Suspended Investigation & Water Treaty

We recently reported on a pair of wolves found dead in Wallowa County. The Oregon State Police led the investigation and kept their cards very close to their chest after the deaths appeared "suspicious." Now they are saying there was too much decay to determine cause of death. One of the wolves was collared which emitted a mortality signal that led to the pair. OSP believe at one point that a person or persons were responsible.

Well it's been 50 years since the Columbia River Treaty was enacted and a lot has since changed. A workshop took place October 7, 2015 in Osoyoos, B.C. with presenters from local and provincial government, First Nations, and academia. Deborah Harford, Executive Director of the Adaptation to Climate Change Team at Simon Fraser University.

HARFORD: There's a lot more people in the Basin now and the water is being used by a lot more people for a lot more things so there's a lot more need and demand on the river and then I think the other obvious issue for me is the climate change concern. The timing of the flows and the volume of the flows is going to change from what we're used to. We're also going to get shifts in things like power demands so if the summers are longer and hotter there's going to be more electricity demand for cooling and refrigeration.

The workshop concluded that agriculture, climate change, First Nations and fisheries should be priorities in a modified treaty.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.