


Headlines
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Provision To Sell Half Million Acres Of Public Land Stripped From Federal Budget Bill
Hunters and anglers are cheering this evening after a bid to sell off or exchange nearly half a million acres of public land in the West was stripped out of US House’s reconciliation budget bill following pushback from within the ranks.
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Columbia Springer Season Extended Again
Spring Chinook season will roll into mid-June on the Lower Columbia and reopen in the gorge pools for 25 days starting later this week, state managers decided this afternoon.
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Roadkilled Blacktails Now Salvageable In 3 Southwest Washington Counties
Blacktail deer hit and killed by vehicles in Cowlitz, Clark and Wahkiakum Counties can now be salvaged under a new rule recently approved by WDFW.
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Ferguson Signs WA Fish-Hunt License Fee Hike, Return Of Columbia Endorsement Bills Into Law
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson has signed into law a pair of bills increasing the cost to fish and hunt in the state.
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SW WA, Lower Columbia, Lower Willamette Fishing Report (5-19-25)
Mid-May 2025 catch stats for the Lower Columbia, select Southwest Washington tributaries and the lower Willamette River.
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WDFW Commission Set To End All Work On Controversial Draft Conservation Policy
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is preparing to walk away from its controversial draft Conservation Policy.
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WDFW Reports On Coastal Steelhead Research
Warmer temperatures, changing ocean conditions and higher competition in the North Pacific are impacting Washington Coast winter steelhead, and if not for those factors, their “survival and abundance would have been nearly constant over the last four or five decades,” WDFW says about new research on the stock.
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‘Little Red Fish’ Surge On Sammamish: Better Passage, Delayed Hatchery Release Keying Kokanee Recovery
King County shares the good news about how Lake Sammamish kokanee have begun to bounce back from the brink as well as plans to expand hatch boxes on tributaries.
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US Marine Mammal Comm, $500m Green River Fish Passage Project Targeted for Elimination
Eliminating the Marine Mammal Commission. Eliminating $500 million for a new downstream salmon and steelhead smolt passage facility on a King County river that will help open 100 miles of “high-quality” spawning and rearing habitat.
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5 Listed SW WA Fish Stocks And The 1 Project To Improve ‘Em All
NOAA details how a largescale habitat project on Southwest Washington’s lower East Fork Lewis River will improve Chinook, steelhead and chum habitat, as well as benefit anglers and the local economy.
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Hundreds Of YTC Elk, Deer Permits Scrubbed After Army Suspends Most Recreation
The suspension of most recreational activities on the Yakima Training Center in Central Washington by the US Army due to a “hiring freeze” and upcoming military training has blown up hundreds of elk and deer special permits that were otherwise going to be available there this big game hunting season.
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Above-Bonneville Springer Run Upgraded By 25 Percent
The Columbia’s upriver-origin spring Chinook run has been upgraded by nearly a quarter, allowing for a reopening on portions of Washington’s Snake.
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SW WA, Lower Columbia, Lower Willamette Fishing Report (5-13-25)
Mid-May 2025 catch stats for the Lower Columbia, select Southwest Washington tributaries and the lower Willamette.
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Oregon Troopers Looking For Info On Wild Steelhead Killed, Wasted On North Umpqua
Oregon fish and wildlife troopers are looking for tips in the case of a wild steelhead illegally kept and left to waste on the North Umpqua River at Amacher Park in Winchester outside Roseburg on or about Thursday, May 8.
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Public Lands ‘Not Bargaining Chips, Not Surplus, Not For Sale’ – BHA On US House Budget Bill
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers is urging members and the public to contact their US House representatives and demand “that public land sales be removed from the budget reconciliation package.”
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Springers To Reopen On Columbia Below, Above Bonneville Starting Later This Week
Columbia salmon managers approved two more weeks of spring Chinook fishing on the lower river below Bonneville and two more days in the mainstem reservoirs above there.
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Columbia Spring Chinook Managers Propose Lower River, Pool Reopeners
Columbia spring Chinook managers are proposing to reopen the big river below Bonneville Dam for 14 days and mainstem gorge pools above there for two days.
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DU, Other Groups Cheer Bipartisan Habitat Bill From PNW Senators
A bipartisan bill introduced by two Northwest senators that would create a new USFWS grant program to fund water infrastructure and waterfowl and migratory bird habitat in the Columbia River Basin and Washington and Oregon Coasts has Ducks Unlimited and other organizations applauding.
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Columbia Upriver Springer Run Expected To Meet Forecast
With the upriver spring Chinook run now expected to at least make forecast and catch balances available above and below Bonneville, Columbia salmon managers this week are exploring fishery options.
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SW WA Fishing Report (5-5-25)
Early May 2025 spring Chinook and steelhead catch stats for Southwest Washington tributaries.
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NW States, Tribes Ask Congress For Salmon And Steelhead Funding
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, a request supported by a range of sportfishing and environmental groups.
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Tri-Cities Fishing Event Builds Next Generation Of Anglers
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.
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Retired Washington Critter Researcher’s New Book A Wild Ride
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.
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A Look At WDFW’s 2025-27 Budget As Approved By Washington’s Legislature
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.
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SW WA Fishing Report (4-29-25)
Late April 2025 spring Chinook and steelhead catch stats for the Cowlitz, Kalama, Lewis and Wind Rivers and Drano Lake.
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Washington Legislature Passes Columbia Endorsement; Next Heads To Governor
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.
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Columbia Fishing Endorsement Bill Amended By Senate Committee
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.
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3 WDFW Commissioners Receive Nod From Senate Committee
A Washington state Senate committee gave three recently appointed Fish and Wildlife Commission members do-pass recommendations this morning.
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Fishing For Willamette Springers With Guide David Johnson
Wednesday was a great day to go out for spring Chinook with a guy who grew up fishing the Willamette and nearby Clackamas Rivers.
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Lawmakers Pass Washington Fish-Hunt Fee Increase Out Of House; Headed Soon To Governor
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.
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Chinese Mitten Crab Found In Lower Columbia; First Confirmed In NW
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.
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Federal Salmon, Steelhead Habitat Fund In Danger Of Being Fileted To The Bone
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…
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SW WA, Lower Columbia Fishing Report (4-21-25)
Mid-April 2025 spring Chinook and steelhead catch stats for the Lower Columbia and select Southwest Washington tributaries.
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Columbia Endorsement Bill Passes Out Of Washington House
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.
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No, The Pic Of Wolves And A ‘Dead Bear’ Wasn’t Taken Anywhere Near Oregon’s Diamond Lake
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?
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Feds Look To Redefine ‘Take’ Under ESA, Rescind Public Lands Rule
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.