Take a video tour of projects in the Columbia River Basin. Each of the videos displayed on the map are examples of the work that BPA and its project partners are doing to protect and restore fish and wildlife populations and the habitat they depend on.
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Scientists from the Bonneville Power Administration and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs work to restore an area of the river degraded by mining. The three phase project has been paid in large part by BPA through the Columbia Basin Fish Accords. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.
| Projects | 2000-015-00 |
| Organizations | Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs |
| People |
Jason Karnezis (jpkarnezis@bpa.gov) Brian Cochran (Inactive) (brian.cochran@ctwsbnr.org) |
The largest purchase of habitat in the Columbia River estuary in about 40 years will permanently protect essential refuge for salmon, steelhead and other wildlife. The Columbia Land Trust purchased the 920-acre Columbia Stock Ranch Jan. 23 with funding from the Bonneville Power Administration, setting the stage for restoration of historic tidal wetlands by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Now hundreds of acres wetlands on the south shore of the Columbia River near Goble, Ore. will provide food and shelter for Northwest salmon migrating to and from the ocean.
| Projects | 2010-073-00 |
| Organizations | Columbia Land Trust |
| People | Scott McEwen (Inactive) (smcewen@columbialandtrust.org) |
More than 60,000 thousand fall chinook salmon recently returned to their spawning gravels in the Vernita Bar area of the Columbia River's Hanford Reach. Fish biologists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Grant County Public Utility District, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and BPA went to Vernita Bar on Nov. 20 to conduct a final redd count, which totaled 8,915 for the season, well above the 10-year average of 6,972. A redd is a gravel nest created by female salmon or trout where its eggs are laid, subsequently hatched, and fry emerge. In order to count the redds, Grant County PUD, which owns and operates Priest Rapids Dam, four miles upstream from Vernita Bar, reduced flows about 50 percent to 50 thousand cubic feet per second. At that river level, biologists were able to get an accurate count of the redds. Even though some redds were exposed, they were not harmed because they can be out of water and remain viable up to 12 hours at this stage of development. Hydro system operators are now running the river to protect the redds until the young salmon hatch and begin migrating to the ocean this spring.
| People | Paul Hoffarth (hoffaph@dfw.wa.gov) |
Members of the Yakama Nation are again harvesting wapato root, a traditional, egg-shaped potato-like tribal food that had been absent from their culture for 70 years. The wapato root disappeared from Yakama's land due to agricultural diversion. In the 1990s, BPA helped the Tribe purchase a 440-acres parcel of land on Toppenish Creek as a wetland restoration project for fish and wildlife. The restored habitat has brought back the wapato. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.
| Organizations | Yakama Confederated Tribes |
Spring Creek is home to the Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The state of Idaho has listed the trout as sensitive. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes are restoring Spring Creek to improve habitat for the Yellowstone cutthroat and hopefully increase its population. The Bonneville Power Administration is paying for most of the project through the Columbia Basin Fish Accords. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.
| Organizations | Shoshone-Bannock Tribes |
| People |
Chad Colter (chad.colter@sbtribes.com) Hunter Osborne (Hunter.Osborne@sbtribes.com) |
The Yakama Nation improves an old fish ladder on the wild and scenic Klickitat River. The fishway will help salmon and steelhead maneuver around Lyle Falls on the Klickitat. Besides helping fish migrate up the river, the new ladder will also help tribal members trap more wild stocks and infuse their genes into hatchery fish making them stronger. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.
| Organizations | Yakama Confederated Tribes |
| People |
Bill Sharp (Bill_Sharp@yakama.com) Mary Haight (mthaight@bpa.gov) |
Miles of historic habitat for salmon and steelhead are reopened on Bridge Creek after a fish ladder and new bridge are installed. The small tributary to the John Day River contains highly valuable habitat for spawning fish that is pristine and virtually untouched by humans. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.
| Projects | 1993-066-00 |
| Organizations | Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs |
| People |
John Baugher (Inactive) (jrbaugher@bpa.gov) Scott Turo (Inactive) (scott.turo@ctwsbnr.org) Gabe Williams (gabemwilliams@hotmail.com) |
Bonneville Power helps to fund a fish screen operation in John Day, Oregon, where workers build hundreds of screens every year. The screens are used to block fish from entering the many irrigation ditches and canals of the John Day, Umatilla and Walla Walla Rivers and their tributaries. It's estimated the screens save hundreds of thousands of fish from perishing in Eastern Oregon farm fields. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.
| People |
Jamie Cleveland (Inactive) (jacleveland@bpa.gov) Jim Smith (jim.smith@colvilletribes.com) Kelly Stokes (Inactive) (kelly.s.stokes@state.or.us) |
In May 2008, several Native American Tribes, federal agencies and states signed the Columbia Basin Fish Accords. The agreement helped pave the way for more fish habitat improvement projects to be completed across the Pacific Northwest. The following video highlights just a handful of the many successful projects helping to recover salmon, steelhead and other species in the Columbia and Snake River Basins. The video was shown at the three-year celebration of the Fish Accords in The Dalles, Ore., on May 31, 2011. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.
| People |
Antone Minthorn (antoneminthorn@ctuir.org) Chad Colter (chad.colter@sbtribes.com) Charles Hudson (hudc@critfc.org) Hunter Osborne (Hunter.Osborne@sbtribes.com) Mark Schuck (hatd@critfc.org) Ron Suppah (rsuppah@wstribes.org) Preston Bronson (Inactive) (prestonbronson@ctuir.org) Scott Turo (Inactive) (scott.turo@ctwsbnr.org) Guy Norman (guy.norman@dfw.wa.gov) Steve Wright |
Bonneville Power Administration funded fish and wildlife habitat restoration projects support hundreds of jobs and boost the Pacific Northwest economy. For example, Thompson Bros. Excavating, a construction company in Vancouver, Wash., says approximately half of their work now involves fish habitat restoration projects. In 2010, BPA spent more than $97 million on habitat restoration in four northwestern states, supporting an estimated 1,700 jobs.
The Bonneville Power Administration, The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and other partners work together to help recover salmon and steelhead on the Umatilla River in Eastern Oregon. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.
| Organizations | Umatilla Confederated Tribes (CTUIR) |
| People |
Preston Bronson (Inactive) (prestonbronson@ctuir.org) Timmie Mandish (Inactive) (tamandish@bpa.gov) |
A decades old diversion on Taneum Creek was recently replaced with a new fish-friendly structure that allows fish and other aquatic species to pass easily up and downstream. The project is part of a huge effort in the Yakima River Basin to restore habitat and improve stream flows and water delivery techniques. Taneum Creek is a tributary of the Yakima River, located about 11 miles northwest of Ellensburg, Washington.
| People |
Jay Marcotte (Inactive) (jgmarcotte@bpa.gov) David Gerth (Inactive) (kct@inlandnet.com) |
Juvenile salmon gain access to more rearing habitat in the Columbia River thanks to the installation of an enormous culvert. The recently completed project reconnects a wetland with the tide waters of the Columbia River. The tidal wetland, noted on the maps of Lewis and Clark, was cut off from the river by a highway and railroad in the 1890s. The new culvert is located near Fort Columbia, east of Chinook, Washington and north of Astoria, Oregon. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.
| Projects | 2010-004-00 |
| Organizations | Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce (CREST) |
| People | John Baugher (Inactive) (jrbaugher@bpa.gov) |
Record numbers of Snake River chinook salmon returned to Idaho's Clearwater Basin this year and are spawning in record numbers too. Biologists monitoring the salmon have counted more nests, called redds, than ever in key areas of the Clearwater, a good sign for future generations of the threatened species.
Water is a precious commodity in the Columbia Basin. Now water users, tribes, agencies and local conservation districts are collaborating on Manastash Creek so both fish and farmers get the water they need. This is but one recent example of groups working together in the Yakima Basin to protect, conserve and otherwise make the most of the Basin's limited water resources. This project will be dedicated to the memory of Washington environmental attorney John Arum, who was instrumental in its development.
| People |
Jay Marcotte (Inactive) (jgmarcotte@bpa.gov) Anna Lael (anna.lael@kccd.net) Michael Garello (mike.garello@hdrinc.com) |
The spill of water to help fish bypass hydroelectric turbines is a key tool in protecting juvenile Columbia River salmon and steelhead that migrate past federal dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Spillway weirs, or fish slides, and other passage improvements at all eight dams make spill even more effective at carrying fish downriver safely. Spill and passage improvements together form a foundation of the 2008 Biological Opinion that outlines how federal agencies will protect endangered and threatened fish. Today, juvenile fish survival is as good or better than when only four major dams stood on the Columbia.
| People | Jason Sweet (jcsweet@bpa.gov) |
Unlike your typical salmon that dies after it spawns, steelhead can actually repeat spawn like freshwater trout and these repeat spawning steelhead are called kelts. After spawning, kelts act like a giant smolt (juvenile salmon) and drift back out to the ocean to start the cycle over again. Unfortunately, a lot of them aren't making it back to their spawning grounds a second or third time because of predators, poor river conditions and exhaustion. So biologists at the Yakama Nation's Salmon hatchery in Prosser, Washington have been intercepting kelts and reconditioning them so they're healthier and stronger, and more likely to make the trip back home again.
| People |
Joe Blodgett (joe_blodgett@yakama.com) Mark Schuck (hatd@critfc.org) |
On Oct. 22, the State of Oregon and the Bonneville Power Administration signed a landmark agreement to jointly protect nearly 20,000 acres of Willamette Basin wildlife habitat -- more than twice the area of Oregon's largest state park. The agreement dedicates stable funding from electric ratepayers for 15 years to cost-effectively safeguard Willamette habitat for many native species such as Oregon's state bird, the western meadowlark. It also provides for BPA funding of two major initial habitat acquisitions: Purchase of 1,270 acres at the confluence of the Middle and Coast forks of the Willamette River southeast of Eugene by The Nature Conservancy and a conservation easement on 1,310 acres of forest and other habitat owned by Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey near Lafayette, Ore.
| People | Steve Wright |
For the last three years, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation have been learning a new, more selective way to fish. Purse seining is a live capture method of fishing that allows the tribe to catch and keep hatchery fish for distribution to their tribal members and let the wild fish go free unharmed. This year the tribe bought their first purse seiner, the Dream Catcher. The project is funded by Bonneville Power Administration, part of the agency's comprehensive program to protect and restore Columbia Basin fish through habitat restoration, hatchery reforms and improved fish passage at the federal dams.
| Organizations | Colville Confederated Tribes |
| People | Dale Clark (Inactive) (dale.clark@colvilletribes.com) |
Armed with passion, science and urgency, state and federal agencies and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho are working to recover the endangered white sturgeon. The white sturgeon, third largest of the prehistoric species and known to reach nearly 1,800 pounds and 20 feet long, is on a path to extinction in the Kootenai River unless recovery efforts gain momentum. The partners hope that improvements to habitat and river conditions will encourage successful spawning.
| People |
Sue Ireland (ireland@kootenai.org) Pete Rust (pete.rust@idfg.idaho.gov) Greg Hoffman John Siple |
Here's a look at the science and hard work involved in restoring a stream to its natural state. The Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Forest Service and other agencies and non-profit groups worked together on this environmental restoration project, removing Hemlock Dam in Washington State's Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
| People | John Baugher (Inactive) (jrbaugher@bpa.gov) |
A BPA funded project in Wallowa County, Ore., restored the Wallowa River's natural bends and curves. The river once had naturally followed such a course, providing healthy habitat for fish, but was straightened decades ago to make way for agriculture and development. Now the owners of the 6 Ranch used funding from BPA and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to restore the river's natural shape.
| Projects | 1992-026-01 |
The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, with support from the Bonneville Power Administration and others, is working to restore endangered white sturgeon populations in Idaho's Kootenai River. Phase one of the Kootenai River Restoration Plan was completed in the fall of 2011. Additional habitat enhancement projects are scheduled for fall 2012.
| Projects | 2002-002-00 |
| People |
Virgil Watts III (vlwatts@bpa.gov) Sue Ireland (ireland@kootenai.org) |
Country station 98.7 KUPL's evening disc jockey B-Dub hosted a derby, a first-of-its-kind Pikeminnow Fishing Derby to be exact. It was a cast-your-rod, reel-in-cash and then spin-the-wheel-to-win-a-prize kind of day at the Port of The Dalles Marina. Of course you could just register to participate too. B-Dub is the newest salmon savior by bringing awareness to baby fish's biggest bullies.
| Projects | 1990-077-00 |
| Organizations |
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) |
| People |
John Skidmore (Inactive) (jtskidmore@bpa.gov) Russell Porter (Inactive) (russell_porter@psmfc.org) |
Recent tests show fish passage improvements at all eight federal dams on the lower Columbia and Snake rivers have dramatically increased survival rates for juvenile salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. The Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bonneville Power Administration collaborate on implementing these improvements at the federal hydropower projects. As a result, fish survival has climbed to more than 96 percent at some dams, meeting or exceeding federal performance standards.
| Projects | 1993-029-00 |
| Organizations |
Bonneville Power Administration US Army Corps of Engineers (COE) US Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) |
| People |
Ritchie Graves (ritchie.graves@noaa.gov) Jason Sweet (jcsweet@bpa.gov) |