As the old Toyota truck bounced over the river rocks and headed toward the water I couldn’t help smiling to myself. My brother and I sat together in the cab, our dad behind the wheel. He was dropping us at the river for a day fishing, like so many times before. “You guys be careful,”…
Last week Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) turned up the volume on the issue of recovering Snake River salmon and steelhead. Not that the issue wasn’t front and center for him before. He has been battling to find ways to bring back Idaho’s dwindling salmon and steelhead populations for years. But now that a long-anticipated Draft Environmental Impact Statement has outlined a “business as usual” approach – indeed, the preferred alternative does…
Editor’s note: The following was delivered today to Govs. Kate Brown (Ore.), Steve Bullock (Mont.), Jay Inslee (Wash.) and Brad Little (Idaho) from a coalition power companies, conservation groups, the transportation sector and community utility coops. Feb. 24, 2020 Dear Governors Brown, Bullock, Inslee and Little: The debate over the management and impacts of the…
Mr. Big Lived in a deep, cool pool in a tiny, unnamed tributary to the South Umpqua River in Douglas County, Ore. I spotted him for the first time on a chillly early summer morning in the late 1970s, when I was probably 12 or 13. Mr. Big became my obsession. I’ve been thinking about…
By Chrysten Lambert, Oregon Governor Kate Brown did a tough thing last week. In a letter to Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Brown took a bold position on creating a better future for her constituents by committing to finding collaborative, science-based solutions for restoring the Snake River. As salmon and steelhead populations continue to dwindle, the Pacific Northwest faces a choice: Maintain the status quo or come together…
Today, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced a historic agreement between conservation groups and timber companies that represents an important first step in a process that will see the most significant update of Oregon’s Forest Practices Act in decades. This agreement, formalized as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the timber industry and major conservation groups, should deliver…
By Eric Crawford If only it was as simple as an adipose fin. The presence of an adipose fin is universally recognized as the mark. An individual with an adipose fin is, with a few exceptions, considered a wild steelhead. On the other hand, those marked, clipped, or ad-intact fish, they are the hatchery ones. Although it is…