Wednesday February 25, 2026
Columbia Gorge News —
Four years of preparation, Congressional advocacy and fundraising reach a milestone this year as the Hood River Watershed Group, Port of Hood River, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, US Army Corps of Engineers and other partners embark upon a three-year initiative to improve local cold-water fisheries habitat.
The confluence of the Hood and Columbia rivers is considered one of 12 “primary cold water refuges” for Columbia River salmon and steelhead, despite nearly a century of intensive development and long-past logging practices. Although fisheries stocks are a small fraction of their historic levels, the Hood River watershed has one of the most diverse varieties in Oregon, with spring and fall Chinook salmon, summer and winter steelhead, coho, Pacific lamprey, bull trout, sea-run and resident cutthroat and rainbow trout. These are nurtured by the river’s cold, glacier-fed waters.