Columbia River

Pacific lamprey are returning to the Columbia River in record numbers. That’s boosting tribal efforts to help the fish, which are a big part of some tribe’s histories.

Caddisflies – the insects – are a key indicator species of the health of our region’s rivers and streams. And they’re out in force across the Columbia Basin this year.

Three Native American tribes have devoted decades to returning their ancestral land in Washington to the days before they became the most radioactively contaminated site in the nation’s nuclear weapons complex.

Long before the U.S. government made plutonium for bombs at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington [state], the land belonged to native peoples. For the Yakama Nation, the area was vital for hunting and fishing. Tribal leaders want young people to know about their legacy, and the fight that lies ahead.

Northwest scientists say the region’s unique geology could help the planet. To keep heat-trapping gasses out of the atmosphere, researchers want to pump CO2 deep underground.

Police in Oregon have arrested a Canadian man who allegedly stole a yacht and had to be rescued by a Coast Guard swimmer. He's wanted in what authorities call a series of “odd” events that involved him leaving a dead fish at the home in the film “The Goonies.”

If two British Columbia tailings dams fail, it could spell disaster, according to two reports that analyzed the chances of the dams failing.

The Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest, which Natives call Nch’i-Wána, or “the great river,” has sustained Indigenous people in the region for millennia. The river's salmon and the roots and berries that grow around the area, are known as “first foods" because of the belief that they volunteered to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of humans at the time of Creation. The foods and the river are still threatened by industrialization, climate change and pollution.

The Columbia River has long divided the two halves of Washington's cross-state Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail. Now, a rebuilt rail trestle over the river south of Vantage connects the two sides making it easier for cyclists, horse riders and hikers to undertake a spectacular east-west journey.

This summer’s heat wave led to some unhealthy hot water for salmon. But fish managers said it hasn’t been as devastating for salmon runs as the warm water…