Sorted by date Results 26 - 44 of 44
OLYMPIA — Anglers across Washington will be able to fish without a license on the state’s lakes, rivers, and marine waters during this year’s annual Free Fishing Weekend on June 12 and 13. Residents and non-residents can fish or gather shellfish across the state on those days, in any waters open to fishing, all without a license. “Free Fishing Weekend is a great opportunity to try fishing for the first time, or maybe the first time in a long time,” said Steve Caromile, Inland Fish Program manager with the Washington Departmen...
OLYMPIA — The state Fish and Wildlife Commission will set 2021-23 hunting seasons, establish state water mining rules and update its fish hatchery policy when it meets Friday, April 9. The commission is expected to approve new hunting seasons and hunting boundaries for deer, elk, waterfowl and other game species. Members are also expected to approve new rules governing mining in state waters, which may impact fish and habitat, officials said. In other business, the commission will hear a request to update its fish hatchery p...
ALMOTA — Sections of the Snake River are now open for fishermen to catch and keep fall Chinook salmon and steelhead. The Chinook fishery opened Tuesday, Sept. 1, and will close Oct. 31, state Department of Fish and Wildlife officials said. Chinook salmon may be caught and kept from the Burbank-Pasco railroad bridge near the mouth of the river to Lower Granite Dam, which connects Whitman and Garfield counties. The fishery is being opened because of an expected healthy salmon run, officials said. The 2020 fall Columbia River r...
Survivors are wife of 58 years, Diane, daughter Xandra Victor [Ardell] and twin grandchildren Halie and Joe Champlin. His parents Donald and Joyce McHenry, preceded him in death. After graduating from North Central, Whitworth and U of W in Civil Engineering, he and his wife became young owners of Bunkers Resort on Williams Lake. He operated and developed the property with the future always in sight for nearly 60 years. Brad loved hunting Canadian geese, fishing for trout, steelhead and salmon. He was a collector of old wester... Full story
Dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers provide an appropriate balance between the economic needs of Eastern Washington and fish protections. While we already knew that here in Eastern Washington, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers came to that conclusion, too, after completing yet another environmental study this spring. The results of that new study were released last Friday, and they support keeping things essentially the way they are on our rivers. The dams will stay, for...
Robert (Mac) McDonald, 73, of Clarkston, Wash. died Friday, June 19, 2020, at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, Idaho. Pikeminnow anglers up and down the Columbia and Snake rivers in Washington and Idaho revere Mac as a bounty hunter for the predatory fish, and he met his soulmate Linda Moore while working to protect juvenile salmon and steelhead with the Pacific States Marine Fishery Commission. Mac is a U.S. Air Force Veteran, and during his career as a KC-135... Full story
Altamae Sims Whitehill passed away peacefully on Feb. 13, 2020. She was born in Spokane to Leone and Edna Sims on July 16, 1929. According to family lore, her mother didn’t trust the doctors in Okanogan County where the family ranch was located, so they traveled east to Spokane for her birth. Altamae lived a rich and active life as a teacher, world traveler, devoted wife, mother of three boys, mother-in-law extraordinaire and beloved grandmother to numerous grandchildren, s... Full story
The state Legislature has directed the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to remove the catch limits on bass, walleye and channel catfish in all waters of the state where they coexist with salmon. It seems that someone in the Legislature realized the existence of a connection between bass and whales. It is about time. Everything in nature is connected to everything else. In this case, our politicians are concerned about the declining numbers of the resident Puget Sound orca pod. Orcas and bass both eat salmon,...
A year ago, much of America’s heartland was inundated by Missouri River flood waters. At least 1 million acres of U.S. farmland in nine major grain producing states were under water. More than 14 million people were impacted. Damage exceeded $1 billion. With 11 dams on the Missouri, why was the flooding so severe? Why didn’t the dams absorb the excess waters? Its dams are above the flooded areas. The last impoundment is at Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota and heavy rai...
There is a branch of our government that is independent of the three branches we study in school. This branch usually operates in the shadows overlooked by both the people and the Legislature. It makes its own rules with the same force as law. It has the power to levy fines and seize property. No one in this branch is elected and, therefore, is generally unresponsive to public opinion. It is virtually independent to do whatever it pleases, and I have never known it to admit a mistake. This shadow government is made up of the...
PASCO – Most salmon and steelhead fishing closed on the Columbia River downstream of the Tri-Cities today following a season of low return runs. The Hanford/Ringgold salmon fishery remains open, state Department of Fish and Wildlife, officials said. But the Ringgold steelhead fishery is closed through Dec. 31. Downstream of the U.S. Highway 395 bridge, the fishery is closed. The closure includes steelhead fisheries on the Snake and Clearwater rivers. State officials say the steelhead run is the fourth lowest return on r...
SUNNYSIDE – State officials want farmers and ranchers to notify them before shutting off irrigation for the winter. On Monday, state Department of Fish and Wildlife employees requested 2-4 weeks advance notice of irrigation shutdowns so they could “rescue fish” in irrigation canals. "We are available to help people shut down their irrigation systems in a way that protects fish," agency Fish Screening Manager Danny Didricksen said. "We work with diking districts, irrig... Full story
There are dams that should come down and those that shouldn’t. Hopefully, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducts its review of the 14 federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers, that will become abundantly clear. That review is expected to be ready for public comment in late 2020. Here is the difference. Demolishing the two dams on the Elwha River west of Port Angeles was a good thing. They were built in the early 1900s to bring electricity to the Olympic Peninsula a...
While most of our attention in the Pacific Northwest these days is on trade wars, tariffs and wildfires, there are critical talks underway between the U.S. and Canada over future allocations of the Columbia River system’s water. The two countries are renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty which went into effect in 1964. It is a 50-year agreement under which both nations can redo, providing there is a 10-year advanced warning. That occurred and negotiators are now busy meeting...
Most of the 2.5 million annual Alamo visitors focus on the epic 1836 battle in which a small band of brave Texans was eventually overrun by the Mexican army. Folk heroes like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and William Travis were among the Texans killed while fighting for independence from Mexico. However, the Alamo is more than a small Spanish-style church depicted on tourism brochures which barely withstood a 13-day pummeling from Mexican cannons. It is a large complex built...
The best way to keep something a surprise is to make sure others don't see whatever it is. Easy to do, except when that surprise is an appearance in a statewide publication. That was the case for Fish Lake-area resident Bridgett Mayfield. Mayfield received a text early in June from a friend who spied copies of the 2017-2018 edition of the state Department of Fishing and Wildlife's "Washington Sport Fishing Rules" booklet in a local store and recognized the face on the cover -...
OLYMPIA – Do you own forested property that includes habitat for a threatened or endangered species protected under state forest practices rules? The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is seeking owners of qualifying forestland interested in selling permanent conservation easements to the state. The Rivers and Habitat Open Space Program purchases easements from those whose property includes habitat for species protected by the state Forest Practices Act as threatened or endangered, or which have channel m...
By CHRIS THOMAS Washington News Service SEATTLE - Federal agencies, conservation groups, fishermen and sportsmen, Native American tribes and dam managers have rarely all been in the same room – unless it's a courtroom – in the long battle over how to restore native salmon and steelhead populations in the Northwest. However, one leader in the region is voicing his official agreement with what conservation and business groups have been saying for years: that a whole new approach is needed to save the endangered fish spe... Full story
You're rafting what river and where? In September? Tieton River is a tradition that lives on and on and on after years and years By PAUL DELANEY Staff Reporter It's not often you'll hear where dams and river rafting are a compatible pair. Streams like the White Salmon and Elwah in Washington State have had, or are in the process of seeing ancient dams removed to return the rivers to as natural a state as is possible following a century of inundation. But when virtually every other river in the Northwest has dried to a... Full story
