In 2016, conservationists put the bends back into a Lake District river straightened 200 years earlier; within months, Atlantic salmon were spawning there for the first time in centuries
Centuries after people forced a Cumbrian river into a straight, artificial channel, nature has reclaimed its original course in the Lake District, bringing endangered wild fish back to historic spawning grounds almost immediately. In the summer of 2016,…
In 2009, Washington removed a century-old dike and let tides reclaim 762 acres; 21 miles of channels reopened, and young Chinook salmon entered the restored marsh in their first migration season
Tidal water flowed back into the Nisqually River Delta for the first time in nearly a century after conservationists removed a large network of sea dikes, quickly reopening miles of historic estuary habitat for threatened Pacific salmon. In autumn 2009,…
In the early 1990s, fewer than 1,000 threatened chum salmon returned to this Washington watershed; recent returns average 32,600 a year as a $9.7 million river restoration nears completion
chum salmon Representative image In the early 1990s, fewer than 1,000 threatened summer-run chum salmon made it back to the Big Quilcene River on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula each year. Decades of logging, road building and habitat degradation had left…
Alaska’s live bearcam has become a summer hit: 7.3 million views in six weeks as brown bears gather at Brooks Falls to catch salmon
The cameras show brown bears waiting around Brooks Falls as sockeye salmon travel upstream. (Getty images) A livestream showing brown bears catching and eating salmon at a waterfall in Alaska has become an unexpected online hit this summer. The Brooks…
In June 2026, Washington began restoring 270 acres across two river islands; the project will reconnect the South Fork Skagit estuary to natural tides and hundreds more acres for endangered Chinook salmon
Construction begins on project to restore estuary habitat in South Fork Skagit River (Photo by: WDFW) Heavy earth-moving equipment began work in June 2026 on a major coastal restoration project in Skagit County, Washington. The project will remove old…
Demystifying Science’s ‘Forbidden Experiment’: Why Scientists Kill 9 Million Lampreys Every Year in America’s Great Lakes
Six sea lampreys pose for the camera at the Capitol during a meet-and-greet organized by GLFC in June. One even sucked on Rep. Bill Huizenga’s palm, according to CNN. One of the few things the entire Congress agreed on was this: the invasive sea…