The DEQ voted unanimously to give the North Fork of the Smith Outstanding Resource Waters designation, which will protect the river, its tributaries, and associated wetlands from any activity that could degrade water quality. The rule will become state law effective immediately, but requires approval by the Environmental Protection Agency to take effect under the Clean Water Act. It …
Science Friday: Hitch-Hiking Smolts
Last week we talked about the importance of spill for out-migrating kelts and smolts in the Columbia Basin. Increasing spill is only one method employed to enhance downstream survival of smolts. As early as the mid-1950s smolts were loaded onto barges and moved downstream past the dams through the lock system. While fisheries managers experimented with this tactic early on …
Washington Regulations Change Due to Low Columbia Returns
By Jack Pokorny This summer, 130,700 steelhead are projected to return to the Columbia River system, the lowest number since 1980 according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Due to these projections, parts of the Columbia, Drano Lake, Lewis, Wind, Cowlitz, and White Salmon Rivers are subject to new angling regulations. Through July 31, anglers will be …
Conservation funding and steelhead
By Sam Davidson The California Coast between San Francisco and the Oregon border has been a magnet for steelhead anglers for more than half a century. Legendary steelhead waters like the Eel, Klamath, Garcia and Gualala Rivers remain wild steelhead sanctuaries today, despite decades of pervasive habitat decline due mostly to dams, timber harvest, marijuana cultivation and drought. …
What is a B-run steelhead?
Fisheries managers predict this will be a very bad year for returning B-run steelhead in the Snake River. The Snake, with its headwaters straddling the Teton Range on the Idaho-Wyoming border, is the largest tributary to the Columbia and its intact habitat and steelhead runs are vital to the overall health of Columbia River steelhead populations. Despite the high quality …
Science Friday: The life stages of juvenile steelhead
We have spent the last several weeks introducing and defining a variety of terms used in steelhead management. This week, we shift to looking at terms related to steelhead biology, specifically terms used to describe different life stages of juvenile steelhead. Let’s start with eggs. These are the little round suckers that produce the fish. Seriously, everyone understands the …
Put fish first this summer in the Columbia
It’s hard to ignore the dismal forecast for this summer’s steelhead return to the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Just how bad is it? Well, this year’s wild and hatchery summer runs returning past Bonneville Dam are forecast to be the lowest in the past 34 years. Predictions for all stocks look bad, but in particular the later arriving and …
Tying: Stainless steel shank intruder
By Dean Finnerty Tying the “Intruder” with a homemade shank Over the last decade the “Intruder” style flies have probably accounted for more spey rod steelhead than any other pattern. There are as many spin-offs of the intruder fly as there are variations of the traditional hair-wing style steelhead flies. When I was taught to tie the Intruder, we …
Big WIN for sportsmen on the Elliott State Forest
On Tuesday, May 10, sportsmen and women won a huge victory when the Oregon State Land Board voted unanimously to keep the Elliott State Forest in public hands. The 80,000 acre Elliott is a popular area of public lands with high habitat and sporting values for salmon, steelhead and trout, deer, elk and other game species. The land board …
What does the Antiquities Act have to do with steelhead?
A seemingly innocuous little law passed in 1906 has become highly controversial in recent years. The Antiquities Act, signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, was a response to an escalating problem of looting of archeological and geologic resources and empowers the president to designate to significant historic, cultural, and scientific features as national monuments. The Antiquities Act has …