Twelve scientists are urging the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to promptly protect the Pacific walrus under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity first submitted a petition to list the Pacific walrus as threatened or endangered in 2008, more than a decade ago.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, after completing its review of a petition to list a Columbia/Snake river basin snail under the Endangered Species Act, found that listing the Columbia Oregonian is not warranted at this time.
One way to cool overheated summer and fall Columbia River waters might be to lower reservoir levels at the river’s dams. Drawdowns could reduce the size of the reservoirs so there is less water to heat under the summertime sun and it could reduce travel time for juvenile salmon and steelhead through the dams as the river would take on more of the characteristics of a free flowing stream.
Americans are leaving many of the U.S. counties hit hardest by hurricanes and heatwaves—and moving towards dangerous wildfires and warmer temperatures, finds one of the largest studies of U.S. migration and natural disasters.
In 2022, anglers caught and removed more than 140,000 northern pikeminnow from the Columbia and Snake rivers, which the Bonneville Power Administration says is protecting hundreds of thousands of young salmon and steelhead from predation.
A program that has lethally removed sea lions from sections of the Columbia River and at Willamette Falls since 2008 is saving thousands of salmon and steelhead, many listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. The program is significantly dropping the risk of extinction for wild winter steelhead in the Willamette River, according to biologists.
The Washington Department of Ecology has published a new report looking at projected streamflow changes in the state due to climate change and the projected impacts on salmonids.
Snowcapped mountains not only look majestic, they are vital to a delicate ecosystem that has existed for tens of thousands of years. Mountain water runoff and snowmelt flows down to streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans and today around a quarter of the world depends on these natural “water towers” to replenish downstream reservoirs and groundwater aquifers for urban water supplies, agricultural irrigation, and ecosystem support.
The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit today challenging what it says is the “failure of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a national gray wolf recovery plan under the Endangered Species Act.”
Double-crested cormorants will eat many times more salmon and steelhead per bird as a proportion of their diet the farther they are pushed upstream in the Columbia River estuary, according to a presentation this week at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee meeting.
The world’s current climate pledges are insufficient to keep the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement firmly within grasp. Global warming will likely surpass the 1.5-degree Celsius limit.
The National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service this week announced the initiation of a new Environmental Impact Statement process to evaluate options for restoring and managing grizzly bears in the North Cascades of Washington, where the animals once thrived.
As climate change worsens water quality and threatens ecosystems, the famous dams of beavers may help lessen the damage.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded Oregon State University and its research partners $4.2 million to investigate how multiple climate change-related stressors are impacting marine ecosystems off the coast of Oregon, Washington and Northern California.
California state scientists have released a new report that shows how the impacts of climate change are rapidly accelerating in California. Key findings illustrate an exponential increase in wildfires and point to a hotter, drier environment driven by megadrought. Climate-influenced changes in freshwater and ocean conditions, says the report, are threatening the survival of Chinook salmon in Northern California rivers.
A UCLA-led study published this week reveals that migratory birds across North America are getting smaller, a change the researchers attribute to the rapidly warming climate.
As marine species continue to decline worldwide, the southern resident killer whale population — which now stands at 75 individuals — along the west coast of North America, has baffled scientists who are trying to understand why this population is struggling.
Conservationists filed a formal notice this week of their intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for once again denying Montana’s Arctic grayling population Endangered Species Act protections. Arctic grayling is a freshwater fish in the same family (Salmonidae) as salmon, trout, and whitefish.
Faster and more widespread testing for chronic wasting disease in deer is now possible due to a new partnership between the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Oregon State University’s Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
New research from the University of Oxford, Yellowstone National Park, and Penn State, published this week in the journal Science, may have finally solved why wolves change color across the North American continent.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized protections for the emperor penguin, a flightless seabird endemic to Antarctica, under the Endangered Species Act. The emperor penguin is listed as a threatened species and includes a section 4(d) rule that tailors protections for the species. The impact of climate change on sea-ice habitat, where the species spends the majority of its life, is the primary threat to the penguin.
Narwhals are changing their migration patterns in response to pressure from changing Arctic climates, a new University of British Columbia report has found.
An international coalition of researchers says in a report published this week that the Earth’s vital signs have worsened to the point that “humanity is unequivocally facing a climate emergency.”
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Audubon Society of Portland filed a formal notice this week of their intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to better protect the streaked horned lark, a rare bird found in Washington and Oregon.
Four populations of lower Columbia River salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act are in as much trouble today as they were in 2016. In its five-year status review for these fish released this morning, NOAA Fisheries says “the collective risk” has not changed significantly and the “overall level of concern remains the same.”
Gray whales that migrate along the West Coast of North America continued to decline in number over the last two years, according to a new NOAA Fisheries assessment. The population is now down 38 percent from its peak in 2015 and 2016, as researchers probe the underlying reasons.
A newly released State of the Birds report for the United States reveals a tale of two trends – one hopeful, one dire. Long-term trends of waterfowl show strong increases where investments in wetland conservation have improved conditions for birds and people. But data show birds in the U.S. are declining overall in every other habitat – forests, grasslands, deserts, and oceans.
A new analysis led by researchers with the University of California has found the 2020 wildfires in the state, the most disastrous wildfire year on record, put twice as much greenhouse gas emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere as the total reduction in such pollutants in California between 2003-2019.
NOAA Fisheries has finalized a report that identifies actions that the agency says have the greatest likelihood of making progress toward rebuilding populations of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River basin to “healthy and harvestable levels.” The agency had released a draft in July for limited comments.
Central Oregon’s Crooked River became the first Oregon river the state has closed to angling specifically due to drought-related low flows that could result in major impacts on fish as well as on efforts to reintroduce salmon and steelhead to the river.
Forecasters are predicting a “three-peat La Niña” this year. This will be the third winter in a row that the Pacific Ocean has been in a La Niña cycle, something that’s happened only twice before in records going back to 1950.
State and federal biologists and engineers, in partnership with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, have begun testing an experimental system in northern California’s Shasta Reservoir that could help collect young salmon from the McCloud River in future years.
Bears are not cats or dogs, and feeding them like they are likely shortens their lives.
The number of trout in a southern Oregon stream system showed no decline one year after a fire burned almost the entire watershed, including riparian zone trees that had helped maintain optimal stream temperatures for the cold-water fish.
When the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave peaked at 121 degrees Fahrenheit, it buckled roads, melted power lines, killed hundreds and led to a devastating wildfire. Climate scientists were shocked to see heat so severe.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has provided hydropower operators with new data to better prepare for extreme weather events in the Pacific Northwest and shifts in seasonal energy demands caused by climate change.
Nearly three-dozen Pacific Northwest organizations have sent a letter to the State Department and other federal agencies urging the Biden Administration to better inform the region on efforts to overhaul the 1964 U.S.-Canada Columbia River Treaty, add “ecosystem function” as a treaty purpose, and include Columbia River basin Tribes in treaty governance. The letter also expresses concerns about potential “called-upon” river operations if the treaty is not modernized by 2024.
The megadrought in the Southwestern United States is the driest—and longest—in the last 1,200 years, depleting water reservoir levels to critically low levels over the past 22 years. This persistent drought has policymakers and system planners concerned about the reliability of the electric grid under worsening drought conditions and climbing temperatures.
A new study led by Oregon State University suggests leaves in forest canopies are not able to cool themselves below the surrounding air temperature, likely meaning trees’ ability to avoid damaging temperature increases, and to pull carbon from the atmosphere, will be compromised in a warmer, drier climate.
Despite decades of resiliency, climate change may put Montana’s popular trout fisheries at risk, according to a new study.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is looking for public feedback on rules for recreational boaters and commercial whale watching operators intended to support endangered Southern Resident killer whale recovery.
Global fish stocks will not be able to recover to sustainable levels without strong actions to mitigate climate change, a new study has projected.
The rapid growth of harmful algae along parts of the Southern California coast is producing high concentrations of a toxin that affects California sea lions. It has led to strandings of more than 60 of the marine mammals since mid-August. Many have acted erratically, suffered from seizures, and in some cases died.
Crossings over highways intended to preserve biological diversity also appear to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions in Washington state, saving roughly $235,000 to $443,000 every year per structure.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 90-day finding on a petition to delist the southern sea otter says it presents substantial information that the petitioned action may be warranted. The species was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1977.
California lives with a sleeping giant — an occasional flood so large that it inundates major valleys with water flows hundreds of miles long and tens of miles across.
Idaho’s ten-year plan for conserving and managing the state’s most at-risk fish and wildlife and the habitat they depend on says that climate change is one of the stressors impacting all of the state’s animals and lands.
The Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are partnering to protect winter-run Chinook salmon in a crucial year of their life cycle at the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery at Shasta Lake during the third consecutive drought year in California.
Under a directive from Congress, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service evaluated the feasibility of reintroducing sea otters to their historical range along the West Coast of the contiguous United States. The Service focused the assessment on northern California and Oregon, where potential sea otter reintroduction would have the greatest conservation value.
As glaciers worldwide retreat due to climate change, managers of national parks need to know what’s on the horizon to prepare for the future. A new study from the University of Washington and the National Park Service measures 38 years of change for glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park, a stunning jewel about two hours south of Anchorage.
Wildlife conservation organizations sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tuesday for missing a deadline to decide whether gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains warrant federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Anticipated future shifts in water supply and water demands will combine to create potential vulnerabilities related to water availability across many areas of eastern Washington, including trouble for fish, according to a new report from the Washington Department of Ecology, Washington State University, and the State of Washington Water Research Center.
Regional shifts in streamflows have prompted the Bonneville Power Administration to revise its generation forecast methodology to more accurately reflect a Northwest water supply impacted by climate change.
Wolf numbers and distribution continue to be stable across Montana, according to numbers released this week in the 2021 Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Wolf Report.
A recent report on pinniped predation shows that the presence of California sea lions at Bonneville Dam has declined significantly since 2015 when 195 of the marine mammals were observed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the dam’s tailraces. The number in 2021 was just 24.
Water resources will fluctuate increasingly and become more and more difficult to predict in snow-dominated regions across the Northern Hemisphere by later this century, according to a comprehensive new climate change study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has designated a new “Area of Known Wolf Activity” in the Upper Deschutes River area near the border of northern Klamath and southern Deschutes counties.
The Winnemem Wintu Tribe, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week celebrated the return of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon eggs to the McCloud River upstream of Shasta Reservoir for the first time since the construction of the Shasta Dam in the 1940s.
California is banking on its forests to help reduce planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But that element of the state’s climate-change solution arsenal may be in jeopardy, as new research from the University of California, Irvine reports that trees in California’s mountain ranges and open spaces are dying from wildfires and other pressures – and fewer new trees are filling the void.
Saying that “business as usual” is not restoring threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia/Snake river basins, the White House released two reports this week, adding more information to the debate on the costs and efficacy of breaching the four lower Snake River dams as a path towards recovery.
In the Pacific Northwest, thirteen watersheds are “intensively monitored” to provide key data on regional salmon and steelhead recovery efforts. A new report has mixed messages about the success of habitat restoration in boosting returns of adult fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The endangered southern resident killer whale population isn’t getting enough to eat, and hasn’t been since 2018, a new University of British Columbia study has determined.
In a new finding that goes against current conservation paradigms, re-introducing wolves and other predators to our landscapes does not miraculously reduce deer populations, restore degraded ecosystems or significantly threaten livestock, according to a new study.
A new study led by a University of Idaho researcher offers high-resolution details on how Chinook salmon habitats, due to climate change, are being lost on Bear Valley Creek, a headwater stream of the Salmon River in central Idaho.
Animals that live in groups tend to be more protected from predators. That idea might be common sense, but it’s difficult to test for some species, especially for wild populations of fish that live in the ocean.
The Biden Administration will invest more than $9 million in fiscal year 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds to support over 40 projects in Idaho and seven other western states to restore and conserve strategic areas within the sagebrush ecosystem.
Science reporting on climate change does lead Americans to adopt more accurate beliefs and support government action on the issue – but these gains are fragile, a new study suggests.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is nearing the completion of its efforts to transport 19.7 million hatchery-raised fall-run and 960,000 spring-run juvenile Chinook salmon to the San Pablo Bay, San Francisco Bay and seaside net pens this spring and summer.
Land managers have invested millions of dollars annually since the 1980s to place large pieces of wood back in streams, owing primarily to its importance for fish habitat. But little is known about how large wood in streams impacts birds and land-based animals.
A year ago, June, 2021, temperatures in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia soared to well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with Seattle setting an all-time heat record of 108 degrees on June 28.
Climate change is likely to exacerbate flooding throughout the Columbia River basin, according to a recent study by researchers at Oregon State University and the University of Washington affiliated with the Climate Impacts Research Consortium.
A report on the state of Canada’s Pacific Ocean ecosystems says warm ocean temperature have changed the zooplankton community with consequences for fish, seabirds and the entire Pacific marine food web. Climate change has altered the ecosystems that Canada’s Pacific salmon depend on at every stage of their life cycle.
Using future projections of the latest generation of Earth system models, a new study found that most of the world’s ocean is steadily losing its year-to-year memory under global warming.
In the future, cameras could spot blackbirds feeding on grapes in a vineyard and launch drones to drive off the avian irritants, then return to watch for the next invading flock. All without a human nearby.
In the first Endangered Species Act interpretive rule produced under the Biden Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to revise regulations under the ESA to better facilitate recovery by allowing for the introduction of listed species to suitable habitats outside of their historical ranges.
On the central California coast, the southern end of Pacific salmon’s range, streams are drying up and the imperiled fish need to be rescued if they are to survive. Biologists are planning a relocation to save these coho and steelhead.
Two recreational boaters illegally approached endangered Southern Resident killer whales in rented boats last fall. They have agreed to pay fines for violating regulations that protect the whales from vessel traffic and noise.
A Montana District Court judge Thursday agreed with conservation groups that wolverines need additional protections while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reconsiders its 2020 decision not to protect the species as threatened or endangered.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s 2022 Summer Reliability Assessment warns that several parts of North America are at elevated or high risk of energy shortfalls this summer due to predicted above normal temperatures and drought conditions over the western half of the United States and Canada.
New research led by an Oregon State University scientist provides the first long-term study of methods to control the spread of wildfire in the sagebrush steppe ecosystem that dominates parts of the western United States.
Several Canada goose goslings collected from Alton Baker Park in Eugene, OR have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), and a larger outbreak is suspected as more sick and dead waterfowl have been observed at the park. A red-tailed hawk from Eugene and an osprey collected from Dorena Reservoir (east of Cottage Grove) May 10 have also tested positive.
Knowing what factors influence when and how much snowmelt ultimately makes it to streams, rivers and reservoirs is crucial for water managers trying to make the most of limited water resources.
State and federal biologists have begun moving threatened spring-run Chinook salmon to Clear Creek in northern California, where colder water temperatures will better support spawning and help their eggs survive the continuing drought.
Native species in West Coast estuaries are expected to experience greater declines as invasive species interact with climate change, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
Following a petition, the National Marine Fisheries Service has announced that a shark found off the Northwest coast may warrant protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Staggering declines in bird populations are taking place around the world. Loss and degradation of natural habitats and direct overexploitation of many species are cited as the key threats to avian biodiversity. Climate change is identified as an emerging driver of bird population declines.
As greenhouse gas emissions continue to warm the world’s oceans, marine biodiversity could be on track to plummet within the next few centuries to levels not seen since the extinction of the dinosaurs, according to a recent study in the journal Science by Princeton University researchers.
Since about 1900 Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula has lost half of its glacier area and since 1980, 35 glaciers and 16 perennial snowfields have disappeared.
Pacific Northwest seafood lovers may see more Humboldt squid but less sockeye salmon on restaurant menus in the near future due to climate change.
In a split 4-3 vote at its meeting in Astoria Friday, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission decided to not release hatchery summer steelhead smolts into the North Umpqua River this year and eliminate the Rock Creek summer steelhead hatchery program.
The Department of the Interior said this week it is seeking information on the potential of offshore wind energy farms off the coast of Oregon.
In early September 2020, severe winds, high heat, and prolonged drought conditions led to the explosive growth of wildfires along the western slopes of the Cascades Mountains in the Pacific Northwest. The fires engulfed enormous tracts of forestland, destroyed communities, took dozen of lives, and cost hundreds of millions to fight.
Wild Columbia River summer steelhead have been declining since 2009, and Bonneville Dam counts in 2021 showed the lowest returns since 1997.
Changing climate and oceans are affecting the nation’s living marine resources and the people, businesses and communities that depend on them. From warming oceans and rising seas, to droughts and ocean acidification, these impacts are expected to increase with continued changes in the planet’s climate system.
The minimum known count of wolves in Oregon at the end of 2021 was 175 wolves, an increase of two wolves over the 2020 minimum known number of 173, according to the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management 2021 Annual Report released this week.
A highly contagious bird flu that has sicken commercial chickens and turkeys, and is now spreading among bald eagles, has been found in Montana geese and Idaho chickens.
Increasingly large and intense wildfires in the Pacific Northwest are altering the seasonal pattern of air pollution and causing a spike in unhealthy pollutants in August, new research finds. The smoke is undermining clean air gains, posing potential risks to the health of millions of people.
A new study shows over 1,300 gigawatts of solar, storage, and wind in interconnection queues – an indicator of a major energy transition underway, even if most proposed projects will not be built.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission this week presented its “2022 Energy Vision For The Columbia River Basin” to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, with recommendations to get “energy production off the backs of salmon.”
In the early morning hours of January 9, 2018, intense rainfall loosened debris and mud in the Santa Ynez mountains, in Santa Barbara County, that had been torched by the Thomas Fire just months before.
Washington’s wolf population continued to grow in 2021 for the 13th consecutive year. The 2021 annual wolf report by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and shows a 16% increase in wolf population growth from the previous count in 2020.
Along the Lemhi River in central Idaho, water is essential to farming and ranching that dominates the mountain valley. It is also vital to the recovery of threatened Snake River chinook salmon and steelhead that once returned to the Lemhi by the thousands.
Whales are threatened by a variety of human activities off the West Coast of the United States, including fishing, ship traffic, and pollution. Overlap between these stressors can compound effects on whale populations, but are rarely addressed by current whale-protection policies in California, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
The third and final installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report calls for aggressive and comprehensive actions if we are to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century. It finds we still need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically, beyond what governments have pledged, and that this emissions gap is exacerbated by implementation gaps despite the mitigation efforts underway.
The people, economy, and ecosystems of the Pacific coast states of California, Oregon and Washington are highly dependent on cool-season atmospheric rivers for their annual water supply.
In arid Western states, the climate is growing warmer and drier, leading to increased demand for water resources from humans and ecosystems. Now, the atmosphere across much of the U.S. is also demanding a greater share of water than it used to, according to a new study.
Even the High North can’t escape the global threat of plastic pollution.
A new report shows cooler waters on the West Coast were sandwiched between a marine heatwave and historically hot, dry conditions on land in 2021. NOAA Fisheries researchers from the Northwest and Southwest Fisheries Science Centers presented these findings to the Pacific Fishery Management Coun
Idaho Gov. Brad Little has submitted a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove grizzly bears in the “Lower 48” United States from the Endangered Species Act and “recognize states’ successful efforts to recover and manage grizzly populations.”
The Oregon Legislature has passed the Private Forest Accord, which is aimed at bringing durable protections for salmon and cold, clean water across 10 million acres of private Oregon forestland. The legislature also established the Elliott State Research Forest, intended to transform this coastal rainforest into a sanctuary for science. And the legislature allocated a first-ever river resilience funding package to protect streamflows in the face of drought.
Research on the ground following two large wildfires in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range showed the vast majority of carbon stored in trees before the blazes was still there after the fires.
Decades of logging and fire suppression have left California’s forests prone to drought, infestation and catastrophic wildfire. Climate change is only exacerbating these impacts. But for thousands of years before, during and after European colonization, Indigenous tribes have lived within and among these forests, intentionally lighting fires to manage landscapes and ecosystem mosaics, enhance habitat, produce food and basketry materials, clear trails, reduce pests and support ceremonial practices.
The same federal agency that previously had hazed and culled Caspian terns and double-crested cormorants at East Sand Island in the lower Columbia River estuary in order to reduce predation on salmon and steelhead smolts is now hazing cormorants nesting on the Astoria-Megler Bridge six miles upstream.
As the name implies, California market squid are often sold in stores and typically found between Baja California and Monterey Bay. So, the squid’s periodic appearance in the Gulf of Alaska – about 745 miles north of its expected range – has given researchers pause.
The number of hares in a forest is a good indicator of how healthy that ecosystem is — and now there’s a better way to find out.
In North America, rising air, water, ocean, and ground temperatures have restructured ecosystems and contributed to documented redistribution and mortality of plant, fish, bird, mammal and other faunal species, says the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, released this week.
Change can be hard, especially when it involves soaring summer temperatures, mega-droughts, invasive species and other items from the list of unpleasant outcomes of climate change. In the Western U.S. where skiing, hiking, biking, hunting and other forms of outdoor recreation are core to many people’s lives, and where local economies rely on income generated by these activities, the impacts are already difficult to ignore.
Forest fires can have a significant effect on the amount of water flowing in nearby rivers and streams, and the impact can continue even years after the smoke clears.
Climate change and land-use change are projected to make wildfires more frequent and intense, with a global increase of extreme fires of up to 14 per cent by 2030, 30 per cent by the end of 2050 and 50 per cent by the end of the century, according to a new report by the United Nations.
A first-of-its-kind, eight-year study has found widespread and frequent lead poisoning in North American bald and golden eagles impacting both species’ populations.
An effort by tribes, the state of Washington and federal agencies to suppress or eradicate invasive Northern Pike is bearing fruit in Lake Roosevelt, the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam, according to an update by biologists at this week’s meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee.
A comprehensive new map and report tracking whale migrations around the globe highlights where they go in the high seas and the cumulative impacts the animals face from industrial fishing, ship strikes, pollution, habitat loss and climate change.
European green crabs feast on shellfish, destroy marsh habitats by burrowing in the mud and obliterate valuable seagrass beds. The invasive species also reproduces quickly, making it a nightmare for wildlife managers seeking to control its spread in Washington’s marine waters.
The United States is expected to experience as much sea level rise by the year 2050 as it witnessed in the previous hundred years, says a new NOAA report released this week. The West Coast will see a rise of 4-8 inches.
The drought that has enveloped southwestern North America for the past 22 years is the region’s driest “megadrought” — defined as a drought lasting two decades or longer — since at least the year 800, according to a new UCLA-led study in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Research led by Oregon State University shows that fires are more likely to burn their way into national forests than out of them.
If you are a wolf living in Yellowstone National Park, bears mess with you. They show up uninvited and steal kills from your pack. And when scavenging bears drive you away from tasty carcasses, you and your fellow wolves will – strangely enough – kill less often.
The first atlas to measure the movement and thickness of the world’s glaciers gives a clearer, but mixed picture of the globe’s ice-bound freshwater resources, according to researchers from the Institute of Environmental Geosciences and Dartmouth College.
California’s native salmon have been harmed by more than a century of mining, dam building, floodplain reclamation, fishing pressure, hatchery practices, and introduced predators. These stressors have undermined the resilience of California’s native salmon to the accelerating effects of climate change, new research shows.
Market squid have multiplied off the West Coast over the last two decades. They have increased especially from San Francisco north into Oregon and Washington in conjunction with warmer ocean waters in recent years, new research shows.
By 2080, around 70% of the world’s oceans could be suffocating from a lack of oxygen as a result of climate change, potentially impacting marine ecosystems worldwide, according to a new study. The new models find mid-ocean depths that support many fisheries worldwide are already losing oxygen at unnatural rates and passed a critical threshold of oxygen loss in 2021.
Climate change will force 45 per cent of the fish stocks that cross through two or more exclusive economic zones to shift significantly from their historical habitats and migration paths by 2100, a challenge that may lead to international conflict, according to a new University of British Columbia study.
Ecologists need to understand wild animal behaviors in order to conserve species, but following animals around can be expensive, dangerous, or sometimes impossible in the case of animals that move underwater or into areas that can’t be reached easily.
Rivers need water—a fact that may seem ridiculously obvious, but in times of increasing water development, drought, and climate change, the quantity of natural streamflow that remains in river channels is coming into question.
Despite a 2016 Blaine County, Idaho ordinance restricting the planting of noxious plants, including exotic yew, three elk, two cows and one calf, were found dead Jan. 18 after eating the toxic plant north of Hailey near the Valley Club. Two additional elk were found the morning of Jan. 19 a calf just north of Hailey, and a yearling in Sun Valley.
With almost two months remaining, this season’s Montana wolf harvest is on par with past seasons. As of Jan. 20, 166 wolves have been harvested during the current hunting and trapping seasons, a number similar to that of previous years. The general hunting and trapping seasons are open until March 15.
NOAA Fisheries and its Pinniped Task Force closed a chapter of its program to lethally remove California sea lions from Bonneville Dam. Determining that the removal of the sea lions saved nearly 56,000 adult salmon and steelhead, the Task Force called the 15-year effort a success.
In a new study, University of Montana researchers found that climate change drives native trout declines by reducing stream habitat and facilitating the expansion of invasive trout species.
Like humans, wild animals often return to the same places to eat, walk on the same paths to travel and use the same places to raise their young.
Conservation groups announced today a $16,500 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction for the illegal shooting death of a two-year-old collared female wolf in Wallowa County in early January.
NOAA Fisheries is reporting promising news for juvenile salmon – good ocean conditions existed off the West Coast of Oregon and Washington during 2021.
Northwest states euthanized some 76 fish-eating California sea lions at Bonneville Dam over a five-year period through June 30, 2021, according to a recent report from the states to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
NOAA Fisheries five-year review of the status of Southern Resident killer whales says the species continues to face a high risk of extinction and should remain listed as endangered.
The Department of the Interior announced that it would begin nation-to-nation consultations with Tribes as it implements the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The law invests more than $13 billion directly in Tribal communities across the country to bolster community resilience, replace aging infrastructure, expand access to clean drinking water and help ensure that everyone has access to high-speed internet.
Scientists have detected infection by at least three variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 in free-ranging white-tailed deer in six northeast Ohio locations, a research team has reported.
A recent study describes a link between dwindling sea ice and worsening wildfires in the western United States. As sea ice melts from July to October, sunlight warms the increasingly iceless, surrounding area. This ultimately brings heat and fire-favorable conditions to distant states like California, Washington, and Oregon later in autumn and early winter.
The supply of farmed seafood such as salmon and mussels are projected to drop 16 per cent globally by 2090 if no action is taken to mitigate climate change, according to a new University of British Columbia study.
Retreating glaciers in the Pacific mountains of western North America could produce around 6,150 kilometers of new Pacific salmon habitat by the year 2100, according to a new study.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has been on the lookout for Chronic Wasting Disease since the late 1990s. Over the past 20-plus years, staff have collected and tested more than 23,000 samples from hunter harvested, road-killed and other deer and elk found dead in Oregon. No Oregon animal has ever tested positive for CWD.
New Oregon State University research shows that warm-water habitats can be critically important for the survival of cold-water fish such as trout and salmon.
The Oregon State Police is seeking public assistance in locating the person or persons responsible for the poisoning of the Catherine Wolf Pack in northeastern Oregon.
How much and how long a severely burned Pacific Northwest mountain landscape stays blanketed in winter snow is a key factor in the return of vegetation, research by Oregon State University and the University of Nevada, Reno shows.
In California’s Sierra Nevada, western pine beetle infestations amped up by global warming were found to kill 30% more ponderosa pine trees than the beetles do under drought alone. A new supercomputer modeling study hints at the grim prospect of future catastrophic tree die-offs and offers insights for mitigating the combined risk of wildfires and insect outbreaks.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife last month began releasing juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon into the Klamath River now that river conditions have improved with cooler temperatures and increased flows that give the young salmon their best chance at survival and reaching the Pacific Ocean.
The Infrastructure and Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Biden this week includes millions of dollars related to Northwest salmon recovery, including culvert removal, fish barrier removal, upgrading water, irrigation and grid infrastructure, and projects potentially impacting Columbia River Treaty negotiations with Canada.
NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad this week announced the breakdown of the nearly $3 billion his agency will receive under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed Monday by President Biden.
Invasive species cause biodiversity loss and about $120 billion in annual damages in the U.S. alone. Despite plentiful evidence that invasive species can change food webs, how invaders disrupt food webs and native species over time has remained unclear.
The western United States has experienced a rapid increase of fire weather as the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) increases in the area during the warm season.
A University of Arizona-led effort to reconstruct Earth’s climate since the last ice age, about 24,000 years ago, highlights the main drivers of climate change and how far out of bounds human activity has pushed the climate system.
Mountain snowpacks around the world are on the decline, and if the planet continues to warm, climate models forecast that snowpacks could shrink dramatically and possibly even disappear altogether on certain mountains, including in the western United States, at some point in the next century.
Government paperwork does not help salmon and steelhead migrate through the overheated waters of the Columbia River, asserted an environmental group in a lawsuit filed this week against the federal agency in charge of protecting threatened and endangered salmon. The suit alleges the federal government is failing to ensure cold-water refuges “where fish can seek relief from dangerously high river temperatures in the Columbia.”
When a massive wildfire tears through a landscape, what happens to the animals?
American shad, a non-native fish species introduced to the Columbia River basin in the late 1800s, has replaced salmon and steelhead as the most abundant anadromous fish in the basin – by a long shot – and, although there are a number of uncertainties, their abundance could be impacting salmon and steelhead recovery in the Columbia and Snake rivers, a recent report says.
Reducing ship speed and noise levels would increase the probability that endangered West Coast southern resident killer whales will spend more time hunting for Chinook salmon, a new Simon Fraser University study has found.
Researchers have found the two-year heatwave known as ‘the Blob’ may have temporarily dampened the Pacific’s ‘biological pump,’ which shuttles carbon from the surface ocean to the deep sea where it can be stored for millennia.
U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Gary Peters (D-MI) led 21 of their colleagues this week in urging the U.S. Department of Interior to issue an emergency listing to restore temporary federal Endangered Species Act protections to the gray wolf in the western United States. No Northwest senator signed the letter.
Climate change is posing new threats to West Coast communities dependent on fisheries. A new National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator-funded research project led by Texas A&M University scientists is tackling those challenges using cutting-edge modeling and decision-making technologies.
A plan released in January for Columbia River cold water refuges that are intended to provide relief for migrating salmon and steelhead during warm periods in the Columbia River offers more than just a list of potential refuges from the river’s mouth to McNary Dam.
Early fall wildfires in the western states and the smoke they generate pose a risk to birds migrating in the Pacific Flyway, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey. GPS data from the 2020 wildfire season indicate that at least some migratory birds may take longer and use more energy to avoid wildfire smoke.
Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute has been awarded a $2 million grant to collect data about distribution and density of marine mammals and seabirds that will be used to inform decisions about offshore wind energy development.
Conservation groups this week filed in King County Superior Court a challenge to Washington’s changes to its hatchery reform policy and efforts to increase hatchery production of chinook and coho salmon at Puget Sound and Columbia River hatcheries to increase the food supply for Southern resident killer whales, listed as endangered in 2005.
A popular assumption that there are fewer Chinook salmon during the summer in Canadian waters for southern resident killer whales, compared to an abundance of fish for northern resident killer whales, has been challenged by a study led by scientists at the University of British Columbia.
New research finds mixed results on the effects of hunting regulations on population growth of two species of sage grouse in western North America.
Between September 20 and 26, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife received three separate reports of a gray wolf with a purple collar in northern Ventura County. CDFW staff began site inspections and have confirmed recent wolf tracks in the vicinity.
So far just 42 sockeye salmon completed the 900-mile swim through eight dams from the Pacific Ocean to Idaho’s Sawtooth Basin, an even lower return of the endangered fish to the basin than in 2015 when warm water in the Columbia and Snake rivers killed 90 percent of the run before they arrived at Ice Harbor Dam.
A new report on the value and vulnerability of juvenile salmon habitat in northern British Columbia’s Skeena River reveals how climate change and development are critically impacting the region—and provides a historical assessment to help inform the region’s future planning. Collaborators from the Lax Kw’alaams Fisheries Program, the Skeena Fisheries Commission and Simon Fraser University say proactive stewardship will be key.
Mechanical thinning alone can calm the intensity of future wildfires for many years, and prescribed burns lengthen thinning’s effectiveness, according to Oregon State University research involving a seasonally dry ponderosa pine forest in northeastern Oregon.
Responding to a petition to list the American bumble bee as an endangered species, the US Fish and Wildlife Service issued this week a 90-day finding indicating that the bumble bee may warrant federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Columbia and Snake river waters have warmed 1.5 degrees Centigrade since 1960 and the rivers could warm an additional 1.7 to 2 degrees C by 2100, all due to climate change, with implications for long-term salmon and steelhead survival.
When warmwater fish species like bass, walleye and crappie that are not native to the Pacific Northwest, but prized by some anglers, overlap with baby spring chinook salmon in reservoirs in Oregon’s Willamette River they consume more baby salmon than native predatory fish per individual, new research found.
With scientific reports of multiple pregnancies among J-pod, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries, and partners are calling upon recreational boaters to follow Be Whale Wise regulations and give endangered Southern Resident killer whales extra space.
Following nearly 40,000 public comments, NOAA Fisheries is approving an amendment to the fishery management plan for Chinook salmon off the West Coast. It will make more fish available for endangered Southern Resident killer whales in years when salmon returns are low.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, after completing the initial review of two petitions, says listing gray wolves again in the western U.S. under the Endangered Species Act may be warranted due to potential increases in human-caused mortality under new hunting and trapping rules in Idaho and Montana approved after wolves were de-listed.
Rather than ocean oxygen levels improving as they usually do this time of year, hypoxia off the Pacific Northwest coast is as bad as it’s been at any point in 2021, according to collaborative research by Oregon State University, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon’s crabbing industry.
Dams poorly mimic the temperature patterns California streams require to support the state’s native salmon and trout — more than three-quarters of which risk extinction. Bold actions are needed to reverse extinction trends and protect cold-water streams that are resilient to climate warming, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE by the University of California, Davis.
Intensive pumping of aquifers during drought can speed up deterioration of groundwater quality, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The results highlight clean drinking water supply vulnerabilities in California and other western states currently experiencing record drought conditions.
Unchecked climate change may leave some Arctic predators surviving off of marine “junk food,” according to a new University of British Columbia study.
The Bureau of Reclamation has released the Missouri River Headwaters Basin Study that provides options to meet the increased water demand and a change in the timing of the snowmelt runoff in the Missouri River Basin above Fort Peck Reservoir. The basin covers about 50,000 square miles and is the primary water source for 320,000 people and about 1.1 million acres of irrigated lands.
Federal storage dams in the Willamette River basin are at an average of just 37 percent of capacity, hit hard this year by drought. Overall, they should be at nearly twice that – 68 percent capacity. And there is little in the weather forecast that will change that over the next few weeks.
The Biden Administration is agreeing with the Trump Administration’s decision to remove Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves across most of the U.S. and turn management over to the states.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week announced a final rule to list the Franklin’s bumble bee as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. It’s the first ESA listing for a bumble bee in the West.
The potent combination of dams and climate change are the major contributing factors of warm water temperatures impacting salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers, according to a document released by the Environmental Protection Agency this week.
The National Marine Fisheries Service denied two petitions this week that, if they had been approved, would have separated spring chinook from the fall chinook evolutionary significant unit along two areas of the Oregon and California coast. The petitions also asked for spring chinook, once separated from its fall chinook ESU, to be listed separately as a threatened or endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Nearing the end of the 2021 sockeye salmon migration in the Snake River basin, river managers and the state of Idaho have adopted a hybrid approach to ensure as many of the endangered adult migrants complete their long journey up the Salmon River and into the Stanley Basin.
Yakama Nation Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been working together to help some of the thousands of sockeye salmon in peril due to the abnormally warm water temperatures across the Columbia River Basin.
An informal coalition of fisheries-focused conservation groups is urging the fish and wildlife commissions in Oregon and Washington to step up to save summer steelhead in a year when their returns are at the lowest numbers since Bonneville Dam was built and in a year when water temperatures threaten their migration.
The $1.2 trillion infrastructure package approved by the U.S. Senate this week includes a $2.855 billion investment in salmon recovery and ecosystem restoration programs, as well as tens of billions of dollars allocated for water infrastructure.
Marine heatwaves in the Pacific Ocean will increase in both intensity and duration as will ocean acidification along the Pacific Northwest coast, says the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released this week.
Many commonly-eaten fish could face extinction as warming oceans due to climate change increases pressure on their survival while also hampering their ability to adapt.
Politicians are more likely to tweet about climate change if they are Democrats, represent wealthier districts and if their constituents are concerned about the climate, according to a new Cornell University study. Meanwhile, communities most at risk from climate change are less likely to see their political leaders tweet about it, the multidisciplinary team of researchers said.
NOAA Fisheries has announced that it is expanding designated critical habitat for endangered Southern Resident killer whales to include coastal waters from Washington state to Monterey Bay in California.
Increased abundance of salmon in the inland waters of the Salish Sea increased the odds of endangered Southern Resident killer whales capturing salmon as prey, but increased speeds of nearby boats did just the opposite, according to new research findings.
Firefighters have reported that Western wildfires are starting earlier in the morning and dying down later at night, hampering their ability to recover and regroup before the next day’s flareup.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment and Climate Change Canada have released their joint “The Health of the Salish Sea Report” analyzing 10 indicators of the health of the Salish Sea, the shared estuary that includes the Strait of Juan De Fuca, Puget Sound, and Georgia Basin.
Greater sage-grouse populations may decline by more than 70% within free-roaming horse-occupied areas by 2034 if horse populations increase unchecked at current rates. Reducing horse numbers could neutralize their negative impacts.
In the United States, climate change is controversial, which makes communicating about the subject a tricky proposition.
A 17-year study in Oregon, Washington and California found that removal of invasive barred owls arrested the population decline of the northern spotted owl, a native species threatened by invading barred owls and the loss of old-forest habitats.
At the end of February, much of the Columbia River basin showed near to above normal water supply forecasts. But with dry weather taking hold in March, and staying there, the picture now is quite dire, with some areas facing the driest April-September water volume on record.
Roadless national forests in the American West burn more often and at a slightly higher severity than national forests with roads, but the end result for the roadless forests is greater fire resilience, Oregon State University researchers say.
Major ecosystem changes like sea-level rise, desertification and lake warming are fueling uncertainty about the future. Many initiatives – such as those fighting to fully eradicate non-native species, or to combat wildfires – focus on actively resisting change to preserve a slice of the past.
Unregulated contaminants that enter bodies of waters from wastewater treatment plants have biological impacts on fish species, such as chinook salmon, as well as on the endangered population of Southern Resident Orca whales in Puget Sound, according to a recent paper released late last week by the Washington Department of Ecology.
A team of scientists has devised a more accurate way to predict the effects of climate change on plants and animals — and whether some will survive at all.
Idaho will begin a trap and haul operation at Lower Granite Dam July 6 to rescue endangered Snake River sockeye salmon, an operation they first did during the heat-caused sockeye die off in 2015.
Human-caused wildfire ignitions in Central Oregon are expected to remain steady over the next four decades and lightning-caused ignitions are expected to decline, but the average size of a blaze from either cause is expected to rise, Oregon State University modeling suggests.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week announced a proposal to reclassify the Willamette Valley’s Fender’s blue butterfly from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Smolt-To-Adult returns. SARs. The BENCHMARK of Columbia/Snake River basin salmon and steelhead recovery. And in recent years the SARs benchmark – tagged, tracked fish– is screaming bad news for Snake River salmon and steelhead. Bringing these fish back from the brink as the regional climate warms requires urgency.
The global abundance of salmon in the Pacific Ocean in 2020 based on commercial catch was the lowest since 1982 and in North America the catch was the lowest since 1977, despite a record number of hatchery releases the year before, according to a report released in May 2021 by the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission of Vancouver B.C.
The Canadian government last week announced a $647 million strategy to save Pacific salmon, aiming to stop the declines now while helping rebuild populations over the longer term.
Earth’s climate is determined by a delicate balance between how much of the Sun’s radiative energy is absorbed in the atmosphere and at the surface and how much thermal infrared radiation Earth emits to space. A positive energy imbalance means the Earth system is gaining energy, causing the planet to heat up. Now, NOAA and NASA researchers have found that Earth’s energy imbalance approximately doubled during the 14-year period from 2005 to 2019.
Idaho Fish and Game announced Friday, June 4, that it is seeking public feedback on a proposal to extend wolf hunting and trapping and enhanced methods of take, as allowed by a new state law that takes effect July 1. Comments are due June 13.
The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service have released a plan the agencies say will “improve and strengthen implementation of the Endangered Species Act.”
At the end of the first spring in which biologists have been allowed by federal permit to lethally remove both California and Steller sea lions in the Columbia and lower Willamette rivers, fisheries biologists have stopped the removal activity as sea lions have left Bonneville Dam and both rivers for coastal rockeries.
NOAA Fisheries this week released for review a proposed amendment to the Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery Management Plan to ensure endangered Southern Resident killer whales have enough salmon to eat during years when salmon returns are low.
Scientists and local restoration communities are now seeking new ways to implement habitat restoration so that Northern California rivers and streams can support healthy salmon and steelhead populations again. Hence, SHaRP, Salmonid Habitat Restoration Priorities.
Is the availability of water to meet all instream (flows for fish) and out-of-stream demands vulnerable to expected changes in climate and population growth in eastern Washington?
After being put on hold during the four years of the Trump Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency is relaunching its Climate Change Indicators in the United States website for the public.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that Suckley’s cuckoo bumblebee, an imperiled species that has recently declined by more than 90%, may warrant Endangered Species Act protection. The announcement kicks off a one-year status assessment of the species.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed a bill passed by the Idaho Legislature last week that would allow the killing of 90% of the state’s wolf population.
From the Pacific Northwest to the Rocky Mountains, summers in the West are marked by wildfires and smoke. New research from the University of Utah ties the worsening trend of extreme poor air quality events in Western regions to wildfire activity, with growing trends of smoke impacting air quality clear into September.
The Independent Scientific Advisory Board has released an analysis of two studies offering differing views on the effectiveness of avian predation control measures in the Columbia River basin. The scientists say further comparative research is needed to determine if hazing and killing terns and cormorants are boosting steelhead smolt-to-adult returns.
NOAA Fisheries has announced its intent to conduct a 5-year review of Southern Resident killer whales under the Endangered Species Act
Washington’s wolf population continued to grow in 2020, as the minimum count of wolves reached its highest levels since the species began returning to Washington in recent years. The annual wolf report was released today by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Southern Resident Killer Whales are one of NOAA Fisheries “Species in the Spotlight” and this week the agency released priority actions needed in 2021-2025 to stabilize the species, including the need to “target conservation of critical prey.”
State wildlife biologists counted 173 wolves in Oregon this past winter, a 9.5 percent increase over last year’s count of 158 according to the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management 2020 Annual Report released today.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is taking public input on its state status review for Steller sea lions.
On the heels of a successful and significant reduction of lake trout in Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho is now using some of the same methods – gillnetting and an angler rewards program – it used to fight lake trout in a new effort to reduce the population of invasive walleye in the lake.
Older Chinook salmon may die in the ocean more often than previously thought, according to a life cycle simulation created by Alaska researchers.
NOAA will soon release a much-anticipated update of U.S. climate data for placing recent weather conditions—such as heat waves and flooding rain—into historical context.
As the climate warms and more and more cascading streams dry up, changing those streams to disconnected puddles that trap migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead, humans may have to step in to rescue the fish. Without this intervention, some stocks may go extinct, according to a recent study.
During the fall 2019 and spring 2020 monitoring seasons at Bonneville Dam, sea lions continued to prey on salmon, steelhead and sturgeon, but the proportion of California sea lions is continuing to drop while that of steller sea lions continues to rise, according to a draft annual pinniped report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Warm river habitats appear to play a larger than expected role supporting the survival of cold-water fish, such as salmon and trout, a new Oregon State University-led study found.
Floating solar farms could help to protect lakes and reservoirs from some of the harms of climate change, a new study suggests.
Juvenile salmon run the gamut of predators – birds, other fish and pinnipeds – as they migrate from their rearing grounds far upstream in the Columbia River basin all the way to the ocean, but they also are confronted with predators as they enter the ocean.
Some invasive species targeted for total eradication bounce back with a vengeance, especially in aquatic systems, finds a study led by the University of California, Davis.
Last month 68 leading salmon and fisheries scientists sent a letter to Northwest governors, the Northwest congressional delegation, and policymakers that summarizes actions they say are necessary to protect and restore abundant salmon and steelhead runs to the Columbia/Snake river basin. Subject: “Scientists’ letter on the need for lower Snake River dam removal to protect salmon and steelhead from extinction and restore abundant, fishable populations.”
Looking at weather and climate indicators, a leading ocean scientist says conditions along the West Coast are good for fish, at least momentarily. However, climate change will cause conditions for salmon to continue to deteriorate and that will negatively impact runs of Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead runs in the future.
Oregon wildfires threatened multiple cities in summer 2020, destroyed more than 4,000 homes, filled the air with smoke for days and burned more than 1 million acres, the second highest one-year total in state history.
Pacific great blue herons could be scooping up as many as three percent of all juvenile salmon in the Salish Sea region and as many as six percent in some years with low water flow, according to a new University of British Columbia study.
Endangered Southern Resident killer whales prey on a diversity of chinook and other salmon. The stocks come from an enormous geographic range as far north as Alaska and as far south as California’s Central Valley, a new analysis shows.
As the planet warms, scientists expect that mountain snowpack should melt progressively earlier in the year. However, observations in the U.S. show that as temperatures have risen, snowpack melt is relatively unaffected in some regions while others can experience snowpack melt a month earlier in the year.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
