Jan. 4, 2012: Happy New Year! Pre-season forecasts are for increased salmon and steelhead returns to the Columbia River in 2012. See the forecast for upriver spring chinook and sockeye and Lower Columbia spring chinook . Also, see a summary of 2011 salmon and steelhead returns at Lower Granite Dam and Bonneville Dam.
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| Dec. 6, 2011: Habitat restoration projects are improving conditions for fish and creating jobs for people. Read more about the economic benefits of habitat restoration here.
Crews installed a huge culvert under the highway at Fort Columbia near Chinook, Washington. The culvert opened up tidal wetlands that had been blocked after the highway was built, creating important new habitat for both juvenile and adult salmon and steelhead. |
Nov. 21, 2011: Steelhead will return to the coulees of Northeast Oregon's Meacham Creek after the Umatilla Tribes restored its natural meanders. Read more here. Steelhead will return to the coulees of Northeast Oregon's Meacham Creek after the Umatilla Tribes restored its natural meanders. Read more.
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Nov. 16, 2011: The federal government today filed a brief with Judge James Redden in the U.S. District Court of Oregon saying that it will work with the region’s tribes and states to bolster the habitat actions in FCRPS BiOp. See
brief and
news release.
Oct. 17, 2011: More coho returning to the Upper Columbia. Read about it here.
Sept. 30, 2011: The federal government today filed a protective notice of appeal regarding the Court’s Aug. 2 ruling on the 2010 Biological Opinion for the Federal Columbia River Power System. The government has not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling. The protective notice simply preserves the government’s option to pursue an appeal at a later date.
Sept. 30, 2011: More than 500 miles of new spawning and rearing habitat is newly opened to salmon and steelhead, the result of actions reported in the 2010 FCRPS BiOp annual progress report, released today. The report also shows that new passage improvements to the federal dams are resulting in continued improvements to juvenile survival at the dams.
See the report here.
Aug. 2, 2011: FCRPS agencies encouraged by the Court’s basic conclusion that the biological opinion should remain in place through the end of 2013, that it is providing “adequate protection for listed species" and that we should tighten up on the habitat program beginning in 2014.
Read more.
See Judge Redden's order.
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Fish managers touring Russell Spring Creek in May of this year spotted salmon redds in the newly-restored habitat. | July 18, 2011: Russell Spring Creek, once choked with invasive plants and rusted-out cars, is now flowing clear and cold, home to newly-hatched steelhead fry. Read more here. |
July 1, 2011: The Bonneville Power Administration, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, is proposing to enter into a new 10-year Columbia Basin Fish Accord with the Kalispel Tribe. For more information, click here.
May 18, 2011: Rising runoff has pushed dissolved gas levels at most of the eight federal dams on the Lower Snake and Columbia Rivers above 120 percent, exceeding Washington and Oregon water quality standards and threatening protected salmon and steelhead. Reducing hydroelectric generation in such circumstances would send more water through spillways and could push gas levels higher for longer periods, further endangering fish. See BPA media advisory.
May 17, 2011: The 2011 Spring Fish Operations Plan as ordered by the court requires spill levels for fish passage to be managed to avoid exceeding 120 percent Total Dissolved Gas levels in the tailrace below each dam and 115 percent TDG in the forebay of the next project downstream. See the court order here.
May 13, 2011: This season is forecast to be the largest streamflow runoff in more than a decade. Read about how the federal action agencies are managing river operations to help protect fish during high streamflows here.
May 9, 2011: Federal executives' statement following today's hearing before U.S. District Court Judge James Redden.
 | April 14, 2011: High percentages of young spring chinook and steelhead passed safely through all eight dams on the lower Columbia and Snake again in 2010, aided by spill and highly effective fish passage structures. Read more about the NOAA Science Center annual study of hydrosystem survival here or see study here Click here for a larger view of this chart |
| Watch a video: Using science and spill to benefit fish. | April 3, 2011: The Corps of Engineers began spilling at the four lower Snake River dams today to help juvenile steelhead and salmon migrate safely to the ocean. Spring spill starts at the Columbia River projects April 10 and continues 24 hours a day at all eight dams during the out-migration. For more information on the federal agencies' spill program for fish, click here. See Spring 2011 Fish Operations Plan |
Feb. 2011: More results in!
* * * 2010 Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead returns
* * * The total amount of water restored and protected in once-dry streambeds since 2005 is more than three times the average water use of Seattle and Portland combined. Click here to see summary of this and other action agency improvements for fish here.
Feb. 11, 2011: The Justice Department, on behalf of NOAA’s Fisheries Service, today filed briefs with the federal district court in Portland, Ore., in the FCRPS BiOp litigation. See the federal brief.
See the State brief filed in support: The States of Washington, Idaho and Montana filed a joint brief in support.
See the Tribes' brief filed in support: 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 also filed a joint brief in support.
| Jan. 26, 2011: More Snake River fall chinook spawned above Lower Granite Dam in 2010 than any year on record. See the salmon redds from the air and learn more about why. |
Dec. 23, 2010: The Justice Department, on behalf of NOAA's Fisheries Service, today filed briefs with the federal district court in Portland, Ore., in the FCRPS BiOp litigation. The agency said there have been strong and in some cases record returns to the Columbia Basin in recent years. It added that the past decade has brought substantial improvement to management of the river and to the dams themselves, along with habitat accomplishments and better control of salmon predators. These have helped ensure that many more young fish make it to the Pacific to take advantage of recent good ocean conditions.
The agency added that it would continue its collaboration with the region's states and tribes and, as always, would rely on the best available science to guide its decisions.
Dec. 22. 2010: Snake River fall chinook returned in 2010 in record numbers. State and tribal fishery managers counted record numbers of their nests - or redds - above Lower Granite Dam.
NEW!!! 2009 FCRPS BiOp Progress Report
Dec. 22, 2010: Surface passage improvements for fish were in place at all federal dams on the Lower Columbia and Snake Rivers for the first time in 2009 and juvenile Snake River steelhead survival through the hydrosystem reached its highest level in 12 years. The agencies reopened 264 miles of spawning and rearing habitat that had been blocked by impassible culverts, diversions or other obstacles. Read about accomplishments here.
Dec. 8, 2010: New spill wall at The Dalles Dam yields largest increase in juvenile fish survival of any of the improvements in the FCRPS BiOp -- up by 7 percent for fall chinook and 4 percent for spring chinook. See fact sheet.
Nov. 15, 2010: Chinook salmon will get a boost thanks to a unique partnership among the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Bonneville Power Administration and Grant County Public Utility District. See news release.
Nov. 12, 2010: Salmon return to Bear Valley Creek in Idaho's Salmon Subbasin. See fact sheet.
| Oct. 29, 2010: Bonneville Power Administration has purchased two properties in the Willamette Basin under a new agreement with the State of Oregon. Some river and stream habitat will benefit ESA-listed spring chinook and steelhead in the Basin. Read about the Willamette Wildlife Habitat Agreement and its benefits for fish. |  Middle Fork of the Willamette River |
Oct. 12, 2010: The US Fish and Wildlife service today revised its critical habitat designation for bull trout, adding 15, 147 stream miles and 345,034 acres of lake and reservoir habitat to its 2005 critical habitat designation for bull trout. See press release and video.
Oct. 5, 2010: Conservation easement in Idaho keeps ranchers on the land, fish in the water. See story.
Aug. 5, 2010: Wild steelhead are swimming up Trout Creek in southwest Washington’s Wind River now that Hemlock Dam is gone. Bonneville Power Administration and the US Forest Service partnered with many others to take out the obsolete dam last year. Watch a short video of what the stream looks like today.
July 22, 2010: The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has completed its purchase, funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, of a former southeast Idaho fish hatchery site with the goal of constructing a new hatchery to further boost rebounding numbers of endangered Snake River sockeye salmon. See press release and fact sheet.
June 29, 2010: This decade is shaping up to be one of the best for adult fish returns to the Columbia River since Bonneville Dam was completed in 1938, with three remarkable years: 2001, 2002 and now 2010. See Federal Caucus news release.
June 21, 2010: Dam passage improvements are part of a four-year implementation plan for the FCRPS BiOp the action agencies released today. The plan outlines a comprehensive program of habitat improvements, hatchery reforms and hydrosystem operations and improvements to protect Columbia and Snake river fish.
June 11, 2010: The federal government has filed the Corps of Engineers’ 2010 Summer Fish Operations Plan. Spill operations are largely a continuation of the summer spill operations in 2009.
More Announcements
There are 13 ESA-listed stocks that migrate through the Columbia River and its tributaries to
get to the Pacific Ocean. In addition, two native stocks (bull trout and sturgeon) are affected
by operation of the federal dams. These are the stocks that the federal caucus works to protect
and recover.