Tagged: Conservation

Idaho’s Fish and Game Department told stakeholders this weekend they are losing funding for valuable wildlife conservation programs. This weekend’s public summit was held to get some help from the people they serve. Earthfix reporter Aaron Kunz explains.

The annual Sawtooth Salmon Festival brought in many visitors to Stanley in central Idaho this weekend. That’s despite a nearby wildfire that’s brought in smoke to the area.

The festival coincides with the return of sockeye and chinook salmon to the Stanley area. So far 160 sockeye have arrived so far. That’s down from the hundreds that showed up last year.

Annie Morrison is an intern at Idaho Rivers United, which organized the event. She says festival goers got a chance to see salmon spawning.

Restoration work to make a section of Idaho’s Salmon River better for salmon and steelhead is about to get underway. It’s also the focus of a nationwide campaign dedicated to conservation.

Firefighters on the scene of a destructive wildfire in central Washington are hoping to make major progress Wednesday toward containment of the blaze. The Kittitas County sheriff's office estimates more than 70 homes and cabins have been destroyed. The fire has chased hundreds of people from their homes. Amidst the ashes, correspondent Tom Banse found one unusual story of survival.

Wildlife officials plan to launch an unmanned aircraft on the Oregon coast. They hope the drone will allow them to monitor seabird populations on hard-to-reach rocky islands that serve as nesting grounds. KLCC’s Jes Burns reports.

Oregon voters likely will decide this fall whether to ban gillnet fishing in the Columbia River and other state waters. Campaigners say they turned in enough signatures
Monday to qualify their gillnet ban as a ballot measure in the November election. Oregon requires more than 87,000 valid signatures on petitions for initiatives that change state law.

Eric Stachon is spokesman for the Stop Gillnets Now Coalition. He says the group turned in more than 138-thousand signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State.