Oregon coastal coho protections restored

NOAA fisheries announced its decision to restore federal Endangered Species Act protection as a “threatened species” for Oregon Coastal coho salmon. The agency, charged with salmon and steelhead conservation, had been under a court order to reconsider its 2006 decision not to list the Oregon Coastal coho. Trout Unlimited was among a group of fishing and conservation groups that sued to force a relisting.



According to Oregon Trout Unlimited volunteer Karl Mueller: To grossly simplify the state and federal position, a listing was not warranted because coho are particuarly resilient and are able to rebound from periods of low abundance. In other words, a small number of spawning adults can beget a large number of spawning adults three years later.

Oregon businesses support Rogue Wilderness expansion

A column in today's Register-Guard says the BLM WOPR is bad for businesses in Southern Oregon and calls on elected officials to expand protections for the Rogue River. For more info, check out SaveTheWildRogue.org and find out how you can help protect one of the most diverse ecosystems in North America.

Oregon salmon collapse in 2008?

According to the executive director of the the Pacific Fishery Managment Council, Donald McIsaac, the West Coast is facing "what appears to be an unprecedented collapse in the abundance of adult California Central Valley... fall chinook salmon stocks."

Blogger OneMuleTeam says: What really has fisheries managers (and me) worried is that only about 2,000 2-year-old juvenile chinooks — which are used to predict returns of adult spawners in the coming season — returned to the Central Valley last year, by far the lowest number recorded. On average, about 40,000 juveniles, or “jacks,” return each year. I was no math major but I know that 1/20th of average = not good.

Trout Unlimited Oregon State Council meeting

TU Chapter 678 conservation officer Karl Mueller summarized the 2008 Oregon State Council meeting for Trout Ulimited in a recent blog post.

Issues discussed included:

An update on the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) Carmen-Smith relicensing. Carmen-Smith is a hydropower project on the upper Mckenzie that blocks upstream passage for ESA listed Chinook and Bull trout.

Excitement over the TU-spearheaded Copper-Salmon Wilderness.

A look at the potential settlement of the Klamath Pacificorp relicensing issue.

Here's an updated photo of TU's protect, reconnect, restore strategy:

Register-Guard hopeful on Klamath River restoration

Editors at the Register-Guard are hopeful now that talks are underway to remove dams on the Klamath Basin, opening up habitat for the Klamath’s devastated salmon runs. The project is dependent on the dam operators (PacifiCorp) to sign onto the plan, which seems possible at least. But conversation groups Oregon Wild and WaterWatch have flagged this plan as being flawed, stating that the salmon would not get the water they need to survive under these provisions. EarthJustice has a video that gives an overview of the situation on YouTube.

For the sake of salmon, no LNG terminal on the Columbia

According to the AP in the Register-Guard: The National Marine Fisheries Service wants the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to at least temporarily deny a permit to dredge the Columbia River to build a liquefied natural gas import terminal below St. Helens. The terminal likely would harm valuable salmon habitat. Northern Star Natural Gas Inc. wants to build the terminal, one of three under active consideration in Oregon, at Bradwood Landing. The other two in planning stages are near Astoria and Coos Bay.



Columbia Riverkeeper is opposed to the terminal and has an awesome action sheet to tell your representatives to oppose the terminal.

OPB: Ghost nets video

Awesome video on Ghost Nets from Oregon Public Broadcasting -- old gill nets tumbling around on the bottom of the ocean off the Oregon Coast. They keep killing, long after the commercial fishermen have discarded them. The nets kill dungeness crabs, sea birds and endangered salmon.

Plastic fades Oregon hunting and fishing licenses

Attention Oregon hunters and anglers, don't put your 2008 fishing or hunting licenses in those plastic sleeves you get with the license. According to ODFW, the plastic will fade the new paper, which is supposed to be tear and water resistant.

“We are asking people to do something different with their new licenses. Please, don’t put them in plastic license holders or laminate them,” said DeAnna Erickson, ODFW License Services manager. She suggests carrying the license holder in your wallet as you would a receipt or using a paper or Tyvek license holder. Tyvek license holders will be available at ODFW offices beginning in mid-February.

Oregonian, Weyerhauser address global warming and salmon decline

A lengthy article in this week's Oregonian illustrates how climate change will likely affect salmon in the Columbia River Basin. A lot of this isn't news if you've been following along with the National Wildlife Federation's Target Global Warming Campaign to get anglers and hunters fired up about the issue in Oregon.

These are the projections: Warming by the 2040s will turn rivers and streams across 20% of the Northwest, including much of the main Columbia and Snake rivers, lethal for salmon in summer. About 80 years from now, up to 40% of salmon habitat in Oregon, and 20% in Washington, will be too warm for salmon to survive.

But there is an unexpected voice amongst the scientific panels -- timber giant Weyerhauser. The Oregonian quoted Robert Bilby, an aquatic ecologist with timber company Weyerhaeuser and a lead author of a new scientific assessment of how global warming will affect salmon:

"We're talking about the survival of a cold-water fish in warming conditions," he said. Rising temperatures "potentially will make large areas of the Columbia Basin uninhabitable to these species in the not-too-distant future."

Ok, so what's Weyerhauser doing here? Read on: We may have to identify areas that are totally uninhabitable and not spend resources there. I don't think Weyerhauser is paying aquatic biologists out of altruism. They're working an angle, and it sounds like finding "uninhabitable" land to ease protections on is a potential motive.

Hunters and Anglers oppose BLM WOPR in Oregon

This is a press release from a coalition of hunting and angling groups in Oregon, opposing the BLM's Western Oregon Plan Revision:

The Bureau of Land Management plan to roll back habitat protections on 2.6 million acres in western Oregon is a threat to the state’s legacy of hunting and fishing, according to a report released today by Oregon sportsmen’s groups.

“For most Oregon hunters and anglers, our public land is the only hunting and fishing estate we will ever own,” said Mike Beagle of Eagle Point. “The Bureau of Land Management proposal lacks the balance needed to support Oregon’s priceless outdoor heritage.”

The report comes from Trout Unlimited, Oregon Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Oregon Division Izaak Walton League of America, Oregon Council Federation of Fly Fishers, Northwest Steelheaders, Berkley Conservation Institute and Native Fish Society.

The groups released a report critical of the Bureau of Land Management’s Western Oregon Plan Revisions, or WOPR. The WOPR ramps up development on 2.6 million acres of public forests managed by the BLM. Scattered throughout western Oregon, the land includes watersheds critical for salmon, steelhead and trout as well as forests that are habitat for Oregon’s prized big game species such as Roosevelt elk, blacktail deer and black bear.

The report highlights several specific areas of concern:

Reduced protections for spawning streams. The BLM plan would significantly reduce the current “no-logging” buffer on fish-bearing streams, allowing logging within 25 feet of the bank.

The BLM’s proposal would reduce critically important “Late Successional Reserves” or old growth forests by more than 40 percent. Oregon’s most popular big-game species count on mature forests for a certain degree of security, cover and winter forage.
The agency’s proposal to build 1,000 miles of new roads would open up areas that have traditionally been valuable for hike-in hunting and secure habitat.
The BLM proposes making several areas high-intensity ATV playgrounds. Sportsmen and wildlife will be crowded out of valuable habitat if those lands are handed over to motorized traffic.

The report urges the BLM to go back to the drawing board, and make wildlife habitat and fisheries a higher priority.

“Hunters and anglers know how important habitat is for the future of our favorite activities,” said Brian Maguire, of Portland. “Oregon sportsmen need to be heard loud and clear. Tell the BLM to keep habitat protections on the books, so we have fish in the rivers and game in the woods. Our kids deserve it.”

“I understand the need for logging, because I come from that world,” said Bob Gerding of Philomath near Corvallis. “We do timber thinning on our land all the time, because it’s sound management. But the kind of large-scale clearcutting the BLM is proposing now is bad for everyone.”

More than 750,000 people hunted and fished in Oregon in 2006, generating nearly $900 million for Oregon’s economy, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

You can check out the full report on Trout Unlimited's Web site.

Unexpected ally: Shamu pitches in to save our wild salmon

Here at Oregon Outdoor Journal we've been pushing for the removal of the four lower Snake River Dams for a while, mainly because we're salmon crazy. But there is a constituency out there that is even more salmon-crazy than we are -- and potentially more popular than us: Orcas! A post in the Seattle P-I blog addresses the problems Puget Sound orcas are facing:

The connection has been made and the science is clear: If we hope to recover the iconic orcas of Puget Sound, we need to find them more salmon to eat, and fast.

Central Oregonians turning Deschutes into poop-chute

I know some of us on think the sprawling development in Cetral Oregon is a pile of shit, but this is ridiculous. According to a study from the U.S. Geological Survey:

The Deschutes and Little Deschutes Rivers in southern Deschutes and northern Klamath Counties, which receive part of their flow from ground water, are vulnerable to contamination by wastewater from conventional on-site wastewater treatment (septic) systems, according to the findings of a study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS investigation was a part of efforts by Deschutes County and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to assess environmental impacts in a 250-square-mile area near La Pine, Oregon, where increasing residential development has led to increases in nitrate concentrations in ground water that drains to rivers.

Nitrates from people's home septic systems are leaching towards Oregon's blue ribbon trout stream. Nitrates promote excessive growth of aquatic plants and algae, causing large variations in dissolved oxygen concentration and pH that can be harmful to fish and other aquatic organisms.

Deschutes County is battling the problem by trying to establish new rules, including the requirement that new construction projects adopt the highest performing nitrogen removal systems available and all existing systems need to be upgraded in ten years. So why not a closed loop sewer system? County officials say it would take too long.

Oregon salmon runs continue nosedive: Egg hunters to blame?

Earlier this year ODFW said the salmon run on the Rogue River was weak. Guides called it the worst season in 30 years. I've been bombing out on salmon(which doesn't mean much, but still).

And now this, Shane at The Quiet Pool seems to be seeing the same thing, especially on the Kilchis where he blames the egg-gathering bubbas that throw back a bright buck for a ripe hen with eggs.

We know out of date hydrosystems, ocean conditions and clearcutting are the primary factors in salmon decline, but on small streams, Shane sees another factor:

While egg hunters are not the biggest suspects in the salmon decline they surely have played a part in it especially in coastal rivers which are primarily wild fish. The commercially sold eggs are generally from hatcheries surplus and are not sports caught. The recognition of the impact of this "egg hunting" is slow in coming but there are some that are now not keeping females and that is a good sign. Hopefully the enlightenment of some will influence others and that can indeed make a difference.

National Geographic Adventure sells Columbia River salmon short

In an article in the December/January 2008 issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine, Paul Kvinta illustrates the struggle between protected sea lions and fishermen skirmishing over the last dwindling stocks of Columbia River salmon.

Unfortunately, Kvinta doesn't address the real problem facing our endangered salmon run until the very end of the article (several pages and jumps into the piece). Kivnta finally gets to it here:

The government built 14 dams on the main stem of the Columbia River and more than 250 in the basin. The salmon population dropped from some ten million fish to less than 300,000.

Of particular concern are four dams on the lower Snake River build between 1960 and 1975 to make Lewiston, Idaho -- 465 miles inland -- a port. Until then, Idaho had produced half of the Chinook salmon in the Columbia Basin. The dams generate less than 5% of the electricity used in the Northwest, they provide no flood control, and they supply irrigation to fewer than 20 farms.

Why couldn't that be in the front of this article? Most likely because Kvinta or his editor John Rasmus made an editorial decision: ODFW agents spraying giant pinnipeds with rubber bullets is way more compelling to the average reader than salmon slowly dwindling to extinction due to beuracratic inertia.

But nonetheless its a huge waste in my opinion. NG Adventure is a big publication and Kvinta is a very talented writer (his article on Rory Stewart is the best article I've ever read in one of the "outdoors" magazines).

A: Kvinta is a good enough writer to make this issue interesting to a much wider audience.
B: Isn't the National Geographic Society responsible to fight species extinction? I haven't read its charter or anything, but I idolized National Geographic writers and photographers since I was a kid and always thought of them as environmental stewards.

Bottom line: Kvinta and Rasmus dropped the ball. They had an opportunity to raise awareness about a species that is circling the drain and instead they relegated that info to the back of the magazine.

Luckily, YOU CITIZEN ENVIRONMENTALISTS can affect change where these folks fell short. Send a message to the Federal Government on this issue at GiveADamForSalmon.org.

Video: Sturgeon Fishing on the Columbia River

Yeah dude... it's another keeper. Sturgeon fishing on the Columbia. I got to do it.

Fishing bloggers, enviros rejoice over Measure 49

This week Measure 49 passed in Oregon and the fishing blog community is excited. From the new Fly-blog supergroup Buster Wants to Fish:

It’s now gonna be way harder to put a huge strip mall, a McDonald’s, a 230 McMansion development, 230 white picket fences that house an overmortaged American “Dream” lifestyle financed on credit and a killshot into the streambottom of our natal salmon and steelhead waters.

The folks at the Oregon Environmental Council are excited as well. The raised a specter that's near and dear to my heart, the Sixes River:

A Measure 37 claim has been filed at the mouth of the wild Sixes River—perhaps the greatest natural estuary remaining on the Coast. The claim threatens wild salmon and steelhead habitat with 150 housing units, a 250-room hotel, golf courses, and parking lots on land that is in a beach and dune conservation area.

Give a dam for salmon

Bobby Hayden and the folks from Save Our Wild Salmon have set up a new public comment page Give A Dam For Salmon where you can send a message to federal agencies and Congress that you'd like to see the lower four Snake River Dams removed.

From the site: The federal government is allowing four costly, out-dated dams to limit our jobs, our fishing, and our outdoor recreation, and to threaten a healthy food source. Those four dams are destroying a national treasure and renewable natural resource. Wild salmon and steelhead are vital to the culture, economy, and balance of nature that the Pacific Northwest has relied upon for years. If we don’t act - in Congress, the courts, and our own communities - these salmon will disappear forever. The time is now.

The also have this awesome dancing salmon video, "Buster, the wild Snake River Salmon".

Make the pledge to Switch For Salmon

Trout Unlimited is rolling out a new pledge for salmonid conservationists in the Pacific Northwest. TU wants customers who buy the power produced by the Northwest's dams send a strong message that we're willing to use less of it. "Perhaps then the dam operators will hear us, and decide they too, can change for fish."

Sign the pledge today and you can save on your energy bill and send a message to the hydrosystem folks. Here are the changes you would have to make:

Switch out just three-quarters of my light bulbs to compact fluorescents: save 5%
Switch to running only full loads in the dryer: save 2%
Switch off lights when not in use: save 3%
Switch to air drying half my washed clothing: save 3%
Switch to running only full loads in the dishwasher: save 1%

The State of the Rogue River fishery

The Mail Tribune ran an interesting article recently on the manual labor involved with sampling anadromous fish runs on the Rogue River. ODFW and volunteers have been seining the river at Huntley Park, about 8 miles east of Gold Beach off Jerry's Flat Road, since the early 1970s.



Unfortunately, the Rogue fishery has taken a nosedive. Local guides say it’s the worst season for Fall Chinook salmon fishing in thirty years, in an article in the Seattle P-I. This collapse seems especially hard after the 2002 and 2003 fish counts over Gold Ray Dam on the Rogue River included record-breaking numbers for two runs of steelhead and two runs of salmon.

The Rogue River is one of the last places in Oregon to catch wild fish in a wild environment. I am concerned about threats to the Wild and Scenic section of the river. The agencies that manage public land and water should be managing the land to preserve the wild and scenic qualities of the region, but instead they are looking to clear cut regions around the Rogue River tributaries. The problem clear cuts pose to the spawning tributaries for coldwater fish like salmon and steelhead are the potential to raise stream temperatures and bury eggs in sediment. Check out this league of environmental groups, guides, local businesses and concerned citizens to learn about saving the Wild Rogue River.

Diamond Lake fishing is back in business

According to ODFW, the rotenone project on Diamond Lake to get rid of invasive tui chub has been a huge success.



The trout are back in large numbers (thanks to heavy stocking), and so are anglers. And the removal of chub has helped the lake in other ways:

From an article in the Grants Pass Daily Courier: The chub had eaten the insect population down to 6.2 pounds per acre in August 2006. Last month, the lake bed sported 127 pounds of insects per acre. As for water clarity, it was so poor last year that visibility at times measured less than one meter. In late June, the visibility measured 12.5 meters.