Today marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. Passed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1968, the Act was created “to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations.” Since its passage, the Act has protected almost 13,000 stream …
The Life Cycle of Wild Steelhead
Well, it is steelhead season. No doubt. “Septober” is officially underway. To celebrate the changing season we are re-posing the question that every serious steelhead angler should be able to answer in the affirmative: Do you really know a steelhead? Think about it, we spend thousands of hours pursuing steelhead, but how much of that time is …
Protecting the Gem of the North Coast: Support State Scenic Waterway Designation for the Nehalem
Photo courtesy of Ken Morrish/Fly Water Travel Later this year, organizations and individuals across the country will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the federal Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. Thanks to the Act, more than 12,000 miles of wild, scenic, and recreational rivers have been established nationwide including 1,916.7 river miles in Oregon. These rivers include a who’s who …
Timely & Accurate Fish Counts on Oregon’s North Umpqua River
Knowing exactly how many salmon and steelhead comprise a particular run is crucial for proper fisheries management. Throughout wild steelhead range, agencies struggle with tight budgets and frequently, monitoring returning adults falls to the bottom of the priority list. Since the 1950’s the fish ladder and viewing window at Winchester Dam near Roseburg, Oregon on the famed North Umpqua river …
WSU leading the charge on sonar
Occasionally, we get asked what Wild Steelheaders United is really doing to improve wild steelhead populations across their range. We could start by mentioning that our habitat restoration and fish passage improvement projects are delivering big results in some of the last best wild steelhead strongholds in North America. In the past year alone, our work along California’s fabled …
Summer 2018: Time to make new Rules for suction dredge mining in Washington
Washington’s salmon, steelhead, and other native fish are critical to our state’s economy, way of life, and identity. Many of our most prized fish populations are struggling, with some on the brink of extinction, and we are spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on recovery efforts to try to save them. Suction Dredge Mining is a problem on Washington’s …
Science Friday: How does catch and release affect steelhead?
Today we review a study on the impacts of catch and release angling on wild steelhead in the Bulkley River, the largest tributary to British Columbia’s legendary Skeena system. Conducted by Will Twardek and several others, this study looked into the effects of catch and release, air exposure and fight time on behavior and survival to spawning. The study …
Science Friday: Big fish, big streams; little fish, little streams
A holiday weekend deserves a new Science Friday post. So here we go. This week we focus on summer steelhead in the John Day River, a large tributary that drains into the middle Columbia River on the Oregon side. The John Day is a big watershed, covering 8,000 square miles, although the river itself is not that large. To …
TU Chapter Angler Science Assists ODFW
As we all know, shortfalls in funding for our fish and wildlife management agencies are an ongoing concern. Severe budget constraints play out in many ways that impact fisheries management and sometimes angling opportunity. TU and Wild Steelheaders United are working both on-the-ground and in the halls of state legislatures to address these funding challenges. One of the first important …
Science Friday: Why do juvenile steelhead move at the onset of winter?
By John McMillan We are going old school today, Science Friday style. No, we’re not talking about shooting ourselves with a tranquilizer gun, going streaking, or starting a fraternity to compensate for a mid-life crisis. We’ll leave that to Will Ferrell. But we are going back in time, to 1971. Today we revisit one of the foundational pieces of …