After months of winter steelheading, and with spring a few days away, wet-wading and sunshine are starting to sound pretty appealing. But warmer temperatures also bring some complications for summer steelhead in the Columbia basin. Tributaries like Herman Creek, Eagle Creek, Little White Salmon, and the Deschutes River deliver cold water to the Columbia even when air temps climb. Summer …
Trouble in Idaho
By Michael Gibson: No matter how you frame it, wild steelhead in Idaho are in big trouble. While wild steelhead numbers have never really rebounded—as expected—after the listing of the species in 1997, 2017 and 2018 returns have been exceptionally poor. In 2017, fewer than 12,000 wild fish cleared Lower Granite Dam, the last of the lower …
Science Friday: Big fish, big streams; little fish, little streams
A holiday weekend deserves a new Science Friday post. So here we go. This week we focus on summer steelhead in the John Day River, a large tributary that drains into the middle Columbia River on the Oregon side. The John Day is a big watershed, covering 8,000 square miles, although the river itself is not that large. To …
Science Friday: Behavioral Thermoregulation
Most steelhead anglers know that the family of fishes called salmonidae (trout, char, salmon and whitefish) are highly sensitive to water temperature and quality. These fishes require cold, clean water to thrive. But what happens to them when water temps become unfavorable? As you might expect, they seek out places in the river that regain cool water — now often …
A stream with two stories — but only because it goes dry in summer
Most people think of the Pacific Northwest as a region of dense coniferous rainforest and myriad gushing rivers that drain mountain ranges influenced by a damp, cool coastal climate. And it is. But like every other part of the American West, this region also features one of the most important components of any watershed: intermittent streams. Intermittent streams are …