Headlines

Northwest states and tribes are asking Congress to include at least $371 million in funding for salmon and steelhead hatchery production, facility maintenance, fish recovery, pinniped removal, management and more in the Columbia watershed in the next federal budget.

Last Saturday, over 300 people including 185 young anglers participated in a union-organized fishing event near Tri-Cities that also saw all the kiddos go home with a free rod and reel.

I’m very interested in the folks who make critter work a professional career, and so I was very excited to read Scott McCorquodale’s new book Chasing Wildlife Secrets: A Biologist’s Journey about his life and times as a Washington wildlife researcher.

There’s still the matter of the governor’s signature – or veto – but WDFW is taking stock of the Operating and Capital Budgets that Washington’s legislature just passed in Olympia.

Late April 2025 spring Chinook and steelhead catch stats for the Cowlitz, Kalama, Lewis and Wind Rivers and Drano Lake.

Washington lawmakers passed a bill reinstating the Columbia River endorsement to fish for salmon and steelhead this afternoon following amendments to it in the Senate and concurrence from the House. It now heads to Governor Bob Ferguson’s desk and is the second fishing-related fee increase from state legislators this session.

A bill that would bring back Washington’s Columbia River endorsement requirement to fish for salmon and steelhead in much of the watershed was tweaked in committee this afternoon as it received a majority do-pass recommendation.

A Washington state Senate committee gave three recently appointed Fish and Wildlife Commission members do-pass recommendations this morning.

Wednesday was a great day to go out for spring Chinook with a guy who grew up fishing the Willamette and nearby Clackamas Rivers.

A fishing and hunting license increase is one big step closer to hitting most Washington hunters and anglers’ wallets this summer after Substitute Senate Bill 5583 passed out of the House of Representatives on a 51-46 vote yesterday.

ODFW reports that a Chinese mitten crab was found in the Lower Columbia east of Tongue Point earlier this week, a first for the Northwest, and worrisome given “significant infrastructure and ecological damage” seen during a mitten crab infestation elsewhere on the West Coast.

A program that as of December 2023 has provided $1.8 billion in federal money and leveraged another $2.2 billion for almost 16,000-plus projects that have restored, created or set aside nearly 1.2 million acres of habitat and reopened 12,000 miles of water for salmon and steelhead in the Northwest and rest of the US West…

Mid-April 2025 spring Chinook and steelhead catch stats for the Lower Columbia and select Southwest Washington tributaries.

A bill that would require Washington salmon and steelhead anglers to once again buy an endorsement to fish the Columbia River and its tributaries passed out of the state House of Representatives today on a 53-44 vote.

That viral pic of a large pack of wolves gathered around a bear they supposedly just killed on a road near Diamond Lake in Oregon’s Southern Cascades?

Federal fish, wildlife and land overseers are proposing to change standing rules that include the habitats of listed species in take protections and balance conservation with extractive uses on vast swaths of public ground in the West.

The long-awaited 2025 Puget Sound spot shrimp season has just been announced by WDFW and will open May 21 in most areas, though Marine Areas 10 (outside Elliott Bay), 11 and 13 will be closed due to low abundance.

Season dates, permit levels, and information on new regulations around bear and cougar hunting, baiting, chronic wasting disease requirements and more are detailed in the 2025 Washington Big Game Hunting Regulations pamphlet, now available from WDFW.

WDFW is detailing tentative 2025-26 Washington salmon fisheries, including bonus pinks in most inner Puget Sound fisheries, Skykomish summer Chinook, Skagit-Baker sockeye, ocean kings and coho, and Buoy 10 fall fish, among others. The proposals now go to NMFS for final approval.

Early to mid-April 2025 spring Chinook and steelhead catch stats for the Lower Columbia and select Southwest Washington tributaries including That One.

Oregon’s wolf population grew to a minimum of 204 wolves across the state at the end of 2024, an increase of 15 percent over the previous tally, according to the just-released annual report.

More details are emerging on Washington’s newest Fish and Wildlife Commission member, as well as reformists’ reaction to Governor Bob Ferguson’s Monday appointments.

ODFW details potential new mule deer hunt unit names, changes to long-standing area boundaries, and why there may be slightly fewer tags on tap for the species during the 2026 season east of the Cascades. Final decision from the Fish and Wildlife Commission comes in September.

Fishing for hatchery spring Chinook will reopen on the Lower Columbia April 11-13 and 15-17, salmon managers at WDFW and ODFW decided this afternoon.

A New York Times article out this morning details how Chinook production at nearly a dozen hatcheries in Western Washington is said to be in “limbo” because cuts back in DC put a critical National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration staffer out of a job, placing future fisheries at risk.

Early April 2025 spring Chinook and steelhead catch stats for the Lower Columbia and select Southwest Washington tributaries.

The reviews continue to roll in on yesterday’s pleasing appointments to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission – reaction from NWIFC, RMEF, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, former Commissioner Kim Thorburn, Chair Barbara Baker, Puget Sound Anglers state board, and Commissioner Molly Linville.

An inseason runsize downgrade of nearly 1,900 wild steelhead is leading state managers to close all fishing on the Sauk and Skagit Rivers effective the end of the day, April 10. Tribal managers are also closing their fisheries.

Molly Linville will return to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission, Jim Anderson has been reappointed, and an Anacortes man will also join the citizen panel.

A minimum of 230 wolves roamed the Evergreen State at the end of last year, a decrease over the previous count and ending 15 straight years of population growth, though the number of packs grew and overall numbers have still grown 20 percent annually since 2008, even with the one-year decline.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission approved WDFW-recommended cougar and bear hunting rules nearly unanimously this afternoon.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted late this morning to acquire 655 acres in Pacific County for waterfowl, salmon habitat restoration and improve recreational access.

Temporary good news for Willamette Valley kokanee anglers: The Army Corps of Engineers is delaying their super-deep drawdown of Detroit Lake from this fall to late 2026.

With some Central Oregon mule deer coming out of winter “at very low weights” following a bad fire season last year, the Phillip W. Schneider Wildlife Area won’t open for shed hunting and other public entry till May 1 so as to give the animals a couple extra weeks of undisturbed grazing as the range…

Washington state lawmakers will hold a public hearing Thursday afternoon on a bill that would increase most hunting and fishing license fees by 38 percent.

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers is reacting to a report that some in Congress are “considering the sale of public lands as part of an upcoming budget reconciliation bill – a move that threatens to privatize landscapes cherished by hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts across the nation.”