This summer, several juvenile coho salmon were spotted in the Russian River’s upper basin — a first in more than 30 years.
Most Pacific Coast salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the federal Endangered Species Act have increased in abundance over a 25-year span, but most still remain far under their recovery goals, according to a recent study by NOAA Fisheries scientists.
The scientists found that a majority of 28 distinct population segments of Northwest and California salmon and steelhead that were listed under the ESA from 1989 to 2007 and protected as threatened or endangered increased in abundance. None of the groups became extinct and groups protected by the ESA increased in abundance faster than unprotected populations of the same species, the study says.
During the 25 years studied (1995 to 2020), considerable efforts had been made to recover these populations, the study says, but no distinct population segment (DPS) has increased sufficiently to be delisted. A DPS represents specific geographic areas and genetic characteristics and are the smallest units that can be listed under the ESA.
“At the time of the salmon listings, there was a path toward recovery and a path toward extinction,” said Michael Ford, lead author of the research published in Fish and Fisheries. Ford recently retired as a research scientist at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center. “So far, we have avoided extinction and even succeeded in moving many populations in the right direction, but most are still far from complete recovery.”
Geographically, over the 25-year study period, ESA-listed populations in the Northwest trended to be higher in abundance than those in California, likely because California salmon are closer to the southern edge of their range and exposed to greater climate stress, the study says. Of the protected populations, Chinook, chum and sockeye trended higher than coho salmon and steelhead.
For most DPS, whether listed or unlisted, trends in harvest rates and hatchery releases were relatively stable during the 25-year time period. However, trends in indicators related to freshwater and marine climate were generally negative for salmon.
“Our results suggest that salmon recovery actions may have helped to stabilize and increase protected DPS, but most remain far below their recovery goals,” the study says.
The study, “Abundance Trends of Pacific Salmon During a Quarter Century of ESA Protection,” was published in Fish and Fisheries (Abundance Trends of Pacific Salmon During a Quarter Century of ESA Protection – Ford – 2025 – Fish and Fisheries – Wiley Online Library).
Authors are Steven Lindley, Brian Spence, David Brouton, Heidi Fish, Michael O’Farrell, Nathan Mantua, Rachel Johnson, William Satterthwaite and Thomas Williams of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, LA Jolla, CA; Ford, Katie Barnas, Andrew Shelton, Laurie Weitkamp, Damon Holzer, Elizabeth Holmes, James Myers, Chris Jordan, Martin Liermann of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, WA.
The scientists noted that West Coast states’ populations had grown by nearly 10 million people during the same 25-year period, adding pressure on water use and other resources. In addition, with a changing climate, stream flows are dropping while stream temperatures are rising.
“The findings suggest that the region’s focus on improving habitat and involving communities in salmon recovery has proved successful,” the study says.
However, that success has its limits. The study found that for most salmon and steelhead populations, “the road leading to increasing abundance and recovery has not been travelled very far. To be sure, abundance increases in a few DPS have been dramatic.”
Examples of success are a higher abundance for threatened Snake River fall Chinook, endangered Snake River sockeye and unlisted Okanogan River sockeye. All increased more than 10-fold in abundance from 2016 to 2020 over their abundances between 1995 to 1999. Snake River fall Chinook had been at an extremely low abundance in the mid-1990s, “a factor clearly contributing to some of the positive trends.”
Some of the increases in abundance were uneven, the study says. Coastwide, only five steelhead DPS increased (four listed, one unlisted), whereas nine decreased. Considering all species, eight of the 10 DPS in California had declining trends, and trends for Chinook and steelhead were correlated with latitude coastwide (i.e. lower abundance in California streams).
The study concludes that the listed population groups have yet to recover to the point where they no longer need protection even though, some – Snake River fall-run Chinook, Hood Canal summer chum and Oregon Coast coho – have increased “dramatically” since their listing.
“These trends indicate that these listed population groups are on the path to recovery. Recovering salmon populations to self-sustaining levels is critical to restoring the great economic and environmental benefits they once provided, when millions surged up West Coast rivers every year,” a NOAA press release says.
The scientists also looked at the impacts of hatchery releases and harvest on abundance of salmon and steelhead, noting that over 100 million juvenile salmon are released from West Coast hatcheries every year and most are harvested or return to their hatchery of origin. These fish, the study says, are not counted toward ESA recovery goals. However, some hatchery fish spawn in streams and are included in spawner counts that NOAA uses in its abundance trends. Their presence on spawning grounds can provide benefits to natural population conservation, as well as ecological and genetic risks, the study says.
The study also found that harvest rates were generally lower on listed population groups than on unlisted groups. Hatchery releases support commercial, tribal and sport fisheries and some from conservation hatcheries also help restore naturally spawning populations of threatened and endangered population groups, such as increases in the abundance of Snake River fall Chinook.
However, hatchery fish can also undermine natural populations by diluting the adaptations that help them survive. Nearly all listed population groups retain at least some populations made up mostly of naturally spawning fish that remain free of hatchery influences, the research found.
Some threats to salmon and steelhead persisted and increased during the study period, the study says. They are:
— Predation by marine mammals (pinnipeds, such as sea lions);
— Reduced stream flows and snowpack levels; and
— Increasing stream temperatures.
Still, the researchers say, they saw increases in many salmon population groups despite these trends and that shows that “local salmon recovery efforts have improved local conditions for salmon.” They also confirmed that changing ocean conditions impact the survival of adult salmon.
The research demonstrates that protection under the Endangered Species Act combined with investments in restoration can turn declining salmon population groups around, Steve Lindley, co-author of the research who recently retired as research scientist at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center, said in NOAA’s press release. However, he said, “It takes time to reverse the accumulated damage to salmon habitats, and progress can be prevented or temporarily reversed by prolonged periods of poor environmental conditions, such as with populations in California that have experienced severe droughts in the last decade.”
For background, see:
— CBB, December 15, 2024, NOAA Status Review Of Four Northern California/Southern Oregon Salmon/Steelhead Species Says All Should Remain ESA-Listed, NOAA Status Review Of Four Northern California/Southern Oregon Salmon/Steelhead Species Says All Should Remain ESA-Listed – Columbia Basin Bulletin
— CBB, February 23, 2024, NOAA Status Review Says Sacramento Winter-Run Chinook Remain Endangered, Serious Threats From Climate Change, Disease, NOAA Status Review Says Sacramento Winter-Run Chinook Remain Endangered, Serious Threats From Climate Change, Disease – Columbia Basin Bulletin
— CBB, February 17, 2023, NOAA Fisheries To Conduct Status Review Of Olympic Peninsula Wild Steelhead To Determine If ESA Listing Warranted, https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/noaa-fisheries-to-conduct-status-review-of-olympic-peninsula-wild-steelhead-to-determine-if-esa-listing-warranted/
— CBB, June 2, 2016, NOAA Status Review: None Of 28 ESA-Listed Pacific Salmon/Steelhead Stocks Warrant Status Change, NOAA Status Review: None Of 28 ESA-Listed Pacific Salmon/Steelhead Stocks Warrant Status Change – Columbia Basin Bulletin
A 2022 petition to list Oregon Coast and Northern California Coastal Chinook salmon as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act was denied by NOAA Fisheries this week.
In its status review, NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle determined that the two evolutionary significant units are not currently in danger of extinction, nor are they likely to become so within the foreseeable future.
The original August 22, 2022 petition to list the ESUs was initiated by the Native Fish Society, Center for Biological Diversity and Umpqua Watersheds. They had asked that the ESUs be considered by NOAA for listing, along with a designation of critical habitat at the same time.
In its December 9, 2025 Federal Register notice, NOAA said: “Based on the best scientific and commercial information available, including the status review report, and taking into account efforts being made to protect the species, we have determined that the OC and SONCC Chinook salmon ESUs do not warrant listing.”
“This decision ignores the agency’s own science and wastes an invaluable opportunity to avail the federal resources and leadership needed to set Oregon’s coastal Chinook salmon on a pathway to recovery,” said Mark Sherwood, Native Fish Society’s Executive Director. “We will continue to pursue recovery for these iconic native fish and the coastal communities, cultures, and ecosystems they hold together.”
In 2022, the petitioners gave as an alternative to separate out the spring run of OC and SONCC Chinook ESUs from the fall run of the fish, but on Jan. 11, 2023, NOAA said that option was not warranted.
At the same time, the federal fisheries agency said that the “petition presents substantial scientific information indicating the petitioned action to list the OC and SONCC Chinook salmon ESUs may be warranted …” and proceeded with a status review to “to determine whether the petitioned action to list the OC and SONCC ESUs is warranted.”
In the recent extinction risk assessment for OC and SONCC Chinook published in the Dec. 9 Federal Register, NOAA concluded that both ESUs are at low risk of extinction due to similar factors.
“They both have high overall abundance, with numerous, well-distributed spawning populations,” the notice says. “Additionally, their high productivity allows them to maintain abundance even in the face of relatively high exploitation rates. In evaluation of the threat factors identified in section 4(a)(1) of the ESA, we concluded that the factors do not contribute substantially to rangewide extinction risk now or in the foreseeable future.”
The Science Center status review of the two ESUs was actually completed more than a year ago in January 2024 (Biological Status of Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon/Northern California Coastal Chinook Salmon : Report of the Status Review Team).
Chinook salmon are anadromous fish, returning from the ocean to the freshwater streams where they were born to reproduce. The Oregon and California Chinook salmon populations contain both early and late-run variants, otherwise known as spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon.
Spring-run Chinook salmon enter coastal rivers from the ocean in the spring and migrate upstream as they mature, holding in deep pools in rivers through the summer, and spawning in early fall in the upper reaches of watersheds. Conversely, fall-run Chinook enter the rivers in the fall and spawn shortly thereafter.
Spring-run Chinook in Oregon and Northern California suffer from chronically low abundance. These fish have specific habitat needs, and there are numerous unaddressed threats to every population and their habitat in Oregon and Northern California.
The current OC and SONCC Chinook salmon ESUs were identified by NOAA in the late 1990s, and include fall- and spring-run Chinook salmon spawning in rivers on the Oregon and northern California coasts, the status review says.
Identifying the freshwater range of OC Chinook, the status review says it includes rivers on the Oregon coast south of the mouth of the Columbia River down to and including the Elk River, located near Port Orford. The range of the SONCC Chinook extends from Brush Creek (just south of the Elk River) in the north to the lower portion of the Klamath River at its confluence with the Trinity River in California.
NOAA summed up the status of all OC Chinook populations, saying that the natural-origin abundance of the fall-run fish was between 100,000 and 200,000 spawners, and the spring-run natural-origin populations combined were between 2,500 and 5,000 spawners. The populations ranged from 100,000 to 500,000 in the 19th century.
“Trends were variable among populations, with some populations experiencing unusually low recent abundances,” the status review says. “Among fall-run populations, about half of the populations have increased over the past 15 years and about half have declined. The two spring-run populations have declined over the past 15 years, but total spring-run abundance remains higher than it was prior to 1960. The spring component of the predominantly fall-run populations is not well monitored, but the available data did not indicate any obvious downward or upward trends.”
For SONCC Chinook, NOAA found spawning abundance data for one spring-run and six fall-run populations, but together they made up the major SONCC Chinook spawning populations.
“Data for the Smith River, an apparently sizable population, were insufficient to evaluate trends. Summed across the ESU (excluding the Smith River), total abundance of fall-run Chinook salmon during the period 1990–2022 typically ranged from 30,000 to more than 125,000 natural-origin spawners. Several estimates for the Smith River from 2010 to 2021 were between 10,000 and 20,000 fall-run Chinook salmon,” the status review says.
The only major spring-run Chinook population was in the upper Rogue River. Between 1990 and 2022 the population ranged from a few thousand to more than 10,000 natural-origin spawners, along with similar numbers of hatchery-origin spawners. NOAA estimated the population of the spring-run fish between 1940 to the late 1980s to be 30,000 to 50,000 fish.
“Trends over the past 15 years for the fall-run populations were generally negative, and variable but without an obvious trend for the Rogue River spring-run population,” the status review says.
Estimates of late-19th century run sizes for the SONCC Chinook salmon ESU ranged from about 100,000 to 300,000 Chinook salmon
“We followed the rangewide assessment with a significant portion of its range extinction risk assessment and we did not find any portions of the OC or SONCC ESU’s range that were both significant and at risk of extinction,” NOAA concluded.
The Dec. 9 Federal Register notice where NOAA published its findings and determination: (Federal Register :: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Notice of 12-Month Finding on a Petition To List the Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon and Northern California Coastal Chinook Salmon Evolutionarily Significant Units Under the Endangered Species Act).
The Jan. 11, 2023 Federal Register notice announcing the status review is here Federal Register :: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife; 90-Day Finding on a Petition To List Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon and Northern California Coastal Chinook Salmon as Threatened or Endangered Under the Endangered Species Act
For information on the conservation groups’ petition and federal actions, see: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/2022-petition-list-oregon-coast-chinook-salmon-and-southern-oregon-and-northern-california
For background, see:
— CBB, April 5, 2024, NOAA Releases Status Review For Oregon Coast/Northern California Chinook, Low To Moderate Risk Of Extinction; Listing Decision Coming, NOAA Releases Status Review For Oregon Coast/Northern California Chinook, Low To Moderate Risk Of Extinction; Listing Decision Coming – Columbia Basin Bulletin
— CBB, October 26, 2023, CONSERVATION GROUPS SAY VERY LOW RETURN OF WILD SPRING CHINOOK TO SOUTHERN OREGON COASTAL RIVER SHOWS NEED FOR ESA LISTING, https://cbbulletin.com/conservation-groups-say-very-low-return-of-wild-spring-chinook-to-southern-oregon-coastal-river-shows-need-for-esa-listing/
— CBB, January 13, 2023, NOAA TO CONSIDER ESA-LISTING FOR OREGON COAST, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA SPRING/FALL CHINOOK SALMON, https://cbbulletin.com/noaa-to-consider-esa-listing-for-oregon-coast-northern-california-spring-fall-chinook-salmon/
— CBB, April 16, 2020, NOAA FISHERIES ANNOUNCES STATUS REVIEW OF OREGON COAST SPRING-RUN CHINOOK TO DETERMINE IF PETITIONED ESA PROTECTIONS WARRANTED; CURRENTLY MANAGED WITH FALL-RUN, https://cbbulletin.com/noaa-fisheries-announces-status-review-of-oregon-coast-spring-run-chinook-to-determine-if-petitioned-esa-protections-warranted-currently-managed-with-fall-run/
— CBB, September 26, 2019, GROUPS PETITION TO ESA-LIST OREGON COAST SPRING CHINOOK, SAY DISTINCT FROM FALL-RUN CHINOOK, https://cbbulletin.com/groups-petition-to-esa-list-oregon-coast-spring-chinook-say-distinct-from-fall-run-chinook/
— CBB, December 16, 2016, “Recovery Plan Aims To Make Oregon Coast Coho First West Coast Salmonid To Be Eligible For Delisting,” https://www.www.www.cbbulletin.com/recovery-plan-aims-to-make-oregon-coast-coho-first-west-coast-salmonid-to-be-eligible-for-delisting/
Speakers at a congressional hearing to consider the issue of predatory sea lions in the lower Columbia River weighed heavily towards recommending that more of the animals should be lethally removed from the river to protect salmon and steelhead.
The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries hearing Dec. 3 heard testimony about the sea lions that are feasting on threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River.
“The Pacific Northwest invested decades of work and millions of dollars into resources to develop recovery strategies for anadromous species,” said Subcommittee Chair Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo). “Dramatic increases in pinniped populations, which prey on salmon and steelhead, undermine recovery efforts and impact the entire region. This hearing allows us to examine what’s working, where existing authorities fall short, and what additional solutions we must consider to protect salmon, honor tribal treaty rights, and restore balance to the Columbia River Basin.”
However, that investment is costing some $38,000 per euthanized sea lion and $203 per salmon saved, according to Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA, 3rd District), who spoke to the Committee.
Aja DeCoteau, a citizen of the Yakama Nation and Executive Director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, set the stage telling the Committee about the rise in numbers of sea lions in the river that are endangering recovery of salmon and steelhead listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Increased presence of California sea lions, Steller sea lions and harbor seals within the Lower Columbia River are severely impacting our region’s salmon conservation efforts, she said.
“Historically, our elders remember the occasional sea lion reaching Celilo Falls, however, those occurrences were rare,” DeCoteau told the Committee. “Now, a combination of hydrosystem infrastructure, changing environmental conditions, and the success of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, has resulted in unprecedented numbers of sea lions in the Columbia River.
“Starting in the early 2000s, sea lion numbers began to climb as they learned to use river bottlenecks to consume returning salmon and steelhead, including 13 ESA-listed stocks,” she continued. “These sea lions have not only returned each year, but they are teaching their offspring and others this behavior.”
Data shows that sea lions can consume significant numbers of fish—up to 44 percent of the Columbia River spring chinook run and 25 percent of the Willamette winter steelhead run each year.
At the behest of Columbia River tribes and states, NOAA Fisheries began to permit the removal of sea lions, first at Bonneville Dam and later at Willamette Falls. At that time, harassment and removal were the preferred methods, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and CRITFC at times branding the animals and documenting predation. However, many of the branded and removed sea lions found their way back to the dam, and it was determined that harassment was ineffective.
In 2008, NOAA gave permission to lethally remove the sea lions, also with limitations: only California sea lions could be killed, but they first had to, in essence, be caught in the act of actually consuming the salmon.
“Initially, we worked within MMPA-allowed constraints, using non-lethal deterrents such as hazing, acoustic devices, trapping and relocating, and exclusion devices, with only mixed success, as resources only allowed six to eight hours a day to address a round-the-clock problem,” DeCoteau said in her remarks to the Committee. “Despite our efforts, predation rates more than doubled between 2006 and 2015. It was clear, a stronger solution was required.”
As a result of Congressional action in 2018, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) granted the states and four Columbia River treaty tribes on Aug. 19, 2020 co-manager status on a new and expanded authorization to lethally remove both California and Steller sea lions in the Columbia River, between river mile 112 (I-205 bridge) and river mile 292 (McNary Dam), or in any tributary to the Columbia River that includes spawning habitat of threatened or endangered salmon or steelhead. The permit also includes the Willamette River.
Known as the Endangered Salmon Predation Prevention Act, the legislation amended the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 2018. NMFS issued the first permit under the new law in June, 2020. As a result, states and tribes could lethally remove up to 540 California sea lions and 176 Steller sea lions over the five year period that ended in 2025. The Act created a management zone on the Columbia River and its tributaries where sea lions prey on at-risk salmon, steelhead, lamprey, sturgeon, and eulachon.
The Act was extended in September 2025 out to 2030, but the number of sea lions allowed for removal was linked to the number that already had been removed in the first five years. During that time, states and tribes lethally removed 116 California sea lions and 114 Steller sea lions, leaving a potential take over the next five year permit period of 424 California and 62 Steller sea lions.
ESA-listed species impacted by the sea lions are Lower Columbia River chinook salmon, Snake River fall chinook, Snake River spring/summer chinook, Upper Columbia River spring chinook, Upper Willamette River chinook salmon, Lower Columbia River steelhead, Middle Columbia River steelhead, Snake River Basin steelhead, Upper Columbia River steelhead, Upper Willamette River steelhead, Columbia River chum salmon, Lower Columbia River coho salmon, Snake River sockeye salmon and Southern Distinct Population Segment of eulachon (smelt).
NOAA and the applicants had said in 2020 that “sea lion predation is having a significant negative impact on the recovery on the above-mentioned fishery stocks.” Additionally, the original and subsequent applications state that removal of sea lions is also intended to protect species of lamprey or sturgeon that may not be listed as endangered or threatened but are listed as a species of concern.
Gluesenkamp Perez noted that Steller sea lions are “behemoths” at 12 feet long and as much as 2,500 pounds, comparing them to a Toyota Corolla at 15 feet and 3,000 pounds (she and her husband own a car repair business in Portland).
“And when Congress amended the Marine Mammal Protection Act to expand lethal removal authorities, it provided that eligible managers along the Columbia River could remove up to 450 California Sea Lions and 176 Steller Sea Lions during the five year life of the take permit,” she said of the 2025 permit extension. “We haven’t even seen them come close to reaching these levels. In 2024 only 27 California and 21 Steller Sea Lions were removed at Bonneville Dam. As of July this year, only 26 and 11 have been removed. Ask yourself why?”
She said it’s the arduous process of removal, “namely the cost and the onerous back and forth of trapping the creature, identifying its threat, shaking a can of pennies at it, retrapping and then finally darting, contribute heavily.” She added that her “back of the envelope math” found costs of $38,000 per animal removed or about $203 per salmon saved.
Still, DeCoteau said the Endangered Salmon Predation Prevention Act has been a success, although improvements are needed.
“After six years, I am pleased to report that the impact of this amendment has been dramatic,” she said. “After removing 30 sea lions at Willamette Falls, winter steelhead losses from pinniped predation went from 25% of the run to only 2%.
“At Bonneville Dam, despite challenges from its larger area and greater number of sea lions, targeted removals have led to a 91% decrease in sea lion days and significant reductions in predation.”
However, despite the work the states and tribes have done to reduce sea lion predation, the effort has had “no measurable impact on the overall population of sea lions,” she said.
“Thanks to the MMPA, California sea lions number approximately 275,000 and are at or near carrying capacity—well beyond the Optimal Sustainable Population level NOAA developed.”
She urged Congress to:
1. Sustain funding to maintain and expand removal programs at Bonneville Dam and Willamette Falls
2. Amend the MMPA to extend area-based management authorities into the lower Columbia River
3. Request NOAA to assess current management options and provide a roadmap for more effective strategies
4. Support expanded monitoring as sea lion behavior changes
5. Invest in technology to prevent sea lions from moving upstream past the estuary, and lastly,
6. Support research and development of innovative non-lethal deterrents
“While sea lion predation on adult salmonids and smolts is significant, I must emphasize the need for a holistic approach to predation management overall, addressing avian, piscivorous, and marine mammal predation collectively,” she said in her conclusion. “Protecting salmonid populations is vital for the ecological health of our rivers and the cultural and economic well-being of our communities.”
For background, see:
— CBB, September 26, 2025, NOAA Fisheries Extends Sea Lion Lethal Removal Authorization To Reduce Predation On Columbia River Salmon, Steelhead, NOAA Fisheries Extends Sea Lion Lethal Removal Authorization To Reduce Predation On Columbia River Salmon, Steelhead – Columbia Basin Bulletin
— CBB, July 28, 2022, Efforts Under NOAA Permit To Remove, Euthanize Salmon-Eating Sea Lions In Columbia, Willamette Rivers Showing Promising Results, Efforts Under NOAA Permit To Remove, Euthanize Salmon-Eating Sea Lions In Columbia, Willamette Rivers Showing Promising Results – Columbia Basin Bulletin
— CBB, August 14, 2020, NOAA Fisheries Authorizes Expanded Lethal Removal Of Salmon-Eating Sea Lions In Columbia River From Portland To McNary Dam, Tributaries, NOAA Fisheries Authorizes Expanded Lethal Removal Of Salmon-Eating Sea Lions In Columbia River From Portland To McNary Dam, Tributaries – Columbia Basin Bulletin
— CBB, May 8, 2020, 2019 PINNIPED PREDATION REPORT: SEA LIONS TAKE 3.3 PERCENT OF SALMON/STEELHEAD RUN JANUARY THROUGH MAY, BIG HIT ON WINTER STEELHEAD https://www.www.www.staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/2019-pinniped-predation-report-sea-lions-take-3-3-percent-of-salmon-steelhead-run-january-through-may-big-hit-on-winter-steelhead/
— CBB, April 23, 2020, 23-MEMBER TASK FORCE SET TO MEET TO CONSIDER RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EXPANDING LETHAL REMOVAL OF SEA LIONS IN COLUMBIA RIVER, TRIBUTARIES 23-Member Task Force Set To Meet To Consider Recommendations For Expanding Lethal Removal Of Sea Lions In Columbia River, Tributaries – Columbia Basin Bulletin
— CBB, June 20, 2019, “States, Tribes Seek NOAA Permit To Expand Lethal Removal Of Sea Lions From Columbia River, Tributaries; Could Allow Euthanizing Up To 400 Animals Feeding On ESA Salmon, Sturgeon,” https://www.www.www.staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/states-tribes-seek-noaa-permit-to-expand-lethal-removal-of-sea-lions-from-columbia-river-tributaries-could-allow-euthanizing-up-to-400-animals-feeding-on-esa-salmon-sturgeon/
— CBB, May 23, 2019, “Oregon Removes, Euthanizes 33 California Sea Lions At Willamette Falls, Wild Winter Steelhead Run Up Considerably,” https://www.www.www.staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/oregon-removes-euthanizes-33-california-sea-lions-at-willamette-falls-wild-winter-steelhead-run-up-considerably/
— CBB, January 11, 2019, “With new permit, Oregon begins lethally removing sea lions at Willamette Falls to Protect Steelhead,” https://www.www.www.staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/with-new-permit-oregon-begins-lethally-removing-sea-lions-at-willamette-falls-to-protect-steelhead/
— CBB, December 14, 2018, “Legislation Awaiting President’s Signature Would Allow Significant Increase In Killing Of Salmon-Eating Sea Lions,” https://www.www.www.staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/441918.aspx
— CBB, November 20, 2018, “Oregon Plan To Euthanize Sea Lions At Willamette Falls Approved By NOAA Fisheries,” https://www.www.www.staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/441816.aspx
–CBB, August 17, 2018, “Willamette Falls Sea Lion Task Force Meets Three Days Next Week To Review Lethal Removal Request,” https://www.www.www.staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/441299.aspx
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed a five-year status review of the Columbian white-tailed deer and found that it has met the criteria outlined in its recovery plan. As a result, the Service is recommending the deer be removed from the federal Endangered Species List.
This recommendation is not a final decision, and the subspecies remains federally listed for now. Any change in status would require a formal rulemaking process, including public comment and further scientific review.
This development marks a major milestone in the decades-long effort to save the Columbian white-tailed deer, a conservation journey defined by “collaboration, science, and persistence,” says the USFWS.
Columbian white-tailed deer were once plentiful in Oregon and Washington. By the 1940s, their numbers were reduced to fewer than 1,000 individuals due to habitat loss and human development. In response, the deer were among the first species listed under the Endangered Species Act.
While one population in Douglas County, Oregon, met its recovery goals and was removed from the list in 2003, the Columbia River population remained listed as endangered until it was reclassified as threatened in 2016.
Thanks to years of collaboration among federal, state, tribal, and local partners, the Columbia River population of deer have made a strong comeback. The National Wildlife Refuge System has been especially critical to this success. Established in 1971 to protect this subspecies, the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-Tailed Deer has long served as a stronghold. In recent years, translocated deer have also established a thriving population at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, helping create a stable foundation for the deer’s recovery.
In addition to refuge lands, the deer inhabit private lands, with several subpopulations located between the Julia Butler Hansen and Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuges. With funding from Bonneville Power Administration and support from state wildlife agencies, some deer were relocated to a Columbia Land Trust property, creating a vital steppingstone between Cottonwood Island and Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. This network of safe habitats has helped the deer populations expand, migrate, and stabilize.
The success of the Columbian white-tailed deer recovery is a testament to long-standing partnerships. The Deer Working Group, which includes the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Columbia Land Trust, and others, continues to support the implementation of deer conservation efforts.
Even with the recommendation for delisting at the federal level, the deer remain listed as threatened in Washington State. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife continues to oversee the listing and recovery of species in Washington.
National Wildlife Refuges such as the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-Tailed Deer will continue managing for the subspecies well into the future, supporting habitat, monitoring population health, and fostering resilience in the face of environmental changes and other challenges.
“It’s incredibly exciting to see the deer reach this milestone,” said Bridget Fahey, acting Regional Director of the Pacific Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We want to acknowledge the significant role that our national wildlife refuges, state and tribal partners, and land trusts have played in this recovery. This effort shows what’s possible when we work together to recover a species.”
To learn more about the Columbian white-tailed deer and the recovery efforts for the Columbia River population, visit the species profile page and check out our resources on 5-year status reviews and Species Status Assessments.
Read the 5-Year Review here: https://ecosphere-documents-production-public.s3.amazonaws.com/sams/public_docs/species_nonpublish/31494.pdf
Also see:
–CBB, Oct. 145, 2016, USFWS Downlists Columbian White-Tailed Deer In Washington, Oregon From Endangered To Threatened https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/usfws-downlists-columbian-white-tailed-deer-in-washington-oregon-from-endangered-to-threatened/
Above photo: A returning coho salmon at the Suquamish Tribe’s Grovers Creek Hatchery in Poulsbo, WA. Photo by K.King/USFWS
For years, scientists at Washington State University’s Puyallup Research & Extension Center have been working to untangle a mystery: Why do coho salmon in Puget Sound creeks seem to suffocate after rainstorms — rising to the surface, gaping, and swimming in circles before dying?
In 2018, the die-offs were linked to bits of car tires shed by friction and washed into the stormwater runoff. In 2020, researchers zeroed in on one particular chemical culprit, a tire preservative known as 6PPD.
Now, research led by WSU PhD student Stephanie I. Blair has established the biological mechanism for how that toxin kills the fish, laying the groundwork for tests to find an alternative to 6PPD.
When 6PPD interacts with ozone, it becomes a toxic chemical known as 6PPD-quinone. Blair, working with a team from WSU and the University of Washington, demonstrated that 6PPD-quinone breaches the cellular walls that protect the brain and vascular system, known as the blood-brain barrier and the blood-gill barrier, causing oxygen deprivation.
“Prior to publication of this study nobody really knew what the event was that drove what they call ‘coho urban runoff mortality syndrome,’” said Blair, the lead author of the paper published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. “This is the first paper that gives a clear answer as to what’s happening.”
Understanding this makes it possible to design tests for potential alternatives to 6PPD, which is in virtually every automobile tire. The need for an alternative is growing with concerns over the environmental impact of the chemical. Studies are increasingly showing that, while coho are one of the most sensitive to 6PPD-quinone, it is also toxic for other fish and mammals, with possible effects on human health.
“We need those tools to be available so we can start screening for alternatives to 6PPD,” Blair said. “This tells us how to evaluate a potential substitute.”
Blair is in the home stretch of her PhD program at WSU. She is also working for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation; an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, she also uses her Ojibwe name, Negonnekodoqua.
Co-authors on the paper included Jenifer McIntyre, an associate professor of aquatic toxicology whose lab at the WSU Puyallup Research & Extension Center has been at the forefront of this issue. McIntyre works closely with collaborators at UW and the U.S. Geological Survey Western Fisheries Research Center to understand the harmful impacts of 6PPD-quinone and work towards a replacement for 6PPD.
Coho, or silver salmon, are an iconic Northwest species: Born in freshwater streams, they swim hundreds of miles to the ocean, where they spend most of their lives. A tiny percentage make the arduous journey back upstream to spawn before dying.
Several coho populations are listed as threatened or endangered, which has implications for the environment, economy, politics and treaty fishing rights of Northwest tribes.
Blair, who began working in the lab in 2018, has focused on trying to understand the cardiovascular response behind the die-offs. In lab experiments on fish exposed to stormwater runoff, she and McIntyre used fluorescent markers to demonstrate there were certain points at the blood-brain and blood-gill barriers that were “leaky” — something was crossing through the cardiovascular firewall.
They suspected that 6PPD-quinone was the cause, and the current paper confirms it. Researchers exposed fish to runoff collected from a state highway near Tacoma and, separately, to concentrations of 6PDD-quinone typical for a runoff event. Fish exposed to both exhibited the behaviors associated with the die-offs, and subsequent examinations showed substantial disruption of the brain-blood and gill-blood barriers.
“Every single time the coho show the surfacing symptoms and the loss of equilibrium, it always has blood-gill and blood-brain barrier disruption,” Blair said. “You will always find that. Every single time you have a sick fish from exposure to 6PPD-quinone, this is very causally linked.”
Also see:
–CBB, Nov. 16, 2023, EPA Agrees To Begin Rulemaking On Risk To Salmon From 6PPD, A Chemical In Every Vehicle Tire; Kills Coho Within Hours https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/epa-agrees-to-begin-rulemaking-on-risk-to-salmon-from-6ppd-a-chemical-in-every-vehicle-tire-kills-coho-within-hours/
Predation by sea birds on salmon and steelhead smolts in some years is responsible for as much as 50 percent of all smolt mortalities during the outmigration to the sea from the Columbia and Snake river basins, according to a presentation this week at a meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Idaho’s first endangered sockeye salmon arrived at a Sawtooth Basin fish trap July 23, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
Rising toxins found in bowhead whales, harvested for subsistence purposes by Alaska Native communities, reveal ocean warming is causing higher concentrations of algal toxins in Arctic food webs, according to new research published in the journal Nature.
Above photo: Overstory aspen trees in Yellowstone.
Yellowstone National Park is celebrating an ecological milestone along with a key anniversary this summer, Oregon State University researchers report.
A paper in Forest Ecology and Management documents the first new generation of overstory aspen trees in Yellowstone’s northern range in 80 years, three decades after wolves were reintroduced to the nation’s oldest national park.
The research, “Changing aspen stand structure following large carnivore restoration in Yellowstone,” can be found here. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112725004499
Without predation pressure from wolves, which had been extirpated from the park by 1930, elk populations grew to the point that their browsing was thwarting the growth of young aspen. The ecosystem effects were widespread as aspen stands support a range of species including beavers and cavity-nesting birds.
With wolves back in the mix along with bears and cougars, a nearly extirpated predator whose numbers increased along with wolf reintroduction, elk numbers have been reduced and aspen are once again working toward becoming full-grown trees.
“The reintroduction of large carnivores has initiated a recovery process that had been shut down for decades,” said the study’s lead author, Luke Painter, who teaches ecology and conservation in the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences. “About a third of the 87 aspen stands we examined had large numbers of tall saplings throughout, a remarkable change from the 1990s when surveys found none at all.”
Another third of the surveyed stands had patches of tall saplings growing into new overstory trees, he added, and the rest remained suppressed by herbivory.
“Increasing numbers of bison may be emerging as a new constraint to aspen in some areas,” Painter said.
The fact that stands with many tall saplings have low rates of browsing, whereas other stands continue to be suppressed, indicates aspen recovery is happening because of a trophic cascade and not other factors such as climate or site productivity, he said.
In a trophic cascade, a change at the top of a food web causes ripple effects throughout an ecosystem, altering its structure and balance. In Yellowstone, top predators have reduced herbivory by elk, allowing aspen to begin to recover.
“This is a remarkable case of ecological restoration,” Painter said. “Wolf reintroduction is yielding long-term ecological changes contributing to increased biodiversity and habitat diversity.”
Collaborating with Painter were Robert Beschta and William Ripple of the OSU College of Forestry. The Ecosystem Restoration Research Fund of the Oregon State University Foundation supported the research.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has confirmed three new wolf families — the One Ear, King Mountain and Three Creeks packs. They join the already established Copper Creek pack, which also welcomed new pups. While the total number of pups is still to be determined there are a minimum of four pups in the King Mountain pack.
In 2020 Colorado became the first state to mandate wolf reintroduction by ballot initiative. Colorado has since released wolves in Grand, Summit, Eagle and Pitkin counties with wolves sourced from Oregon and British Columbia. The program intends to restore a self-sustaining population of gray wolves in the state, built upon the release of 30 to 50 wolves over several years.
–See CBB, Nov. 16, 2023, ‘USFWS Finalizes Designation Of Gray Wolf Experimental Population In Colorado, Wolves To Come From Oregon’ https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/usfws-finalizes-designation-of-gray-wolf-experimental-population-in-colorado-wolves-to-come-from-oregon/
Scientific research has consistently shown that wolves play a vital role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, benefiting biodiversity and improving habitat quality through natural regulation of prey species.
The presence of new packs marks a success for CWP’s science-based wolf reintroduction program. The program was launched after voters passed Proposition 114 in 2020, requiring the state to establish a self-sustaining population of gray wolves.
At this month’s CPW Commission meeting, Eric Odell, CPW’s Wolf Conservation Program Manager, provided an update on “biologically relevant information” on the wolf population in Colorado. A key part of Odell’s presentation was a review of five wolf mortalities that have occurred since the restoration efforts in January 2025. Two of these mortalities took place in Wyoming. Three mortalities took place in Colorado. Because wolves are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, the USFWS has the lead on conducting necropsies and determining the causes of death.
“We knew from the early stages of planning wolf restoration that there would be some level of mortality amongst translocated gray wolves,” Odell said. “We specifically built in benchmarks for when we would initiate protocol reviews based on CPW’s previous experience with reintroduction of lynx in the late 1990s/early 2000s. The mortality that has been experienced by the wolf population this year is not a reason to pause translocation efforts.”
CPW staff continues to closely monitor the health of gray wolves translocated to Colorado – as well as the yearlings and pups who have been born in the state.
Commissioners were also shown a series of animations detailing and comparing the movements of paired and unpaired wolves as well as newly acquired trail cam footage of wolf pups from the King Mountain Pack in Routt County. These animations highlighted the area covered by wolves and how the formation of breeding packs and establishment of territories aids in the management of Colorado’s wolf population. Copies of these animations and videos can be found here.
During Odell’s presentation CPW announced that there are now three recognized packs in the state in addition to the Copper Creek pack that formed last year:
CPW recognizes packs only after a breeding pair of wolves have reproduced in late spring. While CPW staff have seen pups at some of the dens there is not a confirmed pup count for all of the packs. Detection of pups in late spring or early summer is inherently low, because of their small size, use of habitats in dense cover, and time potentially underground.
“We are continuing to monitor four dens in Colorado and will include minimum counts of the entire wolf population in our annual biological year reports,” Odell said. “Receiving reports of wolf sightings from the public – especially with high quality photos or video – is extremely helpful to CPW as we monitor and track the movement of gray wolves. This will become increasingly important as the population of uncollared wolves grows through successful restoration and natural immigration into Colorado.”
CPW is currently working on sourcing agreements for additional wolves to be translocated to Colorado in the winter of 2025-2026. The agency is currently working to schedule consultations with stakeholders in the southern release zone.
Wolves live in close-knit family groups known as packs. During denning the pack cooperatively hunts to provide food for their growing family. Young wolves can begin breeding after they reach two years of age so they can leave their pack to start their own families in new territories. These dispersals aid in recolonization of wolves in new habitats across the state.
State wildlife and agricultural agencies provide a suite of resources to prevent conflicts between wolves and livestock, including carcass removal, range-rider programs and nonlethal deterrents. These are available to livestock producers at no cost or at highly subsidized rates.
One of the primary tactics has been the use of range riders as a minimization tool when animals are on open range. CPW currently has nine range riders actively deployed with an emphasis on areas with concentrated wolf activity but flexibility to move to other areas as needed.
Gray wolves once ranged widely across the United States, including throughout Colorado, until they were nearly driven to extinction by government-sponsored extermination campaigns.
–CBB, Oct. 12, 2023, ‘Up To 10 Wolves From Northeast Oregon To Be Relocated To Colorado West Slope In Voter-Approved Reintroduction Effort,’ https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/up-to-10-wolves-from-northeast-oregon-to-be-relocated-to-colorado-west-slope-in-voter-approved-reintroduction-effort/
Federal agencies this week backed away from their efforts to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for Columbia River basin dam operations and their impact on salmon and steelhead, citing a June 12 Presidential Memorandum as their justification.
A vitamin deficiency likely killed as many as half of newly hatched fry of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River in 2020 and 2021. These new findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Montana’s wolf population has remained relatively stable in the past few years with only slight declines in the statewide population estimates, according to the 2024 Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks annual wolf report.
A century after wolves were wiped out in California, the animals have mounted a promising comeback in the state, with a small population that has grown to at least 50 wolves.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking public input on a draft periodic status review for the marbled murrelet, which includes a recommendation to keep the bird on the state endangered species list.
Four Columbia River basin treaty tribes recently completed their second restoration plan for “imperiled” Pacific lamprey in the basin fifteen years after the first such plan in which the Tribes had urged aggressive action in order to recover the culturally significant fish.
The fifteen years that have passed since the first lamprey restoration plan is about the same length of time as one generation for a Pacific lamprey, yet while some progress has been made since the first plan was released in 2011, “Funding, staffing and progress continues to remain unacceptably slow,” the 2025 restoration plan says.
“We are frustrated that sufficient and sustained resources are not immediately being made available quickly enough for lamprey recovery and tribal harvest of this important species,” the latest lamprey restoration plan says. “Passage through the Columbia, Snake and Willamette river dams is non-existent or completely inadequate.
Regional partners cannot — or will not — provide a Pacific lamprey passage standard over these dams and passage is often difficult to measure, at best. In fact, in many cases we continue to be talking about the same things we talked about over 15 years ago.”
The “2025 Tribal Pacific Lamprey Restoration Plan for the Columbia River Basin” can be found at https://critfc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ReportPost_CRITFC_etal2025B.pdf
Some 22,038 Pacific lamprey had been counted at Bonneville Dam’s fish ladders last year as of Sept. 22, one-half the 10-year average and only one-third the number that had passed the dam on that date in 2023.
In a September 2024 news release, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called the 2024 run of lamprey “disappointing,” especially after the 2023 run that had 63,896 lamprey by September. The 10-year average for that date is 41,263.
The goals in the 2025 Pacific lamprey restoration plan are 1 million adult lamprey passing Bonneville Dam and 1 million adults passing Willamette Falls by 2035. By 2050, the tribes call for the restoration of adult lamprey populations in the basin so that they can be sustainably harvested and consumed safely in quantities historically available.
There is general agreement that the basin’s population of Pacific lamprey is “imperiled.” According to the 2025 Pacific lamprey restoration plan:
— Idaho lists them as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need and Endangered
.
— Oregon lists them as a Sensitive Species (wildlife species, subspecies, or populations that are facing one or more threats to their populations, habitat quantity or habitat quality or that are subject to a decline in number of sufficient magnitude such that they may become eligible for listing on the state Threatened and Endangered Species List).
— Washington lists them as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need and a Priority Species (require protective measures for their survival due to their population status, sensitivity to habitat alteration, and/or recreational, commercial, or tribal importance).
— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists them as a Species of Concern and Tribal-Trust Species.
— The Pacific Lamprey Conservation Initiative, depending on the geographic area, considers them as Presumed Extirpated, Possibly Extirpated, Unrankable, Critically Imperiled, Imperiled, and Vulnerable.
The 2011 restoration plan was the first comprehensive restoration plan for Pacific lamprey, containing vision, goals and objectives, the cultural context surrounding lamprey in the basin, lamprey life history, its abundance and status, as well as critical uncertainties and limiting factors. The first plan, as does this latest plan, prioritizes the actions the tribes say are needed for recovery.
The Pacific lamprey restoration plan is the product of four Columbia River tribes: the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon.
“Lamprey have been an important part of the cultures, diets, and ceremonies of Columbia Basin tribes since time immemorial,” said Aja DeCoteau, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) executive director. “The tribes have been successfully leading the effort to restore this threatened fish throughout the Columbia River Basin, not only to protect its role in the ecosystem, but also to preserve our access to this important First Food.”
In the restoration plan, the tribes say they are demanding accountability and “steady progress” is needed for lamprey recovery. Needed, according to the recovery plan are greater efficiency in planning and design, timely implementation of actions and a more robust, effective research, monitoring and evaluation process. Accountability will require more resources with tribes participating in the budgeting processes to get those resources.
“The non-tribal communities must understand that many developments sanctioned by the federal, state and local governments have harmed the Tribes’ most fundamental treaty reserved right: to take fish at all of our usual and accustomed places,” the restoration plan says. “Now when we harvest Pacific lamprey, we must travel a long distance, primarily to one last location: Willamette Falls.”
Adult passage in the mainstem and tributaries of the Columbia basin must significantly increase, with the highest priority being in the lower Columbia River, the restoration plan says. Some 50 percent of migrating lamprey adults do not pass Bonneville Dam and passage through this bottleneck, as well as in the Willamette River, must be corrected before the basin will see significant improvements in lamprey populations.
Among the many actions called for in the 2025 recovery plan, the tribes say the region must establish passage standards for both adults returning to their spawning areas and for larvae and juveniles migrating out to the Pacific Ocean.
Actions most needed in the near-term in order to make “reasonable progress and accelerate Pacific lamprey restoration to an acceptable level,” the restoration plan says, are:
1. Secure research and monitoring funds necessary to accelerate the implementation of restoration actions with greater confidence of their success.
2. Increase capacity (staffing and funding) to accelerate the implementation of restoration actions, with a focus on mainstem and tributary passage, excessive predation, and identification and cleaning of toxics in the water and sediments.
Items 1. and 2. are an all-hands on deck responsibility (all parties), according to the restoration plan.
3. Increase regional passage standards for adult lamprey at mainstem dams to be 95% or higher. The responsibility for this action goes to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the basin’s public utility districts that own and operate dams.
4. Implement LEAPP (Lamprey Emergency Assisted Passage Program) at Columbia, Snake, and Willamette river dams. Responsibility for this action is the tribes and the Corps.
5. Fix key areas that are known to impede or kill larval and juvenile lamprey at mainstem dams (e.g., cooling water strainer screens) based on basin-wide acoustic telemetry (and other studies). Initial focus at Ice Harbor and Lower Granite dams on the Snake River, and McNary and John Day dams on the Columbia River. Options for barging must be considered if these fixes are not made immediately.
6. Obtain accurate annual passage estimates for adult lamprey at all mainstem dams, including the Willamette River, and obtain highly precise passage counts for key mainstem dams to allow accurate and precise assessment of reach-to reach conversion rates in the mainstem Columbia, Snake and Willamette rivers.
7. Obtain annual larvae/juvenile abundance estimates at all dams, beginning at PUD structures, LGR, LGS, MCN, BON and Willamette Falls. Provide assessment of winter run sizes at suitable facilities.
8. Install a system of passage structures (including wetted wall, LPS, and surface collectors) at key bottleneck locations to significantly address the incidence of “lost fish” in the CRB. Focus near-term work at PUD structures and BON, TDA, JDA, MCN, and IHR.
Responsibility for actions 5. through 8. goes to the Corps and PUDs.
9. Apply rigorous high standards for lamprey restoration and protection to tributary environments to ensure safe passage and connectivity across their life history. Responsibility for this action is to all parties.
10. Develop models that evaluate the effects of key host fish abundance and ocean regime changes on lamprey. Responsibility for this action goes to NOAA Fisheries.
11. Implement lamprey specific measures to reduce the negative impacts of unnaturally high predation on lamprey. Near-term focus on sea lion predation on adults concentrated below BON, juveniles and larvae predation by terns and gulls in the lower CRB, by smallmouth bass in the John Day, Umatilla, Yakima and Grande Ronde rivers, and by walleye in the mid-Columbia River. Develop/implement a basin-wide predation reduction plan. Responsibility for this action goes to state fish and wildlife agencies and the Bonneville Power Administration.
12. Partner with action agencies to clean up contaminants in lamprey-bearing streams. Responsibility for this action goes to state agencies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps.
13. Continue using both adult and larval supplementation techniques with improvements in facilities and capabilities. Responsibility goes to the tribes, Corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
14. Predict or assess likely changes in regional and local lamprey habitat and distribution due to climate change and manage adaptively. Initial focus should address effects of temperature and flow changes on mainstem adult and juvenile/larva passage and effects of these changes on larvae in Key Index Survey Sites. Responsible Parties are federal agencies, including the Corps, USFWS, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Reclamation and Bureau of Land Management.
15. Preserve Traditional Ecological Knowledge related to lamprey and restore intergenerational lamprey culture. Through partnerships, develop a comprehensive outreach program that helps educate a variety of audiences, including students, the general public, agency staff, managers, as well as state and federal legislators.
16. Initiate, identify, maintain, and expand baseline population monitoring at key index sites in each RMU using genetic and population monitoring (quantification of key life stages). Tribes, USFWS, PLCI, All Parties 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 PLCI RMUs 5.9, 5.2
17. Develop and adopt a life-cycle model (for prediction of population dynamics) and a regional species distribution model (for intrinsic habitat potential) that can be used to evaluate passage requirements at various dams and assess restoration progress from other (completed or proposed) actions at various temporal or geographic scales.
18. Initiate and develop an Adaptive Management process, including a Status and Trend Annual Report, for the CRB according to the framework identified in Section 6.3
Responsibility for the last actions goes to all parties.
In addition, the recovery plan says, what lamprey that are in the river are exposed to and contaminated with PCBs, mercury and other toxins, both in freshwater and in their ocean phases, the plan says.
As the plan explains, “The water is no longer clean. Once mercury and PCBs get into the water they get consumed by bacteria, insect, and other small organisms that fish eat. When fish eat these organisms, the contaminants are absorbed into the fish’s flesh and fat rather than passing out of the fish as waste. Over time, the amount builds up to toxic levels. The bigger and older a fish is, the more likely it is to have eaten lots of smaller, contaminated organisms. Since lamprey feed off those larger and older fish, they are exposed to a much higher concentration of contaminants.
“Yes, we may have a few more lamprey to harvest now than in 2011, but due to an existing consumption advisory many members of our community will not eat them in traditional quantities.
The CRITFC Lamprey Consumption Advisory, October 5, 2022 is here: https://critfc.org/2022/10/05/lamprey-advisory/
A news release from CRITFC about Pacific lamprey history and cultural significance is here: https://critfc.org/2025/06/17/tribal-pacific-lamprey-restoration-plan-updated-by-tribes-critfc/
For background, see:
— CBB, March 15, 2025, WORK CONTINUES TO IMPROVE LAMPREY PASSAGE AT COLUMBIA/SNAKE DAMS, CORP COMPLETING CHANGES TO BONNEVILLE DAM FISH LADDER, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/WORK-CONTINUES-TO-IMPROVE-LAMPREY-PASSAGE-AT-COLUMBIA-SNAKE-DAMS-CORP-COMPLETING-CHANGES-TO-BONNEVILLE-DAM-FISH-LADDER/
— CBB, September 26, 2024, LAMPREY RETURNS TO COLUMBIA RIVER ‘DISAPPOINTING’ THIS YEAR; EFFORTS CONTINUE TO BOOST NUMBERS, INCLUDING TRANSLOCATION TO TRIBUTARIES, BETTER DAM PASSAGE, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/LAMPREY-RETURNS-TO-COLUMBIA-RIVER-DISAPPOINTING-THIS-YEAR-EFFORTS-CONTINUE-TO-BOOST-NUMBERS-INCLUDING-TRANSLOCATION-TO-TRIBUTARIES-BETTER-DAM-PASSAGE/
— CBB, September 29, 2023, THOUGH FAR BELOW HISTORICAL RETURNS, IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS THIS YEAR FOR PACIFIC LAMPREY PASSING COLUMBIA/SNAKE RIVER DAMS, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/THOUGH-FAR-BELOW-HISTORICAL-RETURNS-IMPRESSIVE-NUMBERS-THIS-YEAR-FOR-PACIFIC-LAMPREY-PASSING-COLUMBIA-SNAKE-RIVER-DAMS/
— CBB, April 27, 2023, STUDY OFFERS FIRST DIRECT EVIDENCE THAT TRANSLOCATING IMPERILED PACIFIC LAMPREY FROM LOWER COLUMBIA TO INTERIOR INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY, HTTPS://CBBULLETIN.COM/STUDY-OFFERS-FIRST-DIRECT-EVIDENCE-THAT-TRANSLOCATING-IMPERILED-PACIFIC-LAMPREY-FROM-LOWER-COLUMBIA-TO-INTERIOR-INCREASED-PRODUCTIVITY/
— CBB, Sept. 16, 2021, YAKAMA NATION’S TRANSLOCATION OF PACIFIC LAMPREY FROM BONNEVILLE DAM, ALONG WITH HATCHERY OUTPLANTINGS, SHOWING RESULTS IN YAKIMA RIVER BASIN, https://cbbulletin.com/yakama-nations-translocation-of-pacific-lamprey-from-bonneville-dam-along-with-hatchery-outplantings-showing-results-in-yakima-river-basin/
— CBB, May 14, 2021, RETURN OF COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN PACIFIC LAMPREY: TRIBES’ RESTORATION PLAN FOCUSES ON HATCHERY, TRANSLOCATION, GENETICS, https://cbbulletin.com/return-of-columbia-river-basin-pacific-lamprey-tribes-restoration-plan-focuses-on-hatchery-translocation-genetics/
— CBB, August 7, 2020, “Study Brings Forth Important New Information About Pacific Lamprey Life History Traits, Focus On Adult Body Size, Maturity,” https://cbbulletin.com/study-brings-forth-important-new-information-about-pacific-lamprey-life-history-traits-focus-on-adult-body-size-maturity/
The eastern North Pacific population of gray whales that migrates along the West Coast of the United States has continued to decline, with reproduction remaining very low. Two new Technical Memorandums from NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center report the estimated population size and calf productivity in 2025.
The initial population estimate of gray whales, following an Unusual Mortality Event that ended in late 2023, suggested that their numbers may have begun to rebound last year. However, the most recent count from winter 2025 instead reveals a continuing decline. The new count estimates an abundance of about 13,000 gray whales, the lowest since the 1970s.
Only about 85 gray whale calves migrated past Central California on their way to feeding grounds in the Arctic earlier this year. That’s the lowest number since records began in 1994. Low calf numbers since 2019 indicate that reproduction has remained too low for the population to rebound.
The estimates are based on models that combine visual sightings from NOAA Fisheries research posts in Central California with assumptions about how the whales migrate. The assumptions create some margin for error, but the models indicate that in 2025 the population is most likely between 11,700 and 14,500. They indicate the number of calves produced was between 56 and 294.
The annual estimates are most valuable in revealing population trends over time rather than pinpointing the number of whales or calves in a given year, scientists said.
Scientists attributed the Unusual Mortality Event from 2019 to 2023 to localized ecosystem changes that affected the Subarctic and Arctic feeding grounds. Most gray whales rely on prey in this region for energy to complete their 10,000-mile round-trip migration each year. The changes contributed to malnutrition, reduced birth rates, and increased mortality. Related research has linked fluctuations in the gray whale population to the availability of prey in its summer feeding grounds in the Arctic.
The gray whale population has proved resilient in the past, often rebounding quickly from downturns such as an earlier UME from 1999 to 2000. That makes the ongoing decline in abundance and reproduction following the more recent UME stand out, said David Weller, director of the Marine Mammal and Turtle Division at the Science Center and an authority on gray whales.
“These whales depend, over the course of their lives, on a complex marine environment that is highly dynamic, and we expect the population to be resilient to that over time,” he said. “The most recent Unusual Mortality Event was much longer than the previous one from 1999 to 2000. The environment may now be changing at a pace or in ways that is testing the time-honored ability of the population to rapidly rebound while it adjusts to a new ecological regime.”
Researchers in Mexico reported numerous dead gray whales early this year in and around coastal lagoons. Females nurse their calves in these lagoons in winter before beginning their migration north to the Arctic each spring. They also reported few gray whale calves, suggesting that many female whales may not be finding enough food in the Arctic to reproduce.
So far this year, 47 gray whales have stranded dead on the U.S. West Coast, up from 31 last year and 44 in 2023, the last year of the UME. While some of the stranded whales appeared skinny or emaciated, others did not.
The reduced abundance and calf count underscore the value of long-term monitoring in detecting trends, said Aimée Lang, a research scientist who helps lead the gray whale counts. A decade ago the eastern North Pacific gray whale population was a conservation success story, having recovered from commercial whaling and nearing all-time highs of 27,000 whales. NOAA Fisheries determined in 1994 that the species had fully recovered and no longer needed protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Today, however, the ongoing decline has scientists both puzzled and concerned. Ecosystem changes in the Arctic feeding areas the whales depend on to put on weight and maintain fitness are likely the root cause, Weller said.
The gray whale migration between Mexico and the Arctic crosses the California Current ecosystem and Arctic ecosystem. These areas have both experienced unpredictable changes in recent decades. “Certainly the whales are feeling that too, but may not be able to respond in ways that resemble those of the past,” Weller said.
Six of fourteen salmon and steelhead species in the state of Washington that are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act are showing modest improvement. However, according to the 2024 State of Salmon report by the Washington Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office, eight species are still struggling and face extinction.
Four species have improved since the previous bi-annual report released by Washington in 2022, but one species – middle Columbia River steelhead – have declined. Even with some improvement over the past two years, salmon and steelhead continue to face challenges that are exacerbated by climate change, a Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office news release says. Those challenges include loss of habitat, waters that are too warm and more wildfires that destroy shade-providing trees on riverbanks.
“Salmon are critical to our economy and way of life,” said Megan Duffy, director of the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, which staffs the Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office. “They support our commercial and recreational fishing industry. They are food for other animals including endangered Southern Resident orcas. They are key to Tribal culture and treaty rights and they support many tourist communities. It is encouraging to see there is progress but the number of salmon populations still struggling reminds us that now is not the time to let up. We must continue investing in saving salmon so we all may benefit.”
The 2024 “State of Salmon in Watersheds Executive Summary” is here: https://stateofsalmon.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ExecSummary-2024.pdf. A state of the salmon website is here: https://stateofsalmon.wa.gov/
Salmon populations in Washington have been declining for generations. As Washington grew, many places where salmon live were altered or destroyed. In 1991, the federal government declared the first species of salmon in the Pacific Northwest as endangered. By the end of that decade, salmon and steelhead listings covered three-quarters of the state, the news release says.
“Salmon face many challenges throughout their lives,” said Erik Neatherlin, director of the Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office. “Climate change causes more flooding that flushes young salmon downstream before they are ready. It is warming the ocean, which also is becoming more acidic. And when salmon return home, they face rivers that are too warm and don’t have enough water. The restoration projects happening all around the state are an essential piece of the puzzle for reversing these trends.”
The report says that while too many of the state’s salmon and steelhead species are still in crisis, there are signs of modest improvements among some of the species.
“This is good news and suggests that progress is possible. The question is whether these modest improvements can be sustained for those species and whether progress is possible for other species in the state,” the report says.
Species that have changed their status since the 2022 report are:
On the positive side, three species are approaching their abundance goals, including Hood Canal summer chum, Snake River Fall Chinook and lower Columbia River coho, according to the report.
Also three species that the report says are making progress include Columbia River chum, lower Columbia River steelhead and upper Columbia River steelhead.
However, Snake River basin steelhead, lower Columbia River Chinook and upper Columbia River spring Chinook, according to the report are not keeping pace.
The five species most in trouble, which the report lists as in crisis, are Snake River spring/summer Chinook, Puget Sound Chinook, Lake Ozette Sockeye, Middle Columbia River steelhead and Puget Sound steelhead.
At stake are the economy, recreation and treaties, the report says.
“Tribes co-manage the state’s salmon with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and work with the federal government to set fishing seasons,” the report says. “Tribes are foundational for salmon recovery in Washington. Tribes have thousands of years of knowledge, expertise, and insight into salmon stewardship. They have led salmon recovery efforts throughout the state, serve on salmon recovery boards, and work with partners to advance recovery priorities. Tribes have led many of the largest restoration efforts in the state. And Tribes employ a range of scientists and policy staff who advocate for salmon recovery, lead planning and implementation efforts, and monitor progress toward recovery.”
“Habitat protection and restoration is one of the most important factors for salmon recovery,” the report says. “Salmon need cool, clean rivers and streams, estuaries (where rivers meet saltwater), and healthy oceans through the different stages of their lives.”
However, Washington habitat has been degraded by humans in the past 150 years due to straightened streams and cleared logs and root wads (which biologists later discovered were important habitat for salmon). In addition, people built roads, levees and ditches that disconnected rivers and floodplains.
To rebuild salmon and steelhead runs to healthy and harvestable salmon populations requires funding. A 2011 study estimated the state-wide cost of habitat improvements identified in the regional salmon recovery plan at $4.7 billion. Since the estimate was made, some $2.1 billion has been spent, but funding is lagging behind what is needed, the report says.
Challenges to this effort are climate change, quantity and quality of water, pollutants, fish passage barriers, predation by pinnipeds, birds and fish, harvest, hydropower and hatcheries, but significant improvements have been accomplished in these areas. Between 2005 and 2024 the state and its partners have corrected 3,866 fish passage barriers, some 39,447 riparian acres have been restored, 5,102 miles of stream have been made accessible to salmon and steelhead, 13,918 acres of estuaries and near-shore areas have been restored and 3,443 miles of riparian shoreline have been restored.
For background, see:
— CBB, January 13, 2023, WASHINGTON STATE OF SALMON REPORT: ‘TOO MANY SALMON REMAIN ON BRINK OF EXTINCTION, TIME RUNNING OUT’, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/WASHINGTON-STATE-OF-SALMON-REPORT-TOO-MANY-SALMON-REMAIN-ON-BRINK-OF-EXTINCTION-TIME-RUNNING-OUT/
— CBB, January 15, 2021, WASHINGTON STATE SALMON RECOVERY REPORT: MOST POPULATIONS NOT MAKING PROGRESS, SOME ON PATH TO EXTINCTION, HTTPS://CBBULLETIN.COM/WASHINGTON-STATE-SALMON-RECOVERY-REPORT-MOST-POPULATIONS-NOT-MAKING-PROGRESS-SOME-ON-
Higher flows from Libby Dam designed to encourage endangered white sturgeon to move up into spawning areas on the Kootenai River downstream in Idaho and British Columbia began last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced.
The Wild Fish Conservancy filed a lawsuit this month in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. in an effort to speed up NOAA Fisheries’ review of the Washington-based conservation group’s proposal to list Chinook salmon in Alaska under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The group said in a news release that NOAA is failing to meet an essential legal guideline under the ESA and delaying the federal protections a listed species would have, in this case “at-risk Alaskan Chinook salmon.”
The Conservancy formally petitioned NOAA on Jan. 11, 2024, nearly one-and-a-half years ago, to list the fish and to grant it federal protection under the ESA in rivers that flow into the Gulf of Alaska.
NOAA issued a finding May 24, 2024 that the petition filed by the Conservancy contained substantial information indicating that federal listing and protection could be warranted. According to the group, that triggered a review at NOAA that should have been completed by Jan. 11, 2025.
“It should not take a lawsuit to make the federal government uphold its legal responsibility, but with the crisis facing Alaskan Chinook, we are out of time and options,” said Emma Helverson, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy. “The Endangered Species Act sets clear deadlines for a reason, to evaluate the risk of extinction and trigger action while recovery is still possible. By ignoring those deadlines, NOAA isn’t just breaking the law—it’s perpetuating the collapse of Alaskan Chinook and threatening the ecosystems and communities that depend on them.”
Under the ESA, NOAA had 12-months, until Jan. 11, 2025, to review the data on Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon and determine whether ‘threatened’ or ‘endangered’ status is warranted, according to the group.
Once abundant, wild Chinook are experiencing chronic declines throughout the streams that flow into the Gulf of Alaska, threatening the health of ecosystems, indigenous cultural practices and food security, local economies, and communities that all depend on wild salmon, the Conservancy said.
The Conservancy said that data from the state of Alaska demonstrates persistent declines in Chinook abundance, size, age, diversity, and spatial structure.
“Many are surprised to learn some Alaskan Chinook populations are in even worse condition than other Pacific Northwest populations already listed under the ESA,” the Conservancy said.
Those threats include overfishing, bycatch in trawl fisheries, hatchery impacts, habitat degradation and climate change. Alaska has already recognized many of these stocks as ‘species of concern’ over the last decade, due to their continued decline in the face of the state’s attempted regulatory actions.
“Alaska’s leadership insists it’s taking aggressive steps to recover Chinook and that those efforts are proving successful, but the state’s own data shows this couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Helverson.
“We’ve heard directly from Alaskan fishers, Indigenous individuals, and the general public who depend on Gulf of Alaska Chinook who are frustrated by the state’s false narrative and inaction. These individuals expressed relief and optimism in the ESA process, not only for its comprehensive review, but also for the tangible actions and increased resources it can bring to begin rebuilding populations.”
According to the Conservancy in its January 2024 petition to list, the petition “encompasses all Chinook populations that enter the marine environment of the Gulf of Alaska.” It “includes all populations on the southern side of the Aleutian Peninsula, Cook Inlet, and the coast of Alaska south of Cook Inlet to the southern end of the Alaska/British Columbia border.”
NOAA Fisheries said at the time that it interpreted the request as asking to consider populations of Chinook salmon on:
In many cases, the number of Chinook salmon officials forecast to return are well below the minimum number of fish needed to reproduce at a rate to simply replace themselves, let alone to recover prior abundance, the Conservancy said.
“Compounding the problem, actual returns frequently fall even lower than predicted by the state– a fact that doesn’t become known until after management decisions have already been made,” it said. “Over time, steadily declining returns have resulted in consecutive years of emergency fishery closures for in-river commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries, including for indigenous communities. Meanwhile, Alaska’s government continues to authorize large-scale commercial ocean fisheries to harvest or kill as bycatch Chinook from these same populations; threats identified in the petition.”
It continued, saying that the Kenai River, world-renowned for its Chinook salmon, is at a historic low. In 2024, the early-season count was just 1,365 fish returning, which is the fifth consecutive year of missed forecasts. The late-season numbers were equally concerning, with only 6,930 Chinook returning, far lower than the historical average of about 28,000 Chinook over the last four decades. And, the Conservancy says, the oldest and largest of the (age-7) salmon have failed to appear the last three years.
On the west side of Kodiak Island in the Karluk River, goals to maintain the population require at least 3,000 Chinook to return annually. In 2024 just 76 returned to spawn.
The Ayakulik River, the largest river system on the island, saw only 354 Chinook return to spawn, just 7 percent of the river’s population goal of 4,800 fish.
“Government officials, seafood certifiers, and the fishing industry continue to assure the public that Alaska’s Chinook are well managed, but the data tells a different story. This year, Chinook fisheries across the Gulf of Alaska are closed on an emergency basis, yet fisheries managers continue to stubbornly defend their position that the fish are not at risk of extinction.” said Conrad Gowell, a biologist with Wild Fish Conservancy and co-author of the petition. “The longer the federal government waits to release their findings and take appropriate action, the more severe the social, economic, and environmental consequences will be.”
NOAA has also failed to issue legally required final determinations on ESA listing petitions for Olympic Peninsula steelhead, Oregon and California coast Chinook and Washington coast Chinook, the Conservancy said.
The lawsuit asks that the court order NOAA to “promptly issue” its decision on the petition.
As reported by Nathaniel Herz in the Northern Journal (www.northernjournal.com) in Anchorage, AK, Doug Vincent-Lang, Alaska Fish and Game commissioner, said the state agency has opposed the Conservancy’s proposal, but adding that NOAA Fisheries is “working through the process.”
“I understand they’re getting closer to a decision,” he told the Northern Journal. “I’d much rather have them take their time and have a deliberative process than to rush to a decision because of a statutory timeline.”
The Conservancy’s May 8 complaint is at https://wildfishconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/001.0.complaint.pdf
The Conservancy’s Jan. 2024 petition to list Alaska Chinook salmon is here: https://wildfishconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Petition-to-List-Alaskan-Chinook-Salmon-under-ESA_Final.pdf
For background, see:
— CBB, Jan. 18, 2024, GROUP PETITIONS NOAA FISHERIES TO LIST ALASKA CHINOOK SALMON UNDER ESA; STATE SAYS ‘TARGETED ATTACK’ ON ALASKA https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/group-petitions-noaa-fisheries-to-list-alaska-chinook-salmon-under-esa-state-says-targeted-attack-on-alaska/
— CBB, May 3, 2024, NOAA Fisheries Finds ESA Listing Of Gulf Of Alaska Chinook May Be Warranted, https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/noaa-fisheries-finds-esa-listing-of-gulf-of-alaska-chinook-may-be-warranted/
President Donald Trump, in an April proposed rule, has directed the Secretary of Commerce, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to rescind the long-standing definition of “harm” to species covered by the federal Endangered Species Act. The existing definition of harm as the ESA is currently written, the Administration says, is contrary to the “best meaning” of the term “take.”
The proposal, in essence, says that habitat modification should not be considered harm because it is not the same as intentionally targeting a species, called “take.”
Environmentalists say that the definition of “take” has always included actions that harm species, and the definition of “harm” has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“There’s just no way to protect animals and plants from extinction without protecting the places they live, yet the Trump administration is opening the flood gates to immeasurable habitat destruction,” said Noah Greenwald, co-director of endangered species at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This administration’s greed and contempt for imperiled wildlife know no bounds, but most Americans know that we destroy the natural world at our own peril. Nobody voted to drive spotted owls, Florida panthers or grizzly bears to extinction.”
The ESA prohibits “take” of endangered species by any person, including individuals, government entities and corporations, the Center wrote in a news release. Take has been defined to include actions that “harm” endangered species through “significant habitat modification or degradation.”
The Administration’s proposal would fully rescind this definition, the Center wrote. That would open “the door for industries of all kinds to destroy the natural world and drive species to extinction in the process.”
While the proposed rule could drastically change how habitat protections are considered for threatened and endangered species listed under the ESA, according to the Center, an April 17 Federal Register posting of the proposal says that the Administration is simply adhering to the meaning of the ESA.
“The existing regulatory definition of ‘harm,’ which includes habitat modification, runs contrary to the best meaning of the statutory term ‘take.’ We are undertaking this change to adhere to the single, best meaning of the ESA,” an April 17 Federal Register posting says (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/17/2025-06746/rescinding-the-definition-of-harm-under-the-endangered-species-act).
The Federal Register posting seeks public comment on Trump’s April 15 proposal. Comments are due by May 19. If the proposal is finalized, the Administration plans to take the next step and submit an Executive Order to solidify the proposal.
“The ESA itself defines “take,” and further elaborating on one subcomponent of that definition “harm”—is unnecessary in light of the comprehensive statutory definition,” the Federal Register says.
The ESA was passed by Congress in 1973, designating two agencies to share the responsibility for administering the law: Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries).
Habitat destruction is the biggest cause of extinction and this definition of harm has been pivotal to protecting and recovering endangered species, the Center wrote.
“It was upheld in the Supreme Court case Babbitt v. Sweet Home – 515 U.S. 687 (1995). The inclusion of habitat destruction in the prohibition on take has been critical to saving species. It’s a key difference between the federal Endangered Species Act and almost all state endangered species laws.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_v._Sweet_Home_Chapter_of_Communities_for_a_Great_Oregon)
“Without a prohibition on habitat destruction, spotted owls, sea turtles, salmon and so many more imperiled animals won’t stand a chance,” said Greenwald. “Trump is trying to drive a knife through the heart of the Endangered Species Act. We refuse to let him wipe out America’s imperiled wildlife, and I believe the courts won’t allow this radical assault on conservation.”
A report by the Center called “Trump’s Extinction Proposal,” says that “The proposal has profound, life-altering implications for endangered animals in the United States that are currently protected under the Endangered Species Act” (https://biologicaldiversity.org/publications/papers/Trumps-Extinction-Proposal.pdf).
“Habitat loss is a key driver of extinctions around the globe and in the United States. The protection of habitat has therefore been a crucial element in preventing extinction for species protected under the Act,” the Center’s report says.
According to the report, the ESA prohibits “take” of endangered species by individuals, government entities and corporations. Take has been defined to include actions that “harm” endangered species through “significant habitat modification or degradation.”
“This definition of harm has been pivotal to protecting and recovering endangered species and preventing the destruction of their most important habitat,” the report says. “It was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995. The Trump administration’s extinction proposal would fully rescind this definition, opening the door for industries to mine, log, bulldoze, drain, pollute and otherwise destroy habitat that’s fundamental to the survival of endangered species.”
The Center’s report lists 10 species at risk of extinction due to the Executive Order and one of those species is Chinook salmon.
Nine populations of Chinook salmon are protected under the ESA. Salmon have declined in numbers since the 1800s from habitat destruction, such as “indiscriminate logging, development, dams, river diversion and dramatic reductions in coastal wetlands,” the report says. “The Snake River once supported Chinook runs of half a million fish each autumn but this once-mighty population had a run of only 78 fish in 1990 and remains at less than 10% of its historic numbers today.”
Salmon rely on clear, cool water and connected habitat for them to complete their juvenile and adult migration, but under Trump’s proposed rule, salmon will no longer be protected, says the Center.
“The Trump administration is threatening the survival of some of America’s most iconic animals with this devastating habitat proposal,” Greenwald said. “You simply can’t protect species without protecting the places they live, and Trump’s radical plan might be the end of the Florida panther or the spotted owl. It’s incredibly sad and disturbing to see this administration pressing fast-forward on the extinction crisis.”
According to the Environment and Energy Law Program at Harvard University this matters because, while the ESA provides protections for threatened and endangered species, the level of protection given to each species and the number of species protected depends on how agencies interpret the Act and apply it through regulations. Those regulations, the Harvard Program says, contain detailed definitions and the steps that federal agencies need to take to apply the protections in the Act to species and their habitats. “The regulations are the ‘how-to’ guide that upholds the purpose of the Endangered Species Act, ‘to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend,’” it says.
In an Environmental Law blog, The National Law Review says that Section 9 of the ESA prohibits the “take” of any endangered species.
Under the ESA, “take” means to “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, collect, or attempt to engage in any such conduct.” Existing regulations further define “harm” as “an act that actually kills or injures fish or wildlife … [including] significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering,” the Review says.
Trump, through NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is proposing “to eliminate the regulatory definition of “harm,” leaving only the statutory definition of “take,” which the Services said they interpret as prohibiting only affirmative acts that are intentionally directed toward particular members of a listed wildlife species,” the Law Review says. “Actions that could indirectly harm listed wildlife by modifying their habitat would no longer be prohibited by the ESA, removing a significant source of potential liability for projects that involve clearing, grading, vegetation removal and similar activities.
“While effects on listed species’ habitat still could trigger a federal agency’s obligation to consult with the Services under Section 7 of the ESA, many projects lacking a federal “handle” such as a federal approval or funding, likely would be able to forgo seeking ESA authorization,” the Law Review concludes.
Recreational harvest of eulachon smelt on Oregon’s Sandy River took place Thursday, March 27 from noon to 7 p.m.
A recent study brings to light the dangers of a little-known life stage in which spring Chinook salmon in the Columbia River basin generally incur high mortality – incubation in the gravel.
Tribal and Washington fishery managers are doubling down on recovering threatened spring Chinook salmon in the Tucannon River in Eastern Washington by raising juveniles originating from the river at a hatchery 300 miles downstream.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of revamping the dam’s northern-most fish ladder near the Washington shore at a cost of some $8 million. According to the Corps, the project is changing out a portion of the fish ladder, which spans 800 feet from top to bottom, that was originally a serpentine passage of concrete walls, called baffles, with a newer baffle design more friendly to lamprey.
Salmon are swimming again in California’s North Yuba River for the first time in close to a century. The fish are part of an innovative pilot project to study the feasibility of returning spring-run Chinook salmon to their historical spawning and rearing habitat in the mountains of Sierra County.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife reports that the state currently has seven known wolf families amid changing pack dynamics and areas of new wolf activity. California now has around 50 known wolves, according to the state wolf coordinator — up from around 49 at the end of 2023. That modest increase comes despite…
Western Washington’s Olympic Peninsula summer and winter steelhead were found by NOAA Fisheries in November 2024 to be at moderate risk of extinction, but the federal agency has yet to list the fish as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, according to a new complaint filed Jan. 17 in federal court by The Conservation Angler and the Wild Fish Conservancy.
A record number of threatened chum salmon passed Bonneville Dam late in 2024, with over 1,100 of the salmon passing the dam on their way upstream, the largest passage by chum at the dam since 1954. These are in addition to the chum that spawn annually downstream near the dam’s tailrace and are the subjects of an effort to restore the Columbia River run that at one time was near 1 million fish.
Citing new information and changed circumstances, two federal agencies are reopening this week their 2020 final environmental impact study for operations at 14 Columbia/Snake river federal hydroelectric dams and are now seeking public input. The final EIS guides the dams’ impacts on salmon and steelhead listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Three federal agencies — U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration – had issued in 2020 the Columbia River System Operations (CRSO) Final Environmental Impact Statement that addressed the ongoing operations, maintenance and configuration at the 14 multiple purpose dams. While not recommending breaching the four lower Snake River dams, the 2020 FEIS laid the groundwork if breaching was decided on later.
Piggy-backing on the FEIS, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at the same time completed biological opinions of the dam operations and their impact on fish and wildlife.
This week, two of the federal agencies – the Corps and BOR – said they are preparing a supplemental EIS to address environmental effects from proposed changes to the selected alternative in the CRSO EIS. BPA has not elected to serve as a co-lead agency for this SEIS and has instead expressed interest in participating as a cooperating agency, a Federal Register Notice says.
The Dec. 18 Federal Register Notice is here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/12/18/2024-29936/notice-of-intent-to-prepare-a-supplemental-environmental-impact-statement-seis-for-the-columbia
“At least four Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead stocks have already gone extinct and 13 others — including all four remaining Snake River stocks — are listed under the Endangered Species Act. We must have a strong study and plan based on the best available science that will ensure restoration of imperiled native fish populations to healthy and harvestable levels,” said Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association Policy Director Liz Hamilton. “Revising this study is the logical next step toward meaningful change that complies with the law and the needs of the fish.”
As part of scoping, the co-lead agencies will seek input from the public to inform the supplemental EIS as they recognize the need for additional collaborative dialogue about the system, the Federal Register says. The agencies will take public comment for 90 days through March 20,2025.
Earthjustice said the 2020 CRSO EIS was flawed and that revising it “should lead to changes in the Columbia Basin that would help prevent extinction and restore imperiled salmon and steelhead populations to healthy and harvestable abundance.” Since 2001, Earthjustice attorneys have successfully fought the federal agencies in court on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation and others and forced the agencies to redo both their EIS and NOAA Fisheries’ and the U.S. Wildlife Service’s BiOps.
“The 2020 EIS and Record of Decision continued the flawed and failed results of previous plans,” said Sierra Club’s Snake/Columbia River Salmon Campaign Director Bill Arthur. “We appreciate the decision to do a supplemental process to address these flaws and evaluate stronger measures in how we operate the hydropower system including breaching the lower Snake River dams. Extinction is not an option and that is the trajectory we are on without stronger actions.”
Not all groups agree that the federal agencies should take another look at their 2020 EIS. The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association said that a new National Environmental Policy Act analysis would be premature and unlawful and warned that “it would be incomplete and could mislead the public about these dams’ vital role in supporting the region’s economy and environment.”
PNWA said that any supplemental NEPA analysis would be fundamentally flawed and misleading.
“There are significant concerns regarding the Co-Lead Agencies’ proposal to base the analysis on interim reports from the 12/14 Agreement studies and unscientific policy documents, which lack conclusive findings. Relying on these incomplete studies undermines the integrity of the NEPA process and risks rendering the Final NEPA document unlawful, as NEPA is designed to promote informed decision-making,” the group said.
Further, PNWA said that the review could lead to breaching the lower Snake River dams that “serve as the largest source of affordable, reliable, clean energy for millions of people in the region while also providing world-class, clean river transportation for the regions and nation’s economies.”
The 2020 study, PNWA said, “concluded that federal hydropower dams and locks are essential to maintaining affordable electric rates, reliable energy service to homes and businesses, and lower carbon emissions. Hydropower is the largest source of affordable, renewable, dispatchable generation in the Pacific Northwest.”
Furthermore, the 2020 CRSO EIS is “just four years old and cost regional electric customers more than $55 million and considered more than 400,000 comments before concluding that our hydropower dams need to stay in place,” the group said.
PNWA is a diverse group of power, navigation, and agricultural users in the Northwest
The Corps and BOR recently made the decision to supplement the 2020 CRSO EIS after a review process that considered available facts and input from Tribal partners, stakeholders, and federal and state agencies in fall 2024, a Dec. 18 Corps news release said. After this review, the co-lead agencies determined that initiating a supplemental EIS was appropriate to evaluate the updated and changed circumstances that include, but are not limited to:
— Changes to operations, maintenance, and configuration of the 14 projects that make up the Columbia River System;
— New species that have been listed or proposed for listing under the ESA (e.g., Wolverine);
— Relevant U.S. government commitments, new reports, studies, or other information published since the CRSO EIS was completed, such as the Department of the Interior’s report, Historic and Ongoing Impacts of Federal Dams on the Columbia River Basin Tribes.
— And, anticipated changes in Columbia River inflows to the U.S. from Canada and operational effects in the U.S. related to the modernization of the Columbia River Treaty.
“With respect to the latter, the Columbia River’s flow at the U.S.-Canada border is affected by how Canada operates storage reservoirs in its portion of the basin,” the Federal Register says. “Canada’s reservoir operations are affected in part by how the Columbia River Treaty operations are managed for flood risk management, hydropower generation, and ecosystem purposes in coordination with the United States.”
The CRSO EIS used 2016 Columbia River Treaty operations data as the best-available information. However, certain terms of the Columbia River Treaty regarding preplanned flood risk management changed on Sept. 16, 2024, and the countries have been negotiating modernized provisions of the Treaty to address these changes, along with updates to hydropower coordination, the inclusion of ecosystem purposes, and increased Canadian flexibility.
“The existing Treaty’s changes in flood risk management along with expected updates from the modernization process may lead to changed flows across the border from Canada that vary from the assumptions and effects contemplated in the 2020 CRSO EIS under certain hydrological conditions,” the Federal Register says.
The supplemental process will be focused on addressing “potentially substantial changes to the Selected Alternative, reviewing potentially substantial new circumstances and information that arose or became available after completion of the CRSO EIS, and preparing a SEIS,” the Federal Register says. “The SEIS will evaluate potential benefits and impacts of changes made to the Selected Alternative including direct, indirect, and cumulative effects to the human and natural environments.”
The full scope of the supplemental EIS is ambitious. It will include re-evaluating river hydrology and hydraulics; water quality; aquatic habitat, invertebrates, and fish; vegetation, wetlands, wildlife, and floodplains; power generation and transmission; air quality and greenhouse gases; flood risk management; navigation and transportation; recreation; water supply; visual and noise resources; fisheries and passive use; cultural resources; Indian trust assets, tribal perspectives, and tribal interests; environmental justice; and implementation and system costs.
“It’s clearer than ever that we need a major course change, with new information showing many salmon populations in the basin hovering near extinction,” said Earthjustice Senior Attorney Amanda Goodin. “The information available now provides us with all we need to chart a successful path forward. We know we can avoid extinction and rebuild salmon and native fisheries to a healthy and harvestable abundance if we commit to the centerpiece actions they need, including breaching the four lower Snake River dams and replacing their services. We also know we have no time to lose.”
Twelve of the 14 federal Columbia River basin dams are authorized for multiple purposes, including flood risk management, power generation, navigation, fish and wildlife conservation, recreation, and municipal and industrial water supply. Libby, Albeni Falls, Dworshak, Chief Joseph, Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, Ice Harbor, McNary, John Day, The Dalles, and Bonneville dams fall into this category. The other two dams – Grand Coulee and Hungry Horse – are authorized for flood risk management, power generation, navigation and irrigation.
In 2020, the Corps, Reclamation, and Bonneville completed the CRSO EIS and signed a Record of Decision selecting their preferred alternative identified in that EIS, the Federal Register says. Afterwards, multiple parties filed legal challenges to the CRSO EIS and ROD, as well as to the BiOps released at the same time.
Plaintiffs in the legal challenge are American Rivers, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute For Fisheries Resources, Sierra Club, Idaho Rivers United, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, NW Energy Coalition, National Wildlife Federation, Columbia Riverkeeper, Idaho Conservation League the state of Oregon and the Spokane Tribe of Indians.
The litigation in the federal District Court of Oregon challenging the CRSO EIS and BiOps has been stayed or administratively terminated since 2021, allowing the U.S. government, including the Corps, BOR, BPA, FWS and NOAA to engage in mediated discussions, the Federal Register says.
Those discussions were with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, and the Spokane Tribe of Indians as well as Oregon, Washington, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Nez Perce Tribe, local governments, stakeholder groups, and nongovernmental organizations.
The outcome of these discussions was a Memorandum of Understanding (now known as the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement) with Oregon, Washington, Columbia River tribes (together the Six Sovereigns) and the National Wildlife Federation plaintiffs. The RCBA provides for a stay of litigation on the CRSO EIS ROD and related biological opinions for up to 10 years and includes agreed upon operations at Columbia River dams. Earthjustice calls the RCBA a “comprehensive plan to restore the basin’s native fisheries.”
It also includes commitments by the U.S. “to carry out certain analyses related to regional energy needs, Tribal circumstances, water supply replacement, transportation infrastructure, and recreation and public access, as well as commitments on a series of actions to improve conditions for native fish species,” the Federal Register says. “As part of the RCBA, and consistent with Corps’, Reclamation’s, and Bonneville’s ongoing responsibilities under NEPA, the USG committed to reviewing existing environmental compliance documents and initiating any supplemental or additional environmental compliance determined to be necessary in fall of 2024.”
While the co-lead agencies prepare the supplemental EIS, they will continue to operate the Columbia River hydro system to meet their authorized purposes.
More information is at www.nwd.usace.army.mil/columbiariver.
To complete a supplemental EIS, the co-lead agencies need input and invite federal and state agencies, Native American Tribes, local governments and the public to submit scoping comments relevant to the supplemental NEPA process no later than March 20, 2025. In addition, the agencies will hold at least three virtual public meetings the week of February 10, 2025. Details of those meetings will be posted on the project website early in the new year.
Written comments, requests to be placed on the project mailing list, and requests for information may be mailed by letter to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Northwestern Division Attn: CRSO SEIS, P.O. Box 2870, Portland, OR 97208-2870; or by email to columbiariver@usace.army.mil. All comment letters will be available via the project website at More information and instructions on comments will be at https://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/CRSO/. All comments and materials received, including names and addresses, will become part of the administrative record, and may be released to the public. Interested parties should not submit confidential business or otherwise sensitive or protected information.
For more information, contact:
Tim Fleeger, Columbia River Basin Policy and Environmental Coordinator, Northwestern Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 1 (800) 290-5033 or email columbiariver@usace.army.mil. Additional information can be found at the project website: https://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/CRSO/Final-EIS.
For background, see:
–CBB, June 21, 2024, Administration Report Describes Harm Of Dams To Columbia Basin Tribes, White House Sets Up Task Force To Coordinate Basin Salmon Recovery https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/administration-report-describes-harm-of-dams-to-columbia-basin-tribes-white-house-sets-up-task-force-to-coordinate-basin-salmon-recovery/
–CBB, Feb. 9, 2024, Federal Judge Approves Years-Long Pause On Basin Salmon Recovery Litigation So Parties Can Pursue Tribal-States-Feds Restoration Plan https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/federal-judge-approves-years-long-pause-on-basin-salmon-recovery-litigation-so-parties-can-pursue-tribal-states-feds-restoration-plan/
–CBB, Dec. 15, 2023, Biden Administration, Two States, Treaty Tribes Reach MOU On Columbia River Basin Salmon Recovery, Litigation Paused For At Least Five Years https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/biden-administration-two-states-treaty-tribes-reach-mou-on-columbia-river-basin-salmon-recovery-litigation-paused-for-at-least-five-years/
— CBB, July 15, 2022, White House Issues Reports On Basin Salmon Recovery, Costs; ‘Business As Usual’ Not Restoring ESA-Listed Salmon, Steelhead, https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/white-house-issues-reports-on-basin-salmon-recovery-costs-business-as-usual-not-restoring-esa-listed-salmon-steelhead/
— CBB, October 27, 2021, Federal Judge Approves Pause In Salmon/Steelhead EIS/BiOp Case; Parties ‘In Good Faith Discussions To Resolve Litigation’ https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/federal-judge-approves-pause-in-salmon-steelhead-eis-biop-case-parties-in-good-faith-discussions-to-resolve-litigation/
— CBB, October 22, 2021, Parties Put Salmon/Steelhead BiOp Litigation On Hold, Commit To Working Together To Find ‘Comprehensive, Long-Term Solution’ https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/parties-put-salmon-steelhead-biop-litigation-on-hold-commit-to-working-together-to-find-comprehensive-long-term-solution/
–CBB, February 5, 2021, “Conservation Groups File Complaint Against New Columbia River System Operations EIS, BiOp For Salmon, Steelhead,” https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/conservation-groups-file-complaint-against-new-columbia-river-system-operations-eis-biop-for-salmon-steelhead/
The average number of salmon and steelhead returning to the Columbia River each year has remained mostly constant over the last twenty years. While today’s returns of the fish have improved dramatically since the 1990s at a time when many of the species were being listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, today’s combined returns are still only half of the 2025 goal of 5 million fish set by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has published a final recovery plan for the Oregon spotted frog, a threatened species living in the Pacific Northwest. The plan provides a road map to help recover the frog so it can thrive and ultimately be delisted from the Endangered Species Act.
Recovery plans are not regulatory documents, and instead encourage cooperation among diverse stakeholders to carry out voluntary actions that conserve listed species and their ecosystems.
Oregon spotted frogs are impacted by several threats including the historic loss of wetland habitats and ongoing hydrological and vegetation changes to habitat, predation by invasive bullfrogs and nonnative fishes, small and isolated populations due to habitat fragmentation, and climate change.
Historically, Oregon spotted frogs were found across large expanses of wetland and aquatic habitat in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. The frog has lost more than 76% of its former range and has been extirpated from California. Currently, this species inhabits small portions of 16 hydrological sub-basins ranging from southwestern British Columbia south through the Puget Trough in Washington, and in the Cascade Range from south-central Washington to the Klamath Basin in southern Oregon.
The goal of the recovery plan is to have resilient Oregon spotted frog populations in the 16 hydrological sub-basins across the species’ current range. The recovery plan is designed to improve genetic diversity and increase frog numbers and distribution so that populations are resilient to adverse impacts.
“Although the plan focuses on the frog, implementing voluntary recovery actions will also benefit people and other listed and non-listed species that depend on wetland and aquatic ecosystems,” said Service Oregon Office state supervisor Kessina Lee.
Restoration of wetlands and other aquatic habitats allows more water to be held in the system, recharge groundwater, reduce flood risk, provide habitat to multiple aquatic species, and even serve as fire breaks.
The Oregon spotted frog has the most aquatic-dependent life history of any frog species in the Pacific Northwest. Appropriate timing and availability of water for this frog is critical since all life stages of the species are aquatic. Focused collaboration among private landowners, local municipalities, conservation organizations, businesses, Tribes, as well as other Federal and state agencies will be necessary to recover and ultimately delist this species.
The draft recovery plan was shared in March 2023 for public comment. The Service has reviewed and incorporated comments and new information into the final recovery plan, which is available at: https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/6633
Also see:
–CBB, Jan. 13, 2023, Conservationists To Sue Agencies Over Deschutes Habitat Conservation Plan, Say Won’t Protect ESA-Listed Oregon Spotted Frog
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is opening a 60-day public comment period on a proposed rule to list Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. This determination also serves as the 12-month finding on a petition to list the bee.
The Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee depends on other bee hosts for its survival and raising of young. It has been found in various habitat types including prairies, grasslands, meadows, woodlands and agricultural and urban areas. The bee has a broad historical distribution across North America and has been documented in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and 11 Canadian territories and provinces.
The last confirmed sighting in the United States was in 2016 in Oregon.
Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee is an important indicator species for the health of pollinators and native floral communities. In addition, this species’ parasitic nature is very unique among bees, with social parasites making up less than 1% of all bee species. They are different from brood parasites, which only attack the brood of their host, because social parasites rely on the entire colony. Female cuckoo bumble bees invade host bumble bee nests where they will often eliminate the host queen, destroy host eggs, and eject host larvae from the nest.
The viability of this bee is highly dependent on its host bumble bee species, many of which have declined historically, and are expected to continue to do so in the near term. Other major threats include pesticides, habitat fragmentation and conversion, and climate change.
The public comment period on the proposed rule opened Tuesday, December 17th, 2024 and closes Tuesday, February 18th, 2025. The proposed rule, supporting materials, and information on how to submit comments will be found at www.regulations.gov under Docket Number: FWS–R7–ES–2024–0117.
Above photo: New fish ladders on Alameda Creek in the Bay Area opened the upper reaches of the watershed to steelhead for the first time in nearly 50 years. Photo by Brian Meux/NOAA Fisheries.
NOAA Fisheries has completed 5-year status reviews of the recovery progress and prospects of four salmon and steelhead species in Northern California and Southern Oregon and found that all four should remain threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
They are the latest reviews completed for the 28 Pacific salmon and steelhead species listed under the ESA https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/endangered-species-conservation/report-card-recovery-reviews-assess-28-salmon-and. NOAA Fisheries is required to assess their status every 5 years.
The habitat of the species begins in the dense metropolis of the San Francisco Bay Area and the redwood forests of Northern California and Southern Oregon. It ranges north to the vast agricultural lands of the Central Valley and the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains. The four species are:
Habitat restoration has addressed major factors limiting all four species and helped prevent local extinction, says NOAA. Many challenges still stand in the path of species recovery. All four species suffer from historical habitat loss and degradation and the effects of climate change—drought, warming water temperatures, and increasing frequency and intensity of wildfire.
Each 5-year review describes recommended actions to address each factor limiting recovery. They include detailed lists of habitat restoration actions to pursue in each watershed.
“These reviews help us understand where we are making progress and where we need to focus more attention,” said Robert Markle, Branch Supervisor for Protected Resources in NOAA Fisheries Portland office. “While we have a lot more work to do to recover these species, this close look helps identify those actions that can make the biggest difference for the fish.”
Recent funding allocated by the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Law has supported the restoration of salmon and steelhead habitat across the West Coast. Many of these projects have been at a larger scale than has otherwise been possible. They are expected to improve the resilience of listed stocks to ongoing threats and advance their progress towards recovery and delisting, says the agency.
Following are summaries of the 5-year reviews of the four species.
Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast Coho Salmon
Status: Remains Threatened
Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast coho salmon range from California’s Mattole River in the south to Oregon’s Elk River in the north. Their range includes the entirety of the Eel, Klamath, and Rogue River basins. It includes some of the most ecologically diverse landscapes of the West Coast. The new 5-year review of the species recommends that the stock remain listed as threatened under the ESA.
Overall, the most important action to safeguard these coho salmon against extinction is to ensure sufficient instream flows, including by:
NOAA says it has incomplete information about the abundance and distribution of this coho salmon species across its range. This makes it difficult to assess the stock status and to target recovery efforts in the right places.
“We have no current estimates of adult coho salmon abundance for 73 percent of the independent populations that make up this stock,” said Julie Weeder, NOAA Fisheries Recovery Coordinator and lead author of the 5-year review. “To address this knowledge gap, our 5-year review recommends completion of rapid juvenile surveys in every independent population where adult monitoring is not planned in a given year.”
Juvenile coho salmon take refuge in cool water pools in shaded riparian habitat during hot summer months. “Trained observers can accurately assess juvenile distribution by using a scuba mask and snorkel to visually survey these pools each summer,” Weeder said.
Juvenile dive surveys can be implemented more quickly and cheaply than spawning ground surveys. They offer other benefits, including a greater chance of detecting fish present and providing a real-time signal of the extent of distribution across the landscape. Knowing where juveniles are (and are not) also gives insight into where habitat restoration projects should be targeted.
In September 2024, the Klamath River Renewal Project completed the removal of four dams on the mainstem Klamath River. This reopened what was once the third-largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast to migratory fish. The next major dam removal project on the West Coast is underway in the Eel River—the third largest river in California.The only two dams on the mainstem Eel River are slated for removal as part of the decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project. Removal of these dams as soon as 10 years from now will restore access to 300 miles of salmon and steelhead habitat in the Upper Eel River. It would create a free-flowing river from the headwaters to the ocean.
California Coastal Chinook Salmon
Status: Remains Threatened
The removal of the two major dams on the Eel River would also be a boon for California Coastal Chinook salmon.
“We are confident that removing these dams will be a crucial step toward salmonid recovery by expanding access to resilient and diverse habitats, especially as we continue to confront the challenges of climate change,” said Joshua Fuller, North Coast Branch Supervisor in NOAA Fisheries’ California Coastal Office.
That is a high point of the 5-year review for California Coastal Chinook salmon. The review recognizes some improvements in the outlook for the species while noting there is a lot more work still to do. Recent research has improved biologists’ understanding of how Coastal Chinook are faring, especially in the northern reaches of its range. New sonar monitoring has revealed that some populations are doing better than expected.
The review says, “the Mad River population [is] currently at levels above recovery targets.” Likewise, sonar-based estimates for Redwood Creek suggest that the Redwood Creek population, while somewhat variable, is approaching its recovery target in favorable years. However, some southern populations are small and more challenging to monitor. Surveys of rivers along the Mendocino Coast detected no fish at all in many of the last 12 years. The Russian River at the southern end of the range of coastal Chinook salmon holds the largest population of the species.
While some signs are looking up, most are mixed, with some watersheds trending below their average (e.g. Russian River). Many populations continue to contend with habitat loss as development and other threats compromise spawning and rearing habitat. These areas are particularly important in preparing young salmon for a life at sea. The review found that the risk of extinction of the species remains about the same as the last review in 2016. While the threat of some activities such as logging has lessened, climate change is already increasing temperatures and compounding droughts. The review recommends maintaining the current listing status of threatened.
“Even though the status of the species may remain the same, we get important and useful information from these reviews,” Markle said. “It’s a chance for us to gather the details, get input from many others, and hold a measuring stick up against where we hoped to be.”
The review recommends focusing efforts in the next 5 years on providing accessibility to new high-value habitats via:
Besides removing the dams of the Potter Valley Project, the review calls for addressing turbidity impacts related to Lake Mendocino and developing reservoir management measures that protect water quality and volume to support releases that help the fish downstream.
Central California Coast Steelhead
Status: Remains Threatened
The habitat of Central California Coast steelhead includes the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the most densely populated regions in the United States. Their range spans from the Upper Russian River in Mendocino County south to Aptos Creek in Santa Cruz County. It spans inland to the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The urban core of this range is flanked by redwood forests, open space, vineyards, and agricultural land.
“When you have an urban environment, it comes with the hardening of riverbanks, the removal of floodplains, and a lot of concrete where there was once important habitat,” said Darren Howe, the San Francisco Bay Branch Supervisor for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. “This is especially true for old and aging infrastructure.”
Improved fish passage would allow Central California Coast steelhead to reach more high-quality habitat, with more spawning and rearing opportunities. This is especially important when climate change brings more extreme conditions that compound the impact of unforgiving infrastructure. “It makes everything more challenging—wetter when wet and drier when dry,” Howe said. For example, heavier rains in confined, urbanized streams can create strong flows that disrupt spawning habitat.
However, those challenges also lead to opportunities, especially given new funding for salmon recovery, says the agency. Replacing aging infrastructure—such as culverts that have long blocked steelhead—can open the door to more habitat restoration that benefits fish in the long term. The removal of derelict dams and other barriers can reopen habitat to steelhead, Howe said.
For example, at Alameda Creek in East San Francisco Bay, crews replaced a dam, increasing water releases that improved habitat quality in 2019. That same year, two new fish ladders gave steelhead access to the upper Alameda Creek watershed for the first time in more than 50 years. Then in 2020, several partners removed York Dam from York Creek, a tributary of the Napa River in North San Francisco Bay. The dam was originally constructed in 1900 to provide water for the city of St. Helena. It had reduced flows and obstructed sediment needed for floodplain habitat downstream, and blocked steelhead from swimming upstream to valuable spawning and rearing habitat.
“These projects were successful through stakeholder engagement, where NOAA Fisheries often played a supportive role,” Howe said. “Passage projects, both large and small, are important to steelhead recovery.”
The 5-year review calls for continuing to pursue such projects, while monitoring the way fish benefit from completed restoration. Such actions will help focus future funding where it is needed most.
California Central Valley Steelhead
Status: Remains Threatened
Dams block 80 percent of the historical habitat of Central Valley steelhead. This confines them to the lower reaches of rivers, which are more exposed to the impacts of climate change such as higher water temperatures. Some steelhead remain in the few creeks that still flow cold and free. The viability of Central Valley steelhead is limited by a lack of natural production. The majority of fish leaving the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta each year are the product of hatcheries.
Yet as ocean-going rainbow trout, steelhead are unique. A generation can stay in freshwater habitat before a combination of environmental and genetic factors can trigger anadromous migrations to the ocean in their offspring. Some steelhead offspring may never realize an anadromous life history and remain in freshwater as rainbow trout.
“Of the three ESA-listed salmonids we have in the Central Valley, steelhead are doing the best,” said Brian Ellrott, the Central Valley Salmonid Recovery Coordinator for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. The 2018 Camp Fire caused significant habitat damage in the Butte Creek watershed by consuming riparian habitat. It also prompted increased landslides that released sediment into waterways and buried spawning habitat. The Park Fire this summer in the Mill Creek watershed will likely have devastating impacts on steelhead in that creek.
The review recommends high-priority restoration actions including reintroducing steelhead above dams that block prime upstream habitat in the McCloud, Yuba, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced rivers. It further advises completing collaborative restoration in Battle Creek, which supports multiple runs of Chinook salmon and steelhead. The review also recommends further research on whether steelhead, as they decline, may lose the genetic code that leads them to migrate to and from the ocean. This would put them at greater risk of extinction. Managers and scientists are trying to better understand how the management of California’s water may affect the expression and persistence of the genes that lead steelhead to go to the ocean and back.
“Understanding the drivers of anadromy is critical to understanding the adaptive capacity of the species and how they may fare under different water management scenarios and decisions,” Ellrott said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing protection for one of the nation’s most beloved species — the monarch butterfly — and is encouraging the public to be part of its recovery.
The Service is seeking public input on a proposal to list the species as threatened with species-specific protections and flexibilities to encourage conservation under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Public comments will be accepted on the proposal until March 12, 2025. The Service will then evaluate the comments and any additional information on the species and determine whether to list the monarch butterfly.
“The iconic monarch butterfly is cherished across North America, captivating children and adults throughout its fascinating lifecycle. Despite its fragility, it is remarkably resilient, like many things in nature when we just give them a chance,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams. “Science shows that the monarch needs that chance, and this proposed listing invites and builds on unprecedented public participation in shaping monarch conservation efforts.
Providing monarchs with enough milkweed and nectar plants, even in small areas, can help put them on the road to recovery. Working together, we can help make this extraordinary species a legacy for our children and generations to come.”
This proposed rule, says the agency, will help “build on and enhance monarch conservation efforts while balancing activities in support of economic growth.”
With its notable orange and black markings, the monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable insects in the world. In North America, monarchs are grouped into two long-distance migratory populations. The eastern migratory population is the largest and overwinters in the mountains of central Mexico. The western migratory population primarily overwinters in coastal California.
In the 1980s, over 4.5 million western monarchs flocked to overwintering grounds in coastal California. In the mid-1990s, an estimated 380 million eastern monarchs made the long-distance journey to overwintering grounds in Mexico, completing one of the longest insect migrations in the world.
Today, the eastern migratory population is estimated to have declined by approximately 80%. The western migratory population has declined by more than 95% since the 1980s, putting the western populations at greater than 99% chance of extinction by 2080. During this same period, the probability of extinction for eastern monarchs ranges from 56 to 74%, according to the Service’s most recent species status assessment.
Threats to monarchs include loss and degradation of breeding, migratory and overwintering habitat; exposure to insecticides; and the effects of climate change . Although many people have already helped conserve the butterfly, additional habitat and protections are needed to ensure the species is conserved for future generations.
To assist with monarch conservation efforts, the Service is also proposing critical habitat for the species at a portion of its overwintering sites in coastal California.
Overwintering habitat provides an essential resting place for monarchs during the cold winter months and helps them prepare for breeding in the early spring. In total, the Service is proposing 4,395 acres of critical habitat for the western migratory monarch population across Alameda, Marin, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Ventura counties in California. A critical habitat designation imposes no requirements on state or private land unless the action involves federal funding, permits or approvals.
The Service collaborates closely with Tribes, federal and state agencies, academic institutions and non-government organizations to carry out conservation efforts for the monarch butterfly. Many partners across the monarch’s range are involved in surveys, monitoring and habitat improvements. Much of this work takes place on private lands with the support of local landowners.
The proposal to list the monarch butterfly, and designate critical habitat, was published in the Federal Register on December 12, 2024. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-12-12/pdf/2024-28855.pdf.
A 90-day comment period will open on December 12, 2024, and will close on March 12, 2025.
If the proposal is finalized, monarchs will gain not only protection from harm but also a comprehensive recovery plan and ongoing funding to restore their habitat.
“The fact that a butterfly as widespread and beloved as the monarch is now the face of the extinction crisis is a tri-national distress signal warning us to take better care of the environment that we all share,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “What’s bad for monarchs is bad for humans, so we have to stop pretending that our health is somehow separate from that of the wildlife our activities are decimating.”
Following the lowest count ever in 2014, the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and renowned Monarch biologist Lincoln Brower petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking protection for the butterflies and their habitat under the Endangered Species Act. Monarchs were placed on the candidate waiting list for protection in 2020.
The proposed listing is a result of a lawsuit filed by the Centers to get a date by which the Service would make a decision on whether to provide protections.
“Today’s monarch listing decision is a landmark victory 10 years in the making. It is also a damning precedent, revealing the driving role of pesticides and industrial agriculture in the ongoing extinction crisis,” said George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety. “But the job isn’t done: Monarchs still face an onslaught of pesticides. The Service must do what science and the law require and promptly finalize protection for monarchs.”
Scientists estimate that 15 acres of occupied forest is the minimum threshold for the migrating pollinators to be above extinction risk in North America. In winter 2023 there were only 2.2 acres of monarchs, and the 2024 count is also predicted to be bleak because of poor summer weather conditions for breeding and abnormally warm September temperatures that delayed the start of migration.
Migratory monarchs face tremendous threats. Their initial decline was driven by widespread loss of milkweed, the caterpillar’s sole food source, due to increased herbicide use on genetically engineered corn and soybean crops — most notably, Monsanto’s Roundup. All stages of monarchs are harmed by neonicotinoid insecticides used in crop seed coatings and on ornamental plants.
Grasslands and other green spaces that provide wildflowers for nectar-seeking adult monarchs continue to be lost to sprawl development. Millions of monarchs are killed by vehicles annually as they migrate across the continent. In their winter habitat in Mexico, forests and streams are being lost at record rates to grow avocados for unsustainable avocado demand in the United States.
Non-migratory populations of monarchs live year-round in southern U.S. states. These butterflies have smaller wings and are harmed by parasites that build up on non-native tropical milkweed plants that don’t die back in winter.
In Canada monarchs were listed as endangered under the Species At Risk Act in 2023. In Mexico they are considered a species of special concern. The International Union for Conservation of Nature ranks them as vulnerable, a category denoting threatened status.
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.
An agreement to study transportation and recreational services that would need mitigation if the four lower Snake River dams were breached to recover the river’s threatened salmon and steelhead was signed early last week by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Washington’s Department of Transportation.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and conservation partners have announced a groundbreaking achievement in endangered species research: the first-ever birth of black-footed ferrets produced by a cloned endangered animal.
This historic event occurred at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia.
Antonia, a cloned black-footed ferret, has successfully given birth to two healthy offspring after mating with Urchin, a 3-year-old male black-footed ferret at Smithsonian’s NZCBI. This marks the first time a cloned U.S. endangered species has produced offspring, showcasing a critical step forward in using cloning to enhance genetic diversity in conservation efforts.
While one of the three kits passed away shortly after birth, two—one male and one female—are in good health and meeting developmental milestones under the care of NZCBI carnivore keepers. Antonia and her kits will remain at the facility for further research, with no plans to release them into the wild.
“The successful breeding and subsequent birth of Antonia’s kits marks a major milestone in endangered species conservation,” said Paul Marinari, senior curator at the Smithsonian’s NZCBI. “The many partners in the Black-footed Ferret Recovery Program continue their innovative and inspirational efforts to save this species and be a model for other conservation programs across the globe.”
Research partners cloned Antonia using tissue samples collected in 1988 from a black-footed ferret named Willa, whose genetic material was preserved in the Frozen Zoo at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
Partners at Revive & Restore and ViaGen Pets & Equine have pioneered this technology. Willa’s samples contain three times the genetic diversity seen in the current population of black-footed ferrets, all of which (except the three clones and new offspring) are descended from just seven surviving individuals. Introducing these previously unrepresented genes could play a key role in increasing the species’ genetic diversity, vital to healthy, long-term recovery.
The successful reproduction of a cloned endangered species is a landmark in conservation genetic research, proving that cloning technology can not only help restore genetic diversity but also allow for future breeding, opening new possibilities for species recovery. This represents a significant step in safeguarding the future of black-footed ferrets and overcoming the genetic challenges that have hindered recovery efforts.
This scientific achievement is the result of collaboration between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and partners such as the Smithsonian’s NZCBI, Revive & Restore, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, ViaGen Pets & Equine, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Cloning offers an important tool in addressing genetic bottlenecks and disease threats, such as sylvatic plague and canine distemper, that complicate recovery efforts for black-footed ferrets.
While this technology represents a promising new approach, it is one of many strategies being employed to aid species recovery. The Service continues to focus on habitat conservation, disease management, and the reintroduction of ferrets into the wild. Ongoing efforts include the development of disease resistance and habitat restoration across the Great Plains in collaboration with states, tribes, landowners, and other conservation partners.
The black-footed ferret is a specialist predator that preys primarily on prairie dogs and requires the burrow systems prairie dogs create for habitat. This important relationship links the recovery of black-footed ferrets to the conservation of prairie dogs and grassland ecosystems across western North America.
For more information on black-footed ferret conservation, visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center. https://www.blackfootedferret.org/
NOAA Fisheries has awarded more than $9.2 million in grants funded by the Inflation Reduction Act to academic partners that will help recover threatened and endangered Pacific salmon.
Pacific salmon are in decline across British Columbia and the Yukon, according to a new report from the Pacific Salmon Foundation. More than 70 per cent of salmon are below their long-term average of the 41 combinations of regions and species assessed.
NOAA Fisheries is asking the public to weigh in on alternatives on how to fund a controversial hatchery-driven prey increase program that it says would provide 4- to 5-percent more Chinook salmon in Puget Sound for endangered Orcas.
Deep drawdowns at Green Peter and Lookout Point reservoirs to improve juvenile Chinook salmon and steelhead fish passage on the Willamette River will be explained at virtual public information sessions sponsored by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
The first court-ordered drawdowns at the two dams were last year. The federal agency said it had gathered valuable information during the 2023 deep drawdown and had asked the court to approve revisions to the fall injunction operations for 2024 at Green Peter dam.
U.S. District Court of Oregon Judge Marco Hernandez granted the Corp’s proposed revisions on Sept. 24, 2024. Now, the Corps is reaching out to communities and the public to inform them of the 2024 drawdown operations. The agency also said it is regularly communicating with the cities of Albany, Lebanon, Lowell, Sodaville, and Sweet Home where water quality due to the 2023 drawdowns has been an issue. Also last year, the drawdown resulted in the death of thousands of kokanee at Green Peter reservoir.
See CBB, October 12, 2023, COURT ORDERED DRAWDOWN OF WILLAMETTE RESERVOIR TO AID ESA SALMON LEADS TO DEATH FOR THOUSANDS OF KOKANEE, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/COURT-ORDERED-DRAWDOWN-OF-WILLAMETTE-RESERVOIR-TO-AID-ESA-SALMON-LEADS-TO-DEATH-FOR-THOUSANDS-OF-KOKANEE/
The Corps will have three online sessions, two Wednesday, Oct. 9 and one Friday, Oct. 10 (see below). Corps staff will present current status and planned operations in the Willamette Valley System with a focus on the 2024 deep drawdowns at Lookout Point and Green Peter reservoirs.
A Corps injunction webpage that contains background on the injunction and links to real-time reservoir data for the dams operating under injunction measures is at https://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/Locations/Willamette-Valley/Injunction/
According to a Corps news release, the primary purpose of the Willamette Valley System is flood risk management. Water managers must keep reservoir elevations low to maintain storage space, capture rainfall, and minimize flooding potential through spring. This must be balanced with what seem to be conflicting purposes: refilling the reservoirs before summer for irrigation, hydropower generation, water quality improvement, and recreation.
The Corps’ court involvement is due to a lawsuit by Northwest Environmental Defense Center, WildEarth Guardians and the Native Fish Society. The groups asked the court to order the Corps and NOAA Fisheries to reevaluate the impacts of the Corps’ Willamette Valley dams on wild upper Willamette River winter steelhead and wild Spring Chinook, both listed as threatened under the federal endangered species act. They asked the court to order the two agencies to reinitiate consultation and to make immediate operational adjustments to dams on four tributaries of the Willamette River (North Santiam, South Santiam, McKenzie and Middle Fork Willamette) that the groups say block between 40 and 90 percent of spawning habitat.
In his summary judgement ruling in the case, Aug. 17, 2020, Hernandez said of the Corps that “Far short of moving towards recovery, the Corps is pushing the UWR Chinook and steelhead even closer to the brink of extinction. The record demonstrates that the listed salmonids are in a more precarious condition today than they were at the time NMFS issued the 2008 BiOp.”
— See CBB, July 15, 2021, “Federal Judge Orders Corps To Take Immediate Action To Protect ESA-Listed Willamette Valley Wild Spring Chinook, Steelhead; ‘No Patience For Further Delay,’” https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/federal-judge-orders-corps-to-take-immediate-action-to-protect-esa-listed-willamette-valley-wild-spring-chinook-steelhead-no-patience-for-further-delay/
In his final order, Hernandez wrote: “The Court is disheartened by the fact that, when compared to how the Corps should have proceeded had it complied with the BiOp, much of the injunctive relief that the Court is now ordering can be considered, in many respects, a giant leap backward. Consequently, the Court has no patience for further delay or obfuscation in this matter and expects nothing short of timely implementation of the injunctive measures and the experts’ proposal outlining the parameters for those measures.”
The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon issued an interim injunction Sept. 1, 2021 that requires the Corps to undertake specified actions to improve fish passage and water quality at several of the agency’s Willamette Valley Project dams for the benefit of the threatened fish. The injunction measures modify operations for improved downstream fish passage and water quality and range from deep reservoir drawdowns to increased spillway releases at various Willamette Valley system dams View real-time data for all Willamette Valley reservoirs.
In 2022, the Corps released a draft operations and maintenance programmatic environmental impact statement in public review until January 19, 2023.draft environmental impact statement for operations at its thirteen Willamette River basin dams in late 2022. Public review ended Jan. 19, 2023.
The draft’s preferred alternative – Alternative 5 – is the fourth costly of the alternatives. It uses improved fish passage through dams using a combination of modifying operations, such as deep drawdowns, and structural changes, along with other measures to balance water management flexibility and meet recovery obligations for fish listed under the Endangered Species Act, the Corps says in its DEIS.
Here are the details for the Corps’ online information sessions:
Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024
Session #1: noon – 1:00 p.m.
Session #2: 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 11, 2024
Session #3: noon – 1:00 p.m.
Join online at: https://usace1.webex.com/usace1/j.php?MTID=m76365654edf175e73457a0803292a29b
Join toll-free by phone: 1-844-800-2712
Meeting number/access code: 2822 001 1537
Meeting password: nyDBJE5x?92
The Corps says it encourages questions, but asks participants to type the questions in the chat window or send an email with your question(s) and which session you will be attending (#1,#2 or #3) to cenwp-pa@usace.army.mil the day before the meeting you will be attending (Oct. 8 for Session #1 and #2 and Oct. 10 for Session #3 ).
For background, see:
— CBB, October 12, 2024, COURT ORDERED DRAWDOWN OF WILLAMETTE RESERVOIR TO AID ESA SALMON LEADS TO DEATH FOR THOUSANDS OF KOKANEE, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/COURT-ORDERED-DRAWDOWN-OF-WILLAMETTE-RESERVOIR-TO-AID-ESA-SALMON-LEADS-TO-DEATH-FOR-THOUSANDS-OF-KOKANEE/
–CBB, May 18, 2023, COURT ORDER HAS CORPS DRAWING DOWN TWO WILLAMETTE RESERVOIRS TO HISTORICALLY LOW LEVELS TO INCREASE JUVENILE SALMON PASSAGE, https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/court-order-has-corps-drawing-down-two-willamette-reservoirs-to-historically-low-levels-to-increase-juvenile-salmon-passage/
— CBB, December 2, 2022, CORPS RELEASES DRAFT EIS FOR 13 WILLAMETTE BASIN DAMS INTENDED TO AID ESA-LISTED SALMON, STEELHEAD; DRAWDOWNS, STRUCTURAL CHANGES, LESS POWER, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/CORPS-RELEASES-DRAFT-EIS-FOR-13-WILLAMETTE-BASIN-DAMS-INTENDED-TO-AID-ESA-LISTED-SALMON-STEELHEAD-DRAWDOWNS-STRUCTURAL-CHANGES-LESS-POWER/
— CBB, September 2, 2021, JUDGE ISSUES FINAL ORDER FOR OPERATIONS AT CORPS’ WILLAMETTE VALLEY DAMS TO AID ESA SALMON, STEELHEAD; DEEP DRAWDOWNS, SPILL, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/JUDGE-ISSUE-FINAL-ORDER-FOR-OPERATIONS-AT-CORPS-WILLAMETTE-VALLEY-DAMS-TO-AID-ESA-SALMON-STEELHEAD-DEEP-DRAWDOWNS-SPILL/
— CBB, July 15, 2021, “Federal Judge Orders Corps To Take Immediate Action To Protect ESA-Listed Willamette Valley Wild Spring Chinook, Steelhead; ‘No Patience For Further Delay,’” https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/federal-judge-orders-corps-to-take-immediate-action-to-protect-esa-listed-willamette-valley-wild-spring-chinook-steelhead-no-patience-for-further-delay/
— CBB, August 26, 2021, “Willamette River Reservoirs Far Below Average As Parties Move Forward On Court-Ordered Interim Measures To Address Listed Steelhead, Chinook,” https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/willamette-river-reservoirs-far-below-average-as-parties-move-forward-on-court-ordered-interim-measures-to-address-listed-steelhead-chinook/
— CBB, November 12, 2020, “Corps Modifies Operations At Willamette Valley Dam To Improve Juvenile Salmon Passage As Court Case Continues On ‘Remedies’ For Wild Salmon/Steelhead,” https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/corps-modifies-operations-at-willamette-valley-dam-to-improve-juvenile-salmon-passage-as-court-case-continues-on-remedies-for-wild-salmon-steelhead/
— CBB, August 19, 2020, “Federal Judge Rules Corps Not Moving Fast Enough To Halt Continued Decline of ESA-Listed Upper Willamette River Wild Spring Chinook/Steelhead; ‘Significant Measures Never Carried Out,’” https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/status-review-esa-listed-in-1999-upper-willamette-spring-chinook-winter-steelhead-nowhere-near-recovery-need-better-passage-at-dams/
— CBB, November 21, 2019, “NOAA Says Corps’ Draft Proposal On Managing Willamette Dams/Reservoirs Likely To Jeopardize Salmon, Steelhead,” https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/noaa-says-corps-draft-proposal-on-managing-willamette-dams-reservoirs-likely-to-jeopardize-salmon-steelhead/
— CBB, May 30, 2019, “Details On Proposed Detroit Dam Water Temperature Control Tower, Fish Passage Facility To Boost ESA-Listed Steelhead, Spring Chinook,” https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/details-on-proposed-detroit-dam-water-temperature-control-tower-fish-passage-facility-to-boost-esa-listed-steelhead-spring-chinook/
— CBB, April 6, 2019, “Court Hears Arguments For Immediate Changes At Willamette Dams To Aid ESA-Listed Salmonids,” https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/court-hears-arguments-for-immediate-changes-at-willamette-dams-to-aid-esa-listed-salmonids/
— CBB, March 15, 2019, “Corps Proposal For Downstream Fish Passage At McKenzie River’s Cougar Dam Out For Review,” https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/corps-proposal-for-downstream-fish-passage-at-mckenzie-rivers-cougar-dam-out-for-review/
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. The review has found that the status of the marbled murrelet remains unchanged and it still meets the definition of a threatened species.
Under the ESA, a threatened species is defined as one likely to become in danger of extinction in the foreseeable future.
The small seabird spends most of its time on the ocean, resting and feeding in near-shore marine waters, but comes inland to nest, generally in old-growth forests. Major threats to the species, which has been federally listed as threatened since 1992, include the loss of nesting habitat and changes in the marine environment.
To make sure all species listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA continue to have the appropriate level of protection, the Service conducts assessments of their status once every five years. These reviews assess each listed species to determine whether its status has changed since the time of its listing or its last status review, and whether it should be classified differently or delisted.
The five-year status review is informed by a species biological report, which includes the best available scientific information. The report evaluated the marbled murrelet’s current needs, conditions and threats. It also involved significant contributions from scientific experts, including an independent peer review and review by partners.
View the five-year Status review here. https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2024-08/service-releases-five-year-status-review-marbled-murrelet
Also see:
–CBB, July 4, 2024, Ninth Circuit Stops Old-Growth Clearcutting In Oregon Forest To Protect ESA-Listed Marbled Murrelets https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/ninth-circuit-stops-old-growth-clearcutting-in-oregon-forest-to-protect-esa-listed-marbled-murrelets/
–CBB, Sept. 24, 2020, Same Ocean Conditions Impacting West Coast Salmon Runs Reducing Population Of ESA-Listed Marbled Murrelet; Numbers Dropping 4 Percent A Year https://staging.columbiabasinbulletin.org/same-ocean-conditions-impacting-west-coast-salmon-runs-reducing-population-of-esa-listed-marbled-murrelet-numbers-dropping-4-percent-a-year/
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.
A team led by Washington State University researchers Cheryl Schultz and Collin Edwards analyzed data on 114 populations of 31 butterfly species in 10 U.S. states.
Scientists have long warned that insect populations worldwide are falling rapidly due to the combined effects of climate change, habitat loss and pesticides. Overall, the research team found that these at-risk butterflies are particularly vulnerable, with populations declining at an estimated rate of 8% a year, which translates to about a 50% drop over a decade.
The study findings https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.14735, reported in the Journal of Applied Ecology, offer hope that habitat management can slow or even potentially reverse those sharp declines.
“The strongest signal we found is that in places where people are actively engaged with ways to manage the habitat, the butterflies are doing the best. That to me is super exciting because that means that habitat management can make a difference, even in the face of stressors like climate change,” said Cheryl Schultz, a WSU professor of conservation biology and co-lead author on the study.
With warmer temperatures brought by climate change, many butterflies have been shifting the timing of their seasonal activities, often by becoming active earlier in the year. It is an open question in ecology as to when shifts in timing are good, bad or relatively neutral for a species.
“We found that for these butterflies, big shifts in timing were generally bad. Populations with greater shifts were more likely to be declining,” said Edwards, a recent WSU postdoctoral fellow and co-lead author on the study. “However, we were excited to discover that habitat management appeared to be dampening the effect of climate change on butterfly timing. Populations that received more frequent management had smaller shifts in their timing.”
In spite of the overall negative population trends identified for these species, the links the research team found between population trends, shifts in timing and management provide a path forward for butterfly conservation.
“This might not solve the impact of climate change, but we can mediate some of the effects,” said co-author Elizabeth Crone, professor at University of California, Davis. “It’s within our power at the local level to do something positive for these populations.”
The study included species such as the Oregon silverspot, Taylor’s checkerspot, Karner blue and frosted elfin. It also included the Fender’s blue, which has become poster child for recovery efforts, after it bounded back from a few thousand butterflies in the 1990s to upwards of 30,000 today with the help of researchers like Schultz as well as public land managers and private landowners including many vineyards in the Willamette Valley.
In this study, researchers found that the type of habitat intervention selected by managers was appropriate, with activities such as prescribed burns, mowing, weeding and actively planting nectar or “host” plants for butterfly caterpillars, selected based on the needs of each area.
Volunteers can help in active management of local natural areas by assisting with new plantings and weeding out invasives, Schultz said. People can also support butterflies in their own backyard.
“We really encourage people to plant an abundance of wildflowers and plants which are both hosts for caterpillars and provide nectar for butterflies,” said Schultz. “These should be ‘clean plantings’ meaning they are pesticide free. The more we can reduce pesticides in our environment, the better it’s going to be for butterflies and insects.”
This research received funding from the U.S. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.
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.”
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.
The Salish Sea — the inland coastal waters of Washington and British Columbia — is home to two unique populations of fish-eating orcas, the northern resident and the southern resident orcas. Human activity over much of the 20th century, including reducing salmon runs and capturing orcas for entertainment purposes, decimated their numbers.
This century, the northern resident population has steadily grown to more than 300 individuals, but the southern resident population has plateaued at around 75. They remain critically endangered.
In a paper https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.17490
published Sept. 10 in Global Change Biology, the team reports that underwater noise pollution — from both large and small vessels — forces northern and southern resident orcas to expend more time and energy hunting for fish. The din also lowers the overall success of their hunting efforts. Noise from ships likely has an outsized impact on southern resident orca pods, which spend more time in parts of the Salish Sea with high ship traffic.
“Vessel noise negatively impacts every step in the hunting behavior of northern and southern resident orcas: from searching, to pursuing and finally capturing prey,” said lead author Jennifer Tennessen, a senior research scientist at the UW’s Center for Ecosystem Sentinels, who began this study as a postdoctoral researcher with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center. “It shines a light on why southern residents in particular have not recovered. One factor hindering their recovery is availability and accessibility of their preferred prey: salmon. When you introduce noise, it makes it even harder to find and catch prey that is already hard to find.”
Northern and southern resident orcas search for food via echolocation. Individuals transmit short clicks through the water column that bounce off other objects. Those signals return to orcas as echoes that encode information about the type of prey, its size and location. If the orcas detect salmon, they can initiate a complex pursuit and capture process, which includes intensified echolocation and deep dives to try to trap and capture fish.
The team — which also includes scientists at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Wild Orca, the Cascadia Research Collective and the University of Cumbria in the U.K. — analyzed data from northern and southern resident orcas, whose movements were tracked using digital tags, or “Dtags.” The cellphone-sized Dtags, which attach noninvasively just below an orca’s dorsal fin via suction cups, collect data on three-dimensional body movements, position, depth and other environmental data including — critically — the sound levels at the whales’ locations.
“Dtags are a critical innovation for us to understand firsthand the environmental conditions that resident orcas experience,” said Tennessen. “They open a window into what orcas are hearing, their echolocation behavior and the very specific movements they initiate when they hunt for prey.”
The researchers analyzed data from 25 Dtags placed on northern and southern resident orcas for several hours on specific days from 2009 to 2014. The team’s deep dive into Dtag data showed that vessel noise, particularly from boat propellers, raised the level of ambient noise in the water. The increased noise interfered with the orcas’ ability to hear and interpret information about prey conveyed via echolocation. For every additional decibel increase in maximum noise levels around orcas, the researchers observed:
–An increased chance of male and female orcas searching for prey
–A lower chance of females pursuing prey
–A lower chance that both males and females would actually capture prey
Dtags also recorded “deep dive” hunting attempts by orcas. Out of 95 such attempts, most occurred in low or moderate noise. But six deep-hunting dives occurred in particularly loud settings, only one of which was successful.
The team found that noise had a disproportionately negative impact on females, who were less likely to pursue prey that had been detected during noisy conditions. Dtag data did not indicate the reason, though potential explanations include a reluctance to leave vulnerable calves at the surface while engaging prey in long chases that may not be fruitful, and the pressure for lactating females to conserve energy. Though southern resident orcas often share captured prey with one another, the impact of noise may contribute to nutritional stress among females, which previous research has linked to high rates of pregnancy failure among southern residents.
Reducing vessel speeds leads to quieter waters for the orcas. Both sides of the U.S.-Canada border include voluntary speed-reduction programs for vessels: the Echo Program, initiated in 2014 by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, and Quiet Sound, launched in 2021 for Washington state waters. But reducing noise is only one factor in saving southern resident orcas and helping northern residents continue to recover.
“When you factor in the complicated legacy we’ve created for the resident orcas — habitat destruction for salmon, water pollution, the risk of vessel collisions — adding in noise pollution just compounds a situation that is already dire,” said Tennessen. “The situation could be turned around, but only with great effort and coordination on our part.”
Co-authors on the paper are Marla Holt, Brad Hanson and Candice Emmons with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center; Brianna Wright and Sheila Thornton with Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Deborah Giles with Wild Orca and the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories; Jeffrey Hogan with the Cascadia Research Collective; and Volker Deecke with the University of Cumbria. The research was funded by NOAA, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the University of Cumbria, the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship, the University of British Columbia and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
As juvenile salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River basin migrate downstream to the ocean – mostly in the spring and summer – they run a gauntlet of avian predators. Birds are taking as much as 50 percent of these fish, with juvenile steelhead the hardest hit.
The Washington Department of Ecology has developed changes to the state’s aquatic life toxics criteria the agency says are based on updated science and new research, new methods and modeling tools, and recommendations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Tribal governments.
The North Santiam River is a high priority for the recovery of threatened Upper Willamette River spring Chinook and winter steelhead. Large dams upriver impaired natural stream processes, decimating fish populations. Development, shoreline armoring, and the disconnection of floodplains from the river damaged habitat key for salmon spawning and rearing juvenile fish.
The Center for Biological Diversity this week petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the banded juga — an imperiled freshwater snail in Oregon’s Deschutes River — under the Endangered Species Act.
Killer whales are icons of the northeastern Pacific Ocean. They are intimately associated with the region’s natural history and First Nations communities. They are apex predators, with females living as long as 100 years old, and recognized as sentinels of ecosystem health — and some populations are currently threatened with extinction.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
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