Columbia Basin Bulletin - September 19, 2024

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Columbia Basin Bulletin
September 19, 2024

Competition with millions of pink salmon in the North Pacific Ocean, which are known for their two-year cycle of abundance, is resulting in shorter steelhead returning to the Snake River – also on a two-year cycle, according to a recent study.

The Payette National Forest released a Final Environmental Impact Statement and Draft Record of Decision for a controversial gold mine located in the headwaters of Idaho’s Salmon River. The draft documents will undergo a 45-day public review for what the U.S. Forest Service is calling a “pre-decisional objection period.”

The hydropower industry has filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court that challenges administrative changes to the federal Endangered Species Act made by Biden Administration agencies this spring that the industry says were made in “excess of the Services’ statutory jurisdiction and authority.”

Oregon and Washington added more fishing days on the mainstem Columbia River and expanded the bag limit to three salmon for the Buoy 10 fishery at a hearing this week after a prediction of higher than previously forecasted returns of salmon and steelhead.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has released the “Klamath River Anadromous Fishery Reintroduction and Restoration Monitoring Plan,” a 60-page blueprint to guide the reintroduction and monitoring of Chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead and Pacific lamprey in a newly undammed Klamath River.

Removing the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on Washington's Elwha River presented an opportunity to study the ecological response of a river ecosystem to large-scale disturbance and subsequent restoration.

New research led by the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has revealed how underwater noise produced by humans may help explain the southern residents orcas’ plight.

A new study co-authored by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks helps to identify where in the Bitterroot Ecosystem grizzly bears could call home through reintroduction or recolonization.

Department of Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland announced that Bryan Mercier has been selected to serve as the next director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and research partners documented white-nose syndrome and the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in eleven new counties in 2024.

The Department of the Interior has announced it will hold an offshore wind energy lease sale off southern Oregon. The two areas to be auctioned on October 15, 2024, by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could generate more than 3.1 gigawatts of clean, renewable energy if fully developed, which could power approximately one million homes.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a five-year status review for the marbled murrelet, a species of seabird that is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act from the Canadian border to central California.

Some of the butterflies most in danger of fluttering out of existence fare better when their habitats are actively managed by humans, a recent study found.

Creel surveys (where state fish biologists ask for and record information about anglers’ catches) provide critical information for managing many fisheries but can be expensive and labor-intensive.