A record run, a record flood. Local salmon restorations, national frustrations. Increasing fees, less paperwork. Commission compassion, commission controversies. Those were just some of the highs and lows when it came to Northwest fish and wildlife in 2025....
Washington shellfish managers OKed a seven-day razor clam dig starting New Year's Eve on select Washington Coast beaches, and pencilled in late January, February and early March dates for more harvest opportunities....
It's waaaaay too early to get that long-handled net down, but the 2026 Columbia River smelt forecast at least holds out the potential for an opener and tentative dipping dates for the Cowlitz have been set....
Many Washington and Oregon anglers will see new fees to fish starting January 1, 2026. That's the day a pair of endorsements go into effect for certain waters – the Columbia and its tributaries in the former state, the Pacific Ocean...
Oregon fish and wildlife troopers want to talk to a couple of men caught on trail camera dragging an apparently poached blacktail out of the woods last week on the eastern side of the Willamette Valley....
ODFW sets 2026 spring Chinook limits on the Umpqua system, including a wild harvest ban on the mainstem and one-fish daily and 10-fish seasonal limit on the North like 2025, with hatchery springers open for harvest on both....
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council is taking public comment on a new draft of its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, which includes consistent hydropower system operations supporting smolt outmigration, cooler water temps, maintaining hatcheries and fish screens, addressing...
Record flooding across parts of Western Washington dealt some WDFW facilities a blow, with significant damage reported to a fishway and a pair of boat ramps, while some coho smolts at a hatchery self-released early after their rearing pond was overtopped...
Oregon salmon managers make official what last week's Willamette River spring Chinook forecast reveal foretold: With fewer than 34,000 hatchery fish expected, the two-rod endorsement won't be allowed....
ODFW reports on the December 12 meeting of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, which set 2026 groundfish limits, heard about Columbia hook issues, and saw two new members in action for the first time....
Befittingly, it's a sticky-sharp topic, but Oregon salmon and steelhead fishery managers plan to broach the subject of barbed hooks on the Columbia with their counterparts in Washington over the coming year....
It will be awhile before the record floodwaters from this week's back to back atmospheric rivers fully drain away across the North Sound and elsewhere in Washington and the true extent of damage to homes, farms, businesses, towns, roads and other...
Just two days after Washington state wildlife overseers turned down his "critical" request last month for wolves for a voter-mandated reintroduction effort, the former director of Colorado Parks & Wildlife sent a last-ditch plea to the Colville Tribes....
The good news? With removal of four dams on the Klamath River completed in 2024, thousands of Chinook have wasted little time making their way back into Southern Oregon waters.
The not-so-good news? So too have poachers. Or at least two, anyway....
