On Wednesday, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe released more than 500 summer chinook into Hangman Creek

Fisheries biologists with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife float the lower section of the White Salmon River each fall to count returning salmon.

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory tag young chinook salmon with tags slightly bigger than a grain of rice.

Our farmers have implemented conservation on their lands for decades and generations with help and in partnership with local conservation districtsv...

More than 3.5 million hatchery salmon became casualties of recent flooding in Mason County.

The resulting Private Forest Accord deal, signed in October 2021, would amend Oregon’s Forest Practices Act to expand riparian buffers, tighten protections against landslides and erosion, support small woodland owners, and improve the rulemaking process going forward

The smolts that were discovered missing on Sunday accounted for about 64% of Lyons Ferry Hatchery’s Wallowa stock summer steelhead and less than 8% of the overall hatchery steelhead production in the Snake River basin

A recent report shows an explosion of growth of a non-native species in the Columbia River.

Oregon scientist Laurie Weitkamp is preparing to depart on the largest research expedition of its kind in the North Pacific Ocean with scientists from around the world who want to learn more about salmon as climate change is causing unpredictable changes in the species.

Inslee announced Tuesday a proposed $187 million in investments for salmon recovery, as part of his policy and budget proposals for the 2022 legislative session. The plan includes correcting fish passage barriers, investing in clean water infrastructure and expanding monitoring of salmon populations statewide.

SEATTLE — The $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package signed into law this month creates a new billion-dollar program designed to open thousands of miles of congested transportation corridors. Those choked thoroughfares aren’t roads and bridges, however. They are creeks and streams used by migrating salmon when they return from the ocean to reach their spawning grounds.

“Salmon-Safe is substantially about water quality,” Scribner said. Good for farmers, and good for salmon, too.

The onset of fall and coming of seasonal rains is perfect timing for the salmon that spawn in the East Fork of the Lewis River. At places such as Lucia Falls Regional Park, along Northeast Lucia Falls Road northeast of Battle Ground, visitors can watch the large fish jump the waterfalls on their way to their ancestral spawning grounds.

Ecologists are piloting a technology that is expected to help restore waterways like the Green River to eventually produce more fish.

WASHINGTON – The Biden-Harris administration announced an important step to chart a path forward in a longstanding Columbia River Basin conflict regarding the operation of 14 federal dams and their impacts on the region’s salmon and steelhead populations.

Salmon are now spawning in waters blocked by Grand Coulee Dam. It’s the start of a larger effort to reintroduce salmon into the blocked area.

Whoosh Innovations said its fish passage system could transport salmon quickly over the Snake River dams – and generate $60 million over 10 years by diverting water from fish ladders to hydropower turbines. One Northwest company thinks it may have a better way to help adult salmon make it up and over the Snake River dams.

Pacific Northwest salmon could get some help from the proposed federal infrastructure package. Some of the funding in the U.S. Senate’s version of the bill could help remove barriers to salmon habitat – just not the same barriers on the Snake River that Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, had hoped to eventually include.

In 2015, extremely warm water combined with low stream flows. The Snake River sockeye run that year was supposed to break records. Instead, nearly 99% of the run died before it reached Idaho’s Sawtooth Valley. Improvements were also made to the system after 2015 to help temperatures at fish ladders. Idaho Fish and Game can also trap and haul sockeye captured at Lower Granite Dam to the Sawtooth Hatchery, when it deems the water is too warm.

“It’s important to reconnect to the water, the land, the elders, but also to call the salmon home,” said Peone, who organizes the Spokane tribe’s canoe and often serves as its skipper. “But we need a good, clean home for the salmon to come home to.” The tribes have been making strides toward that goal. Late last year, Colville tribal biologists observed the first spawning chinook salmon in the Upper Columbia river system in a generation. This spring, Spokane tribal biologists found a newly hatched salmon in Tshimakain Creek, also spelled Chamokane Creek, on the eastern edge of the Spokane Indian Reservation.

Young salmon are now spawning above Grand Coulee Dam. The fish were brought above the dam last year in an effort to see if salmon could survive in the area that’s been blocked for nearly 80 years.

The first time salmon were released above Chief Joseph and, later, Grand Coulee dams, Hemene James watched elders from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Many weren’t even old enough to remember when salmon last swam in those waters. In their faces he saw pure emotion, as salmon slipped into the waters where they hadn’t been since Grand Coulee Dam blocked their path in 1942. Then, he looked at the children. Their excitement was infectious. They jumped and ran into the water, trying to catch the fish swimming upstream.

CHEHALIS – Starting in summer 2021, construction will begin to remove a fish passage barrier on the West Fork Chehalis River. In partnership with Weyerhaeuser Company, Lewis Conservation District is sponsoring this river restoration project to open seven miles of previously isolated stream habitat for salmon and steelhead.

You see this in a new joint riparian habitat initiative that will provide a uniform, science-based management approach to salmon recovery. We need greater protection for the stream side vegetation that lowers water temperatures, filters pollutants and reduces sediment that smothers salmon eggs.

While all runs of salmon on the Skagit River experienced declines, Seattle City Light left 20-year-old glowing messages on its website – touting the utility’s stewardship that led to “strong” and “landmark” returns of salmon.

Ocean conditions can be integral to salmon survival. And in 2021, the Pacific Northwest’s iconic fish will face a mixed bag: some good and some bad conditions while out at sea.