude of changes in temperature and hydrology in the Columbia River basin has amplified over the past two decades and those changes will impact salmon and steelhead.

The run of endangered Snake River sockeye salmon this year was near the 10-year average, as counted at Lower Granite Dam, but far below last year’s seventh largest run of the endangered fish.

Environmental DNA: Washington Takes On First-Of-Its-Kind Effort To Use E-DNA To Conduct Aquatic Species Census For Every River

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife scientists are using environmental DNA (eDNA) to take an unprecedented look at what lives in the state’s rivers, with the goal of conducting a census of every major river and drainage in Washington over the next seven years.

During the annual salmon run last fall, University of Washington researchers pulled salmon DNA out of thin air and used it to estimate the number of fish that passed through the adjacent river. Aden Yincheong Ip, a UW research scientist of marine and environmental affairs, began formulating the driving hypothesis for the study while hiking on the Olympic Peninsula.

July through September are the dryest and hottest parts of the year, with 2025 being the third consecutive year of drought in the Yakima River Basin.

A Chinese mitten crab, a prohibited species in Oregon, was found in the Willamette River near Portland’s Sellwood Bridge and reported to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on Nov. 17.

Trump Administration Proposes Four Revisions To Endangered Species Act It Says Will Restore ESA’s ‘Original Intent’

The most recent filings in U.S. District Court in Portland by plaintiffs in the latest challenge to the biological opinion of the federal Columbia/Snake river hydropower system’s impacts on salmon and steelhead does not have to do with impacts by the federal dams, but instead it is a plea to dismiss a nearly two-year old counterclaim by the state of Idaho.

A new paper in Biology Methods and Protocols, published by Oxford University Press, finds that researchers can now distinguish wild from farmed salmon using “deep learning,” potentially greatly improving strategies for environmental protection.

People across Oregon are being urged to avoid contact with sick or dead birds as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) continues to impact wild and domestic bird populations across the state. There is currently no effective treatment for wild and domestic birds, and the virus can spread rapidly among bird populations and potentially to other wildlife.