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Kendra Chamberlin

Kendra Chamberlin

Kendra Chamberlain

About Kendra Chamberlain

Columbia Insight contributing editor Kendra Chamberlain is a freelance journalist based in Eugene, Oregon, covering environment, energy and climate change. Her work has appeared in DeSmog Blog, High Country News, InvestigateWest and Ensia.

Court orders emergency measures to protect salmon, steelhead

A challenge to federal withdrawal from cooperative deal, the decision affects Columbia and Snake River dams

John Day Dam on Columbia River

Spillage: The amount of water that spills over dams, such as the John Day Dam on the Columbia River, is a crucial piece of salmon recovery. Photo: USACE

By Kendra Chamberlain. February 27, 2026. Salmon of the Columbia River Basin don’t know it, but the species was handed an important legal victory in an Oregon district court this week. On Feb. 25, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon ordered a series of emergency operations at eight dams on the lower Columbia and Snake Rivers to aid in fish passage.

The decision followed a request for a preliminary injunction filed by environmental law firm Earthjustice on behalf of a group of salmon advocates.

Effective March 1, federal dam operators must increase spill levels and hold reservoir levels lower, in hopes of giving migrating fish the best chance to navigate the deadly Columbia River Basin dam system.

The measures themselves aren’t new, but a continuation of earlier dam operations that were put in place to protect salmon. As such, Simon wrote in his decision that the federal government’s arguments against the measures were unconvincing.

“The majority of the spill has been implemented over the years without such negative repercussions, and the Court does not anticipate such calamities will ensue from the current spill order,” Simon wrote.

The decision is the latest chapter in a 30-year legal battle between federal agencies and a coalition of Pacific Northwest Tribes, states, conservation and fishing groups working to keep Pacific Northwest salmon from going extinct. The court’s decision is a vital win for this season’s salmon, according to Jacqueline Koch, communications manager at the National Wildlife Federation, one of the groups represented by Earthjustice.

“Now we’ve got these emergency measures in place to help salmon get through the next season. Most of these measures will be implemented March 1,” Koch told Columbia Insight. “It’s super important that this goes into place—because the fish are swimming toward extinction.”

Move counters Trump order

The case is far from over. Its litigation has spanned six presidential administrations. It has seen nearly every biological opinion on the Columbia and Snake River dams issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency charged with conserving and managing coastal and marine resources, overturned by the courts.

The tide seemed to turn in 2021, when Earthjustice, the Nez Perce Tribe, the state of Oregon and the Biden administration sought to pause the ongoing legal fight in hopes of reaching an agreement out of court. It worked. In 2023, a group of four Tribes, two states and the federal government announced the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI).

The Biden administration pledged $1 billion over a decade to help restore salmon and fund tribal clean energy projects.

Former Vice President of the United States Joe Biden speaking with attendees at the 2020 Iowa State Education Association (ISEA) Legislative Conference at the Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel in West Des Moines, Iowa.

“I’ll have the fish.” Photo:Creative Commons

The agreement was hailed as an important step in addressing a century’s worth of environmental degradation in the name of energy development. Some went so far as to dub Biden “the salmon president.”

Two years later, the rug was pulled from beneath the agreement’s signatories. At the direction of the Trump administration, the federal government unilaterally killed the agreement by pulling out.

The deal was opposed by Republicans who called it “radical environmentalism” and said it would jeopardize the region’s power supply, irrigation and ability to export grain to Asia, according to The Associated Press.

“We had no option but to resume our longstanding litigation to protect endangered salmon,” said Earthjustice attorney Amanda Goodin in a statement in October 2024, when the firm filed its request for a preliminary injunction.

With the parties back in court, it’s unclear if there’s hope of reviving the CBRI. Many dam proponents cheered the Trump administration’s decision to kill the deal. But Simon pointed out in his decision that the courts have historically sided with salmon in this case.

“This case has a long history of failed [biological opinions], court intervention and monitoring, and federal defendants’ attempts to ‘manipulate’ variables and engage in ‘sleight of hand’ conduct to avoid making hard decisions and face the consequences of its actions,” Simon wrote. “It appears that the 2020 [biological opinion] and 2020 [final environmental impact study] follow this disappointing history of government avoidance and manipulation instead of sincere efforts at solving the problem and genuinely remediating the harm.”

The Department of Justice declined to comment on the order.

Salmon advocates say they’re committed to continuing the legal battle on behalf of salmon, as fish returns remain historically low.

“National Wildlife Federation has been fighting to protect salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin for more than 30 years. And we’re not going to give up now,” said Koch. “The salmon are swimming toward extinction. They are at the heart of our Northwest way of life. And so we’ll continue to move forward on this as needed.”

By |2026-02-27T18:44:46-08:0002/27/2026|News, Salmon|1 Comment
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As drought fears mount, a team in Idaho proposes a subterranean dam

Can we engineer a way out of water shortages and a looming agricultural crisis? An ISU professor is working on it

Bruce Savage, Idaho State University professor

Going underground: Bruce Savage, Idaho State University chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is excited about subterranean water storage. Photo: ISU

By Kendra Chamberlain. February 24, 2026. Idaho ranks third in the United States for total water use, and second in the nation for irrigation withdrawals. About 22,500 farm operations are in business around the state.

Like much of the West, its government, farmers and other residents are worried about its future water supply.

Water managers in the state are drilling wells to help recharge the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. They’ve hammered out a painful agreement with the agriculture industry to reduce water use in an attempt to protect the state’s farming interests.

Now Bruce Savage, professor and chair of Idaho State University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and his team have another idea: what if excess snowmelt could be stored underground?

Savage and James Mahar, senior lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, have assembled a team of researchers across ISU and Boise State University to look into bringing the idea of a massive, subterranean reservoir in Idaho into reality.

The water cycle west of the Rocky Mountains is dependent on heavy winter snowfall that generates spring and summer snowmelt that fills streams, creeks and drainages that feed into the larger rivers. Idaho captures some of that water through a system of dams and reservoirs. But once reservoirs are full, the rest filters down into the aquifers, or is carried out to the Pacific Ocean.

This year, Idaho is experiencing its warmest winter since 1934 and a dangerously low snowpack.

Savage wants to construct subsurface dams and “infiltration galleries” to help capture more snowmelt water and direct it underground where it could be stored until it’s needed in the summer months.

“If we could store it for later use, we can actually send it down through the river system,” Savage told Columbia Insight. “It’ll be a benefit to not only those that have water rights, but to the whole river system.”

Gaining ground

Underground dams are at least 2,000 years old but it wasn’t until the 1980s that the first ones were built using modern civil engineering techniques, according to International Water Power (IWP), a trade publication for the hydropower and dam construction industries.

“Since then they can be found in countries such as Japan, Brazil, India, South Korea, Mexico, Bolivia, the United States and across Europe. … With surface water resources becoming under increasing pressure due to population growth and climate change, certain schools of thought believe groundwater offers a possible way forward for the future,” according to a 2025 IWP article titled “The rise of underground dams.”

Underground dams work by constructing a watertight cut-off wall within an aquifer, effectively raising the groundwater level.

Here's how an underground dam works

Underground dam principle of operation: Illustration: ResearchGate/Springer Nature

A major benefit to storing water underground is reduced evaporation, a persistent issue with reservoir storage. Underground dams can protect water from some contaminants. They’re a comparatively economic way of managing groundwater in semi-arid regions. Unlike surface dams, they leave the land above them unchanged.

There are environmental concerns.

Recent research in Japan has focused on underground dams’ possible effect on increasing the NO3-N concentration in groundwater. NO3-N, also called nitrate-nitrogen, is a highly mobile contaminant found in water or soil.

In Idaho, where the concept is new, proponents of building an underwater dam are facing more fundamental questions. For one, where might this subterranean reservoir be located?

“We’re looking for appropriate sites that have the geology that would support this type of concept, alluvial deposits, a lot of sand, gravel and cobbles,” said Savage.

Any underground barriers will need to strike a delicate balance between storing “excess” water without interfering with the “normal” water systems.

“What we don’t want to do is impact the natural flow of water that people are already using,” said Savage. “But there are some areas where the snowmelt comes off so fast that the water doesn’t have a chance to get down underground.”

The research, which includes a two-year study, is part of the Idaho Community-engaged Resilience for Energy-Water Systems (I-CREWS) collaborative research project, which is funded through the National Science Foundation.

By |2026-02-24T11:55:51-08:0002/24/2026|Agriculture, Climate Change, Water|3 Comments
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Bull trout caught in forest thinning row

A Forest Service plan to conduct a woodlands burn in a remote corner of Nevada is raising alarm

Cold comfort: Bull trout are listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. They require water from 36 to 59 degrees. Photo: USFWS

By Kendra Chamberlain. February 17, 2026. The Jarbidge bull trout is an elusive fish. Cut off by a series of dams from other fish populations in northeast Nevada, it’s genetically distinct from other bull trout in the United States.

These trout are particularly sensitive to water quality, which means they have a patchy distribution across the Jarbidge watershed, preferring only the coldest, cleanest streams at higher elevations.

And there aren’t many of them.

A 2004 estimate pegged the population at fewer than 500 Jarbidge bull trout, with a meager 50-125 reproductively mature fish; a subsequent U.S. Geologic Survey report estimated the population closer to 2,000. The species has been federally protected since 1999, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined habitat degradation was its chief threat.

Now, in the name forest thinning to help prevent wildfires, the Forest Service plans to log and burn up to 30,000 acres annually for the next 15-20 years across the 5.1 million acres of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada. The burn-plan area includes federally designated critical habitat for the Jarbidge bull trout.

Jarbidge Wilderness map

Map: USFS

On Feb. 10, a trio of conservation groups—Alliance for the Wild Rockies, WildLands Defense, and Native Ecosystems Council—filed a civil complaint contesting the plan with the United States District Court in Nevada. They dispute the Forest Service’s claim that the action will have “no significant impact,” per its environmental assessment that helped green light the plan.

The complaint alleges violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act and Administrative Procedures Act.

“This Project area is massive: over five million acres of Nevada forest, woodlands, and sagebrush,” reads the civil complaint. “The Decision Notice authorizes 30,000 acres per year of logging and burning over the next fifteen to twenty years. The Project is likely to adversely affect nine species currently listed under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), their associated critical habitat, and two species proposed for listing under the ESA.”

In addition to Jarbidge bull trout, the complaint lists Lahontan cutthroat trout, yellow-legged frog, Mount Charleston blue butterfly, sage grouse, bighorn sheep, Sierra Nevada red fox, and whitebark pine among impacted species.

“This project shows the disdain Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest managers have for the public as well as the animals and plants whose habitats and populations they are legally required to preserve,” Katie Fite, public lands director at WildLands Defense, said in a statement. “The agency cares so little about rare species, ranging from pygmy rabbits to Sierra Nevada red fox, that the highly deficient Environmental Analysis claims when the Forest Service chops down or torches their habitat over the next decades, that the animals can just move away and find somewhere else to live. What they don’t do is reveal where, exactly, all this promised land actually is.”

Jarbidge Wilderness

A remote wilderness renowned for its fishing, the Jarbidge watershed spans parts of southwest Idaho and northeast Nevada. The Jarbidge River travels some 50 miles from its headwaters in the Jarbidge Mountains of Nevada, across the high plateau of the Owyhee Desert, carving out what’s considered one of the most iconic river canyons in the region, before joining the Bruneau River and, later, Snake River.

The river is accessible only via dirt roads, many of which aren’t maintained in winter. Twenty-nine miles are designated wild and scenic, and much of the area is considered critical habitat for the Jarbidge bull trout.

“Bull trout are the canary in the coal mine for water quality,” Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, told Columbia Insight. “Bull trout need the cleanest, coldest water, and humans also need very clean water. It’s a good canary for us.”

Chamerion angustifolium (aka fireweed) near Jarbidge River in Elko County, Nevada

Remote control: Fireweed in the Upper Jarbidge River Canyon. The Wild and Scenic Jarbidge River flows from northern Nevada into Idaho. Photo: Wikimedia

Bull trout are vulnerable to water temperature changes. They thrive in ice-cold snowmelt waters at higher elevations. Anything above 59 degrees, and the species is uncomfortable. When water temperatures reach 64 degrees, bull trout begin to die off.

That’s what Garrity fears might happen if the Forest Service follows through with its fuel-reduction plan.

“This is way up in the mountains, but it is still Nevada,” said Garrity. “If you remove the forest in the watershed, the water’s gonna get hotter.”

That’s just one example of what critics see as a sloppy approval process. The coalition’s lawsuit alleges violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act and Administrative Procedures Act.

On Jan. 30, the coalition mailed a 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue to the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for violating the Endangered Species Act, because the project will harm bull trout and bull trout critical habitat. If within 60 days thr government has not addressed the alleged violations, the coalition can amend its original complaint to include its bull trout ESA claims.

By |2026-02-18T15:01:28-08:0002/17/2026|Fish|0 Comments
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The law that makes Oregon unique is under threat

A coalition of farmers, environmentalists and others are pushing for protection of the state’s land use regulations

Jefferson County Oregon aerial

Protected: Jefferson County includes Mount Jefferson, Confederated Tribe of Warm Springs Indian Reservation, Metolius River, Black Butte, Suttle Lake, Lake Billy Chinook and Priday Agate Beds. Photo: Holden Films/Central Oregon LandWatch

By Kendra Chamberlain. February 10, 2026. With the suburban boom that followed World War II, Oregon farmland and other open spaces with mountain and ocean views, particularly in the Willamette Valley, began being bought up by developers and affluent families looking for investment and vacation properties.

Led by Gov. Tom McCall, conservationists mobilized a defense of the land. McCall famously spoke about the “shameless threat to our environment and to the whole quality of life—unfettered despoiling of the land” in a 1973 address to the state legislature.

Signed into law by McCall in 1973, Senate Bill 100 revised land-use policy in the state by creating the Land Conservation and Development Commission and putting limits on the types of development allowed on rural land. The bill’s primary goals were to protect farms and forests from the commercial blight that arose in states with less restrictive land use regulations, and curb leapfrog subdivisions and second homes scattered in forests and farmlands.

Now more than 50 years old, Senate Bill 100 has kept Oregon looking like Oregon, not California or Arizona, or even Texas or Ohio.

Opponents have long challenged Oregon’s unique land use law, which has held a tense line between rural landscapes and urban development.

Now, opposition has become so formidable that farmers and conservationists across the state are sounding an alarm and calling for the protection the state’s visionary land use planning laws.

This month, 53 organizations signed a letter addressed to state lawmakers and Gov. Tina Kotek as the state legislature begins its 2026 session. Signatories include conservation groups like Bird Alliance of Oregon and WaterWatch of Oregon, and agricultural groups such as Oregon Agricultural Trust and American Farmland Trust.

“Why spend years building up a farm if a developer can take over the land around yours and put up a subdivision or retail store or strip mall?” said Susan Hess, founder and publisher emeritus of Columbia Insight, which is not a signatory to the letter.

“The last crop you’ll ever plant is a subdivision,” said longtime cherry orchardist and Columbia Insight board member Bob Bailey.

Crook County Oregon landscape from the air

Crook County: Central Oregon’s rural lands are home to iconic vistas, high desert ecosystems and a bustling agricultural economy. Can it stay that way? Photo: Ryder Redfield/Central Oregon LandWatch

Rory Isbell, staff attorney at Central Oregon LandWatch, says the state’s land use law has also protected Oregon’s natural resources.

“We at LandWatch are big believers of the land use system and all the benefits it provides for the state,” Isbell told Columbia Insight.

LandWatch, along with 1000 Friends of Oregon, a group McCall helped establish, spearheaded the letter.

Isbell said lawmakers in the state capital have recently introduced a spate of bills that seek to undermine the state’s system in favor of development.

“It seems like every year for the past several years, we’ve seen an accelerating number of proposals coming out of Salem and legislative sessions that would really weaken the land use system,” said Isbell.

The Oregon legislature will consider a handful of bills this year that would expand urban growth boundaries in some areas and open farmland to other uses.

The letter highlights a “deep concern about escalating threats to [land use planning] integrity emerging from Salem.”

“Few public policy frameworks have served our state so well, for so long, and with such broad benefits,” the letter reads. “While other Western states have been marred by unchecked or unplanned development, Oregon’s program provides a balance that has led to livable cities and towns, constrained rural sprawl, and limited climate pollution—all while preserving the farms, forests, and open spaces that sustain our economies, ecosystems, and communities.”

By |2026-02-10T09:15:44-08:0002/10/2026|Land Use|2 Comments
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Major Gorge energy development gets fed go-ahead

Yakama Nation leaders continue to oppose pumped hydropower storage project in Klickitat County

Pumped hydro project location rendering, Goldendale, Washington

Powering up: This rendering depicts the proposed Goldendale Energy Storage Project, south of Goldendale, Wash., near the John Day Dam (lower left) and a defunct aluminum smelter (lower center). Illustration: Rye Development

By Kendra Chamberlain. January 28, 2026. The hotly contested Goldendale Energy Storage Project, located near Goldendale, Wash., has been awarded a key 40-year construction and operations license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The decision comes after a five-year application process.

Developers still have regulatory hurdles to pass before the controversial pumped-hydropower storage project is a done deal. These include submission of construction plans and safety and dam-engineering documents, and obtaining state, federal and local permits related to wetlands, storm water and land disturbance. Approval must also be secured from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for work related to federal waterways.

But FERC approval is a major step forward.

Florida-based Rye Development, the firm behind the pumped hydropower storage project, expressed excitement about moving closer to the finish line.

“This is a landmark moment for the Pacific Northwest,” Erik Steimle, Rye Development director of development, said in a statement.

Rye Development is partnering with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to construct the facility.

The FERC decision has outraged opponents of the project.

Leaders of the Yakama Nation, who have consistently voiced opposition to the location of the project, are angry that their objections to development of a culturally important plot of land has seemingly fallen on deaf ears.

“Federal agencies are rewarding bad actors who have spent years finding loopholes to target a new wave of industrial development on top of indigenous sites that have religious and legendary significance to the Yakama People and many others who don’t have political connections or deep pockets” said Yakama Tribal Council Chairman Gerald Lewis in a statement.

“Elected Yakama leadership have met with tribal leaders in Oregon who face similar challenges—regulators in D.C. that do not hold private developers accountable to the laws that are meant to protect the environment, our foods or important historical sites, and instead issue incomplete licenses with only an afterthought of losses and destruction to Yakama resources,” said Lewis.

Energy Demands vs. Tribal Heritage

Closed-loop, pumped-hydro systems, such as the one planned for Goldendale, rely on pumping water uphill from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir via a subterranean pipe when the price of electricity is low, and moving the same water back down the pipe to spin a turbine when the price of energy is high.

If built, the Goldendale facility will span the site of a defunct Columbia Gorge aluminum smelter and the Tuolmne Wind Project.

One storage pond will be located at the top of a ridge that overlooks the Columbia River.

The other storage pond will be downhill, adjacent to the old smelter.

Water will move back and forth between the ponds to store energy and, when needed, feed that energy back to the grid.

Goldendale Energy Project Map

Goldendale Energy Storage Project location. Map: Wash. DOE

The project will include remediation of the site of the old aluminum smelter, an estimated $15 million cleanup taken on by Rye Development and overseen by the Washington Department of Ecology.

Rye Development says the facility will store electricity for up to 12 hours and generate 1,200 megawatts of on-demand electricity.

According to the Seattle Times and other sources, rapid data center expansion is a major driver of increased electricity demand in Washington.

Rye says the facility “is expected to create more than 3,000 family-wage jobs during its four- to five-year construction period, as well as dozens of permanent jobs.”

Proponents call the project a win-win, and a necessary step toward helping the region achieve its zero-carbon emissions goals.

“This is a project that’s been looked at by the Goldendale community since the 1990s as part of their overall economic development plan for renewable electricity, primarily wind, then solar and pump storage, all part of the energy overlay zone,” Steimle told Columbia Insight.

But some green energy advocates aren’t willing to look past the Yakama Nation’s opposition.

“It can’t be considered green energy if it’s impacting and obliterating cultural resources,” Simone Anter, senior staff attorney at Columbia Riverkeeper, told Columbia Insight. “Cultural and religious resources are part of the environmental review. You see them in NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] reviews and SEPA [State Environmental Policy Act] reviews. And so the destruction of them can’t just be sidelined as not environmental issues.”

Proposed pumped-hydro project near Goldendale, Washington, project location. Image from Washington Department of Ecology

How the proposed pumped-hydro project near Goldendale, Wash., will work. Image: Wash. DOE

Columbia Riverkeeper is standing with the Yakama Nation, but also challenging parts of the state’s Clean Water Act certification for the project.

Rye Development says it will work with Yakama leadership.

“Now that we have the license, it’s super important for us to continue to work with the affected Tribes on the final historic properties management plan for the project that does ensure protection of cultural resources, but also access to the site as we move through construction and into operation,” said Steimle.

If the company builds the facility, an important piece of Yakama heritage will be lost.

“They know it’s wrong,” Lewis said in his statement. “If a small Christian shrine sat on this site, the decision-makers would understand what ‘sacred’ means. During his last days in office, Governor Inslee encouraged FERC to consider damage costs of $25 million but developers rejected all specific commitments and hope to keep building the energy grid on still more sacrifices to the Yakama way of life.”

By |2026-01-28T13:08:03-08:0001/28/2026|Energy, Renewable Energy|0 Comments
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Why WDFW is bringing eDNA project to Washington rivers

A novel study will shed light on aquatic life in the state’s major freshwater drainages

eDNA in aquatic test

What’s happening in there? eDNA analysis can determine species present at the time a water sample is collected based on DNA shed into the environment. Image: FISHBIO

By Kendra Chamberlain. January 19, 2026. The state of Washington has embarked on a wide-ranging study to catalogue all native, freshwater aquatic species found in every river and major drainage in the state.

The Aquatic Biodiversity Study is the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, and possibly the nation, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Researchers with WDFW will use environmental DNA technology to detect and identify tiny bits of genetic material floating in sources of freshwater.

Nearly every living thing sheds genetic material into its environment, leaving microscopic “footprints” behind.

With advances in genetic sequencing, the use of environmental DNA, or “eDNA,” to catalogue and monitor species within a specific environment has become an important area of genetics research.

Study of eDNA has widespread applications across fields, from food safety to forensic research, according to WDFW’s native, freshwater fish and shellfish specialist, Marie Winkowski, who is involved the study. It can also be used to help monitor for invasive species.

In aquatic settings, eDNA is carried by current.

WDFW researchers are visiting the state’s larger sources of freshwater, placing a special filter into the water and collecting as much eDNA as they can as water runs by.

“We are using environmental DNA, specifically, metabarcoding, which allows us to sample for multiple species at once,” Winkowski told Columbia Insight in an email. “This means it is more cost effective than other sampling methods that would be required to track all those species, and we can also cover a larger area.”

Once samples are collected, isolated and amplified—meaning DNA sections are replicated to create a larger specimen to work with—researchers will try to match the DNA segments with existing sequences in a global reference database.

There are two advantages to this approach: first, the technology allows for collecting a lot of information from a single sample of water, which is more cost-effective than other surveying methods.

Second, the technique can detect the presence of species without disturbing them, or even seeing them.

And while the survey will focus on freshwater fish and shellfish, the technology might also be able to detect the presence of birds, beavers and other animals that interact with the water.

Study limitations

There’s one caveat. Researchers will only be able to match eDNA fragments with species whose genetics are already in the database.

“If a species is not in the database, we may only be able to identify it to a broader group (like genus or family), or not at all,” wrote Winkowski. ”More studied fish species like salmon have significantly more genetic sequence information available than lesser studied species like sculpins.”

WDFW is using the National Institute of Health’s GenBank database, a collection of all publicly available DNA sequences from around the world.

According to Winkowski, it’s considered the world’s most up to date and comprehensive DNA sequence repository.

WDFW researcher conducts eDNA study in a Washington river

Water shed: WDFW’s Aquatic Biodiversity Study co-lead Vince Butitta conducts eDNA sampling on the Dungeness River in 2025. Photo: WDFW

“This study will help increase the amount of genetic information available of more species, in more river systems across the state,” said Winkowski.

The survey is funded through a larger pot of money allocated by the Washington State Legislature to protect and restore biodiversity.

“This funding revitalized WDFW’s capacities across programs to protect and recover at-risk species and their habitats, develop efforts to evaluate and manage other Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN), and more,” according to Winkowski. “Projects like this study will enable us to understand and track ongoing changes in aquatic biodiversity across the state.”

WDFW has already surveyed the Dungeness, Elwha, Yakima, Naches, Wenatchee, Willapa and Skokomish river systems in Washington. Researchers hope to have all state waterways surveyed over a seven-year period.

By |2026-01-21T16:02:56-08:0001/20/2026|Biodiversity|0 Comments
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