columbia river

Cadaver dogs, ground-penetrating radar and high-tech computer mapping are all employed to help reveal suspected unmarked graves at Fort Simcoe Historical State Park on Yakama Nation lands.

Federal government studies Columbia River in Washington, Shenandoah River in Virginia, Escalante National Monument in Utah and the American River in California for toxic algae.

President Biden today directed federal agencies to restore healthy and abundant wild salmon populations to the Columbia River Basin. The presidential memorandum says tribal treaties need to be honored.

In a historic agreement, the federal government announced Thursday it will fund tribal efforts to bring salmon back to the Upper Columbia River. Two massive dams have blocked salmon from that part of the river for close to a century.

Toxic algae has been found in the Columbia River for the third week in a row in the Tri-Cities, Washington. Algae can be harmful to people swimming, ingesting or coming in contact with the water, as well as animals.

Dead & Company start playing the Gorge July 7th. It’s the first large event at the venue since a deadly, double-murder shooting incident and two more that were shot. The electronic rave incident is just the latest violence at the popular music spot. Drug related deaths, sexual assaults and even a car that ran over campers has marred the fun in the past. Is there enough security at “Heaven’s Amphitheatre?” Gorge goers have mixed opinions.

A creepy old building used for 30 years to research radioactive materials [from 1966 to 1996], has a lot more radioactive waste under it than previously known, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

A massive melter that’s intended to help treat radioactive waste at Hanford has just been flipped on for a test – for the second time. The Hanford site [in southeast Washington state] stores about 56-million-gallons of radioactive goo waste in aging underground tanks, not far from the Columbia River. It’s the leftovers from making plutonium during WWII and the Cold War.

Long before the U.S. government made plutonium for bombs at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington [state], the land belonged to native peoples. For the Yakama Nation, the area was vital for hunting and fishing. Tribal leaders want young people to know about their legacy, and the fight that lies ahead.

Each Spring, Northwest tribes celebrate the first foods of the season. At a Colville ceremony marking the return of migrating salmon, ecological challenges were top of mind.