High Country News

A bullet for the bearer of bad news

After Michele DeHart of the Fish Passage Center in Portland, Ore., publicly supported a plan to protect salmon, angry lawmakers led by Sen. Larry Craig yanked the center’s funding

by Rocky Barker, Dec 12, 2005
A fish is a fish is a fish - or is it?

A draft policy released by the National Marine Fisheries Service in July does little to resolve the controversy over whether hatchery salmon and steelhead deserve equal protection with wild fish.

by Laura Paskus, Aug 19, 2002
An encyclopedia of rivers

The huge, copiously illustrated Rivers of North America is the first comprehensive effort to detail the current state of the continent’s rivers

by Irene Wanner, Nov 27, 2006
California's Tangled Water Politics

Will there ever be enough water in California's Bay Delta to satisfy farmers, keep fish alive and quench the thirst of millions of people?

by Matt Jenkins, Dec 20, 2010
Columbia Basin (Political) Science

Some fisheries scientists and environmentalists say the Bonneville Power Administration has had an unhealthy influence on salmon research in the Northwest.

by Steve Hawley , Apr 13, 2009
Columbia River dams revived

In Washington, tribes have been shut out of a plan for new Columbia River dams that are being touted as good for salmon as well as farmers

by Matt Jenkins, Apr 03, 2006
Cows versus condos -- Northwest style

Some say that Washington’s Forests and Fish rules could be so hard on small timber farms that the owners are likely to sell out to development, to the detriment of salmon and other wildlife

by Lissa James, May 16, 2005
Dam breaching gets a surprise endorsement

A longtime consultant to the hydropower industry, biologist Don Chapman, shook the Northwest this summer when he declared that four dams on the Lower Snake River should be breached to save the salmon

by Rocky Barker, Sep 19, 2005
Dam removal for dummies

A how-to guide to free-flowing rivers, with illustrations from Oregon's recently removed Gold Ray Dam.

by Nick Neely, Nov 07, 2010
Doctor's Orders: Undam the Klamath

Both Indians and whites battle diabetes on the Klamath watershed, where dam building ended the salmon runs that once kept the First People alive.

by Diana Hartel, May 24, 2011