Tag: salmon

Fishermen, Conservationists Seek Intervention in Winchester Dam Case

Feb. 10, 2025 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, please contact: Jim McCarthy, WaterWatch of Oregon, jim@waterwatch.org Groups’ Petition for Party Status: https://shorturl.at/xf5eZ Exhibit A of Petition: https://shorturl.at/ITXd7 Exhibit B of Petition: https://shorturl.at/lBVyO Exhibit C of Petition: https://shorturl.at/dYf6i Fishermen, Conservationists Seek Intervention in Winchester Dam Case Salmon, steelhead, and livelihoods at stake in case over […]

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Make a Gift Today to Support Our Work Freeing the Rogue

Dec. 20, 2024 As we showcase our 2024 End of the Year Accomplishments report, one campaign where WaterWatch continues to get big results is our long-standing effort to Free the Rogue from artificial barriers to native fish in order to bolster salmon and steelhead populations, enhance recreation and fishing opportunities, and increase resiliency to climate change. For decades, WaterWatch

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On the Illinois River, Pomeroy Dam is Now Just a Memory

By Chrissy Ewald | Nov. 27, 2024 | Grants Pass Daily Courier Demolition is complete of a concrete dam that used to arc 270 feet across the Illinois River near Cave Junction and blocked access to 100 miles of spawning grounds for salmon, steelhead, and other migratory fish. The removal of the Pomeroy Dam marks

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Rogue River Basin’s Highest Priority Barrier to Native Fish Comes Down

Nov. 26, 2024 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For information, please contact:Jim McCarthy, WaterWatch of Oregon, jim@waterwatch.orgScott Wright, River Design Group/SWCA Environmental Consultants, scott.wright@swca.com Pomeroy Dam, West Side Road culverts before and after images here:https://tinyurl.com/3ebb76cmPlease credit photos to Crystal Nichols/Dustin Saigo Rogue River Basin’s Highest Priority Barrier to Native Fish Comes DownOngoing multi-barrier collaborative effort benefits salmon

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Accolades and Salmon Follow Another Rogue Basin Dam Removal

Oct. 31, 2024 A year has passed since WaterWatch completed a priority fish barrier removal project on Takelma Creek in the Illinois River subbasin of the Rogue, and positive responses continue to pour in from both the local salmon population and the region’s scientific community. The multi-faceted Takelma project opened access to 3.5 miles of

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The Fall Issue of Our Instream Newsletter is Arriving in Mailboxes Now

Oct. 25, 2024 The fall issue of our Instream newsletter is arriving in mailboxes now, and despite teases the cover photo is an image of a plant, blood vessel, or microbe, it’s actually a portion of the Wild and Scenic stretch of the Rogue River. Taken by cartographer Daniel Coe, who has designed maps for National Geographic, Atlas

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Instream: Missed Opportunities in the Columbia River Treaty Update

Oct. 24, 2024 By John DeVoe For thousands of years, cultures and economies and ways of life have been tied to the Columbia River and its fish. The Columbia River is, by volume, the fourth-largest river in the United States. While 40 percent of the river’s mileage is in Canada, for some, the international border

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Instream: WaterWatch-Led Fish Barrier Removal Project Wins Award

Oct. 24, 2024 By Jim McCarthy We’re thrilled and honored to announce the WaterWatch-led Takelma Creek Barrier Removal Project, completed in 2023, has won the 2024 Western District American Fisheries Society Award of Excellence in Riparian Management. This multi-faceted project is primarily located on Siskiyou Field Institute property in the Illinois River subbasin of the

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First Sighting of Salmon in 100 Years Marks Key Milestone for Landmark Dam Removals

By Kurtis Alexander | Oct. 4, 2024 | San Francisco Chronicle In an early victory for the nation’s largest dam removal project, the first salmon in more than a century is believed to have pushed up the Klamath River this past week into waters formerly blocked by dams. Scientists with the nonprofit California Trout told

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Jim McCarthy on Campaign to Remove Winchester Dam on JPR’s Jefferson Exchange

Hosted by Mike Green | Sept. 11, 2024 | Jefferson Public Radio Jim McCarthy, Southern Oregon program director at WaterWatch of Oregon, joined the Jefferson Exchange to discuss the controversy over incomplete repairs of the 134-year-old Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River in Douglas County, and the growing movement to remove it altogether. Listen

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Virtual Columbia River Treaty Presentation This Monday at 12 Noon

As WaterWatch recently detailed, along with fellow environmental organizations in a Columbia River Treaty Conservation Caucus press release, and as reported by the Associated Press and PBS, the U.S. and Canada have reached an agreement in principle on some items that were the subject of negotiations in the ongoing update to the Columbia River Treaty. Unfortunately, that update remains focused on utility revenue and flood control at the

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Huge California Dam Removal Project Ahead of Schedule — With Historic Return of Wildlife to Follow

By Kurtis Alexander | July 25, 2024 | San Francisco Chronicle The dams, collectively known as the Klamath Hydroelectric Project, were built between 1911 and 1962 to provide electricity. The nation’s largest dam-removal project is moving along faster than planned, with the demolition work on the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border due to wrap

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U.S. and Canada Agree to Update 60 Year Old Columbia River Treaty

By Nicholas K. Geranios | July 24, 2024 | Cascade PBS Politicians are celebrating the tentative agreement, while activists and tribal leaders say it doesn’t do enough to protect endangered salmon runs. The United States and Canada have reached a new deal to manage the mighty Columbia River, an economic and environmental powerhouse that starts

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Challenges and Gains for Water Conservation Plan

By Michael Kohn | July 12, 2024 | Bend Bulletin On the last day of 2020, eight irrigation districts in Central Oregon and the city of Prineville entered into a landmark agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Their accord, the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), spelled out in hundreds of pages of

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U.S. Would Keep More Hydropower Under Agreement with Canada on Treaty Governing Columbia River

By Gene Johnson | July 11, 2024 | Associated Press The U.S. and Canada said Thursday they have agreed to update a six-decade-old treaty that governs the use of one of North America’s largest rivers, the Columbia, with provisions that officials said would provide for effective flood control, irrigation, and hydropower generation and sharing between

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Disappointing Columbia River Treaty “Agreement in Principle” Prioritizes Hydropower, Flood Control Over Needs of Imperiled Salmon and River Health

July 11, 2024 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, please contact: Bill Arthur, Sierra Club, billwarthur@gmail.com Joseph Bogaard, Save Our wild Salmon Coalition, joseph@wildsalmon.org Rev. A.C. Churchill, Earth Ministry / Washington Interfaith Power and Light, ac@earthministry.org John DeVoe, WaterWatch of Oregon, john@waterwatch.org Columbia River Treaty “Agreement in Principle” Prioritizes Hydropower and Flood Control Over the

Disappointing Columbia River Treaty “Agreement in Principle” Prioritizes Hydropower, Flood Control Over Needs of Imperiled Salmon and River Health Read More »

Instream: A Visitor’s Guide to Klamath Dam Removals

July 3, 2024 By Jim McCarthy The removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River near the Oregon-California state line is nearly complete. The smallest of the four dams, Copco 2, was removed last summer. The other three, far larger dams were breached this January in preparation for the major structural removal now taking

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Instream: Summertime River Hikes

July 3, 2024 By John DeVoe with Tommy Hough Wenaha River Tim Palmer’s Field Guide to Oregon Rivers calls the Wenaha “one of the Northwest’s wildest streams … with no roads, dams, development or diversions.” He should know. A few years ago, Tim and a couple of friends hiked up the Wenaha from the lower

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WaterWatch Endangered Species Day Gallery

May 17, 2024 All this week WaterWatch of Oregon has been spotlighting wildlife in the lead-up to today’s observance of Endangered Species Day, highlighting the importance and value of the landmark 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the plight of threatened aquatic species in Oregon. Since the ESA was signed into law on Dec. 28,

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Activists See New Beginning with Dismantling of Largest Klamath River Dam

By Ian James | May 3, 2024 | Los Angeles Times Workers have begun dismantling the largest dam on the Klamath River, using machinery to scoop the first loads of rocks from an earthen barrier that has stood near the border of California and Oregon for more than six decades. Several Indigenous leaders and activists

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Instream: At Long Last, Revised Groundwater Rules for Oregon

April 18, 2024 By Lisa Brown After an exhaustive and scientifically rigorous process, the Oregon Water Resources Department published proposed groundwater allocation rules reliant upon science and data to implement Oregon’s forward-looking 1955 Ground Water Act — and put Oregon on a more sustainable path to smart, sensible, environmentally-sound groundwater allocation. On March 1st, the

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As Massive Klamath Dam Removal Project Nears Completion, Who Gets Once-Submerged Land?

By Kurtis Alexander | Feb. 22, 2024 | San Francisco Chronicle The nation’s largest dam-removal project, the dismantling of four hydroelectric dams near the border of California and Oregon border, may be the end of one story — but it’s the beginning of another. The native Shasta people, who were exiled from the banks of the

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Court Hearing in Winchester Dam Water Storage Case

Feb. 16, 2024 The outcome of a hearing in Marion County Circuit Court in Salem could have a big impact on the fate of Winchester Dam, and by extension the North Umpqua River’s struggling salmon and steelhead populations, as a motion filed by the Oregon Water Resources Department (WRD) to dismiss an earlier water storage

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Court Hearing in Winchester Dam Water Storage Case

Feb. 16, 2024 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For information, please contact: Jim McCarthy, WaterWatch of Oregon, jim@waterwatch.orgWHO: Winchester Water Control District v. Oregon Water Resources Department, Dwight French (Case No. 23CV33445) WHAT: Hearing on Oregon Water Resources Department Motion to Dismiss WHEN: Friday, February 16, 2024 WHERE: Marion County Circuit Court, Salem, Oregon Documents relevant to

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WaterWatch Presents Author and Photographer Amy Gulick

Feb. 14, 2024 Thanks to everyone who attended this wonderful event with Amy Gulick on March 5th! Photos are posted at our WaterWatch of Oregon Flickr account. At WaterWatch we’re working to restore historic salmon runs in Oregon by protecting instream water rights, removing obsolete dams, and reforming groundwater pumping rules to preserve the connectivity

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A Tire Chemical is Threatening Salmon — Here’s What You Need to Know

By Rachel McCrea | Nov. 9, 2023 | Washington Post Whether you own a gas, hybrid, or electric car, driving may have some unexpected environmental impacts: It could be killing salmon. Most tires contain 6PPD, a chemical several studies have linked to the deaths of certain kinds of fish. In a lawsuit filed in U.S.

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Disastrous Dam Repair on North Umpqua Sparks Massive Fish Kill, Pollution Spills, State Senate Inquiry, and $27.6 Million Fine

By Jim McCarthy | Oct. 30, 2023 | The Osprey At least 550,000 juvenile Pacific lamprey were killed this summer due to the botched repair of Winchester Dam on Oregon’s North Umpqua River. On October 6th, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) filed a $27.6 million claim for recovery of damages in the

Disastrous Dam Repair on North Umpqua Sparks Massive Fish Kill, Pollution Spills, State Senate Inquiry, and $27.6 Million Fine Read More »

Southern Oregon Dam Operators Now Face Water Pollution Fines on Top of Millions for Fish Kills

By Alex Baumhardt | Oct. 27, 2023 | Oregon Capital Chronicle The operators of Winchester Dam in Oregon face more than $134,000 in fines for water violations on top of $27.6 million for killing lamprey. The operators of a southern Oregon dam and the company that repaired it face additional fines for violating state permits

Southern Oregon Dam Operators Now Face Water Pollution Fines on Top of Millions for Fish Kills Read More »

Crews Demolish Dam in Takelma Creek, Restore Access for Salmon

By Izzie Lund | Oct. 4, 2023 | KDRV News Crews have finished demolishing a 13-foot-high, 70-foot-wide dam in an effort to restore salmon and steelhead habitat in Takelma Creek, according to a news release from WaterWatch of Oregon. “(The project) opened access to approximately 3.5 miles of formerly blocked spawning and rearing habitat for

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Southern Oregon Dam Removed Using Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding

By Roman Battaglia | Aug. 1, 2023 | Jefferson Public Radio A small, abandoned dam in Southern Oregon was removed last week using funds from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The dam removal will greatly improve access to habitat for many different fish species. The Lovelace Dam on Slate Creek is the fifth to be

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Instream: Federal Regulator Says Four Lower Klamath Dams May Come Down

April 4, 2023 By Jim McCarthy In Nov. 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted final approval for the decommissioning of the lower four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River near the Oregon-California state line. The decision marked the end of two decades of advocacy, politics, and bureaucratic processes surrounding this hydro complex. It is

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Protecting Groundwater Resources is Critical for Oregon’s Environment and People

By WaterWatch Staff | April 5, 2022 | Instream Groundwater provides a myriad of irreplaceable ecological benefits and is the sole source of drinking water for nearly one in four Oregonians. WaterWatch has a long history of working to ensure that Oregon’s management of groundwater preserves the vital role of this resource in maintaining streamflows,

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Three Priority Dam Removals Completed in Rogue’s Applegate Subbasin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 13, 2021 Contacts: Jim McCarthy, WaterWatch of Oregon, (541) 941-9450 Brian Barr, Rogue River Watershed Council, (541) 621-7226 Harboldt Dam before and after removal images here: https://tinyurl.com/eaz9kswe Credit photos to Crystal Nichols, Rogue River Watershed Council Three Priority Dam Removals Completed in Rogue’s Applegate Subbasin Collaborative project benefits salmon and steelhead while meeting private

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Columbia River Treaty Watchers Hope to Right 50 Years of Wrongs

By Rob Chaney | April 13, 2018 | The Missoulian Fire up half a dozen bulldozers over a summer and Canada could turn the Kootenai River away from Libby Dam and pour its water into the Columbia River. Nobody’s planning to do that. But somebody thought it was significant enough to include in the 1964

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Conservation groups to file lawsuit over Klamath River water flow

Conservation groups to file lawsuit over Klamath River water flow By The Associated Press April 4, 2013 GRANTS PASS — Two conservation groups warned federal agencies Thursday they plan to sue to get more water devoted to protected salmon in the Klamath River. Oregon Wild and WaterWatch of Oregon filed a 60-day notice of intent

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New treaty must address ecosystem concerns

GUEST VIEWPOINT New treaty must address ecosystem concerns By John DeVoe The Register-Guard January 28, 2018

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Judge Denies Irrigators Special Treatment, Millions in Drought Payments

Judge Denies Irrigators Special Treatment, Millions in Drought Payments Read More »

Brown signs bill protecting salmon habitat from river mining

Brown signs bill protecting salmon habitat from river mining BY ANDREW THEEN The Oregonian/OregonLive June 14, 2017 Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill Wednesday that protects thousands of miles of critical salmon habitat across much of western Oregon from suction dredge mining.

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Oregon Senate passes permanent dredging-ban bill

Oregon Senate passes permanent dredging-ban bill By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune April 10, 2017 A permanent ban on suction dredging in Western Oregon’s wild salmon habitat championed by the late Democratic Sen. Alan Bates passed out of the Oregon Senate on Monday

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Judge Orders More Water Releases From Klamath River Dams

Judge Orders More Water Releases From Klamath River Dams by Cassandra Profita OPB/EarthFix February 8, 2017 In a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge William Orrick ordered more water releases from dams on the Klamath River to flush out parasites causing deadly disease outbreaks in salmon. In recent drought years, scientists have found extremely high rates

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