News Articles

Feb. 26, 2026

By Michael Wright 

A federal judge in Oregon has ordered changes to dam operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers to help salmon runs.

In a ruling released Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon toldfederal agencies that run eight dams on the two rivers to spill more water over the top of the dams and maintain reservoir levels at the height they were last year.

Increasing spill is meant to help young salmon on their way to the ocean pass over the top of the dams rather than swim through a gauntlet of turbines that are known to kill them. Reservoir levels affect the speed of salmon migration.

The decision marks the latest turn in a decades-long legal fight over the dams and their impact on the salmon and steelhead that migrate between the ocean and their natal streams in Washington, Oregon and central Idaho.

In 2023, under the Biden Administration, the plaintiffs agreed to halt the litigation in exchange for $1 billion in federal money for fish habitat and energy projects. The Trump administration canceled that deal, prompting the plaintiffs to resume their legal fight.

Last year, Tribes, fishing groups and conservationists, represented by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, requested the changes to dam operations as part of a preliminary injunction request. The state of Washington filed an amicus brief supporting the injunction.

Simon’s ruling didn’t give the plaintiffs everything they wanted, but he wrote that action is needed due to the “dire situation” facing the 14 endangered and threatened salmon and smelt species in the Pacific Northwest.

He wrote that there’s a “disappointing history of government avoidance and manipulation instead of sincere efforts at solving the problem and genuinely remediating the harm.”

“One of the foundational symbols of the West, a critical recreational, cultural, and economic driver for Western states, and the beating heart and guaranteed resource protected by treaties with several Native American tribes is disappearing from the landscape,” Simon wrote.

Amanda Goodin, the Earthjustice attorney who represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement that the changes the court ordered “are immediate and reasonable steps to prevent salmon extinction.”

Abbie Abramovich, the Idaho Conservation League’s salmon program senior associate, said in an interview that the changes at the dams are doable and will help fish get to prime habitat in places like the Clearwater and Salmon rivers and their tributaries.

“Idaho holds some of the best habitat in the Lower 48, which includes cold mountain streams,” Abramovich said. “We just have to give these fish an opportunity to reach it.”

Still, she said, the ruling isn’t a permanent solution.

“This is basically life support that we’re offering these fish,” she said. “It’s entirely possible for the northwest to have clean energy and recover salmon populations, and this ruling is an important step in that direction.”

Republican politicians, agriculture groups and others criticized the decision. They raised doubts that it would help fish and characterized the ruling as a threat to the system’s dams.

“These vital pieces of infrastructure allow irrigation and navigation for farmers, their commodities, and many other products that move on the rivers,” U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Washington, said in a statement. “The dams and salmon can, and do, coexist, and I remain committed to ensure the system has the resources needed to improve fish passage at lower spill levels.”

Idaho Republican Gov. Brad Little said in a statement that the decision is a “direct attack on agriculture and Idaho’s energy security.”

“Idaho will not stand by while decisions made outside our borders put our public safety and economy at risk,” Little said. “… Our people depend on the Columbia River System, and we will fight to ensure Idaho meets the real-world energy demands of today and tomorrow.”

Wednesday’s ruling affects operations at four dams on the lower Columbia – Bonneville, the Dalles, McNary and John Day – and four on the lower Snake – Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite.

The plaintiffs’ injunction request sought a suite of emergency conservation measures, such as ordering the defendants to remove salmon-eating predators, in addition to the operational changes at the dams. Simon declined to order the conservation measures, instead narrowing the decision’s mandates down to reservoir levels and spill operations.

The plaintiffs had asked the judge to order dam operators to keep reservoirs at their minimum operating levels, arguing that doing so helps fish migrate to the ocean faster. The defendants argued that operating reservoirs at the minimum level could harm dam operations.

Simon ordered the levels be maintained where they were in 2025 – a level higher than plaintiffs wanted but lower than what is allowed. He wrote that the dams operated successfully at those levels last year, meaning “all parties can be assured of the viability of the operations for power generation, transportation, and irrigation.”

The spill increases direct dam operators to spill water over the top of the eight dams 24 hours a day from spring to mid-November, with a winter shutdown period between mid-November and late February.

At Little Goose Dam, spring spill hours will shorten based on the number of adult chinook salmon that cross the dam.

The volume of spill required changes by seasons. The highest spill amounts are set for the spring, starting in April. Spill will be reduced some in mid-June, and then reduced to their lowest level on Sept. 1.

In the past, summer spill levels were reduced at the end of July.

K.C. Mehaffey
Feb 26, 2026

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon has ordered higher spill at eight dams on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers beginning next month, but did not require lower reservoir levels compared to the last two years, or add nonoperational conservation measures, in a preliminary injunction issued Feb. 25.

Finding that the threats to Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead are “dire and immediate,” Simon also indicated that he will—in a forthcoming decision—deny a motion by federal agencies to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction due to the involvement of the Bonneville Power Administration (Clearing Up No. 2244).

“For decades, the battle for the life of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead has not been fought at the end of a hook and line, nor in the woven threads of a fishing net, nor even based on the appetites of sea lions, avian predators, or killer whales. Instead, the greatest battle has been waged in the courts,” Simon lamented in his Feb. 25 opinion and order in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.

“It is reasonable to conclude that the listed species' prognosis is as bad as---or worse than it has ever been,” he wrote.

Plaintiffs in National Wildlife Federation et al. v. National Marine Fisheries Service et al. [01-640] filed the request for a preliminary injunction in October 2025, ending a five- to 10-year stay in the case. After the Trump administration withdrew from the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA), 10 conservation groups and the State of Oregon resumed the case by seeking a request for injunctive relief that would bring higher spill levels, lower reservoir elevations and require several nonoperational measures.

The preliminary injunction—if it stands—will dictate interim operations in the lower Snake and Columbia rivers until a final decision over the legality of the 2020 Columbia River System Operations record of decision and biological opinion is made.

Simon was careful to ensure that the injunction will not impact emergency protocols or prohibit the use of precoordinated operations and variances in the Fish Operations Plan.

Except for spill, Simon determined that many of the measures requested by plaintiffs were “outside of this Court's equitable authority to grant.”

Whether the order goes into effect this year may be up to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, as federal defendants indicated in prior filings that they will likely appeal Simon’s ruling.

With respect to spill, Simon said he was convinced that a draft 2026 Fish Operations Plan proposed by federal defendants would significantly change operations “in the wrong direction,” with spill levels below those proposed in the 2020 biological opinion.

“The Court agrees that doing nothing during the pendency of this litigation would not effectuate the congressional purpose behind the [Endangered Species Act],” he added.

With respect to reservoir levels, Simon ordered that this year, and until otherwise ordered by the court, reservoir forebay elevations will be operated under the same ranges used in 2025.

He noted that the plaintiffs’ request for nonoperational measures for steelhead kelt reconditioning, reduction of avian and nonnative fish predation, and Snake River Sockeye transportation are already included in the 2020 BiOp, so he “did not grant this requested relief, even though it would provide immediate benefit to the listed species.” He instead directed the federal defendants to file quarterly reports on the status of implementing those measures.

The decision is a temporary win for plaintiffs, and to some extent irrigators and other river users, but generally a loss for federal defendants and the hydropower industry, which will see reduced generation due to increased spill.

“The changes to the hydropower system ordered by the court today are immediate and reasonable steps to prevent salmon extinction,” said Amanda Goodin, senior supervising attorney for Earthjustice, which is representing the 10 conservation groups that sued. “Salmon need help now, and we’re encouraged the court has granted immediate, commonsense relief that will help protected imperiled Northwest salmon and steelhead,” she added.

Mike Leahy, senior director of wildlife, hunting and fishing policy for the National Wildlife Federation, added that returning to court was the only tool left to prevent the collapse of salmon populations after the Trump administration withdrew from the RCBA.

He added, “While these emergency measures are implemented, we’ll keep our eye on our long-term goal of helping the Tribes and the states restore Snake River salmon for the generations to come.”

Public-power advocates were disappointed by the ruling.

Scott Simms, CEO and executive director of the Public Power Council, said the Columbia River dams already operate under some of the most protective fish measures in the nation, supported by billions of dollars from public-power utilities over the decades.

“PPC is disappointed that the court adopted a sweeping operational injunction that will materially affect the region’s clean hydropower system and the millions of people who depend on it,” he said in a news release.

Simms also said PPC appreciates that the court declined to impose other measures included in the plaintiffs’ request and accepted PPC’s proposal to adopt the 2025 Fish Operations Plan spill regime at Ice Harbor and John Day dams during the summer.

“Our focus now is ensuring that the region can implement this order in a way that protects electric reliability and affordability while continuing to support fish recovery,” Simms said, adding, “Public power utilities will remain engaged in the legal process and in regional collaboration to pursue solutions that work for salmon, communities, and the Northwest economy.”

“Today’s order is both entirely unwelcome and entirely unsurprising,” Northwest Requirements Utilities Executive Director Zabyn Towner said in a news release.

Towner said NRU is pleased that the court included some moderating suggestions from intervenor-defendants as part of the preliminary injunction. However, he added, NRU “is continuing our review to analyze the financial and operational impacts of this decision, and to determine if it is appropriate to appeal all or part of it to a higher court.”

Darryll Olsen, Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association board representative, told Clearing Up in an email that the renewed litigation has been intense, but Simon seemed convinced that the CSRIA “brought a moderate, thoughtful tone to the lawsuit.”

Referring to the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the RCBA, Olsen said, “The Administration actions, encouraged by some of the regional industry groups, was a self-inflicted wound. Unwise.”

Olsen predicts that breaching the four lower Snake River dams will be back on the table soon.

“Whatever goodwill existed between the Plaintiffs and Defendants under the 2024 litigation Settlement Agreement had been trampled. The Judge’s ruling invokes more costs on the federal hydro system, and now a reinvigorated fight will recommence over dam breaching on the Lower Snake River,” he said.

The Inland Ports and Navigation Group said increasing spill will have systemwide implications across the 465-mile navigation channel, affecting navigation safety, commerce, energy reliability and irrigation.

In an email to Clearing Up, IPNG said it will continue to advocate modeling operational changes ordered by the courts prior to implementation to ensure changes will be safe for navigation and benefit fish.

“Adjustments to spill levels, flow regimes, or reservoir elevations can have significant safety implications for barge and passenger vessels transiting locks and dams. Real-time operational flexibility is essential to protecting river users and the communities that depend on this critical infrastructure,” IPNG Co-Chair Leslie Druffel said.

Simon’s order for spill involved some compromises as proposed by the Defendant-Intervenor Group, a joint defendant-intervenor coalition consisting of the Public Power Council; the states of Idaho and Montana; Inland Ports and Navigation Group; and Northwest Requirements Utilities.

For spring spill, Simon agreed to the levels requested by plaintiffs, which are the same levels implemented in 2024 and 2025, except at John Day Dam, where spill will be implemented for 24 hours a day.

For summer spill, the court adopted the 2025 Fish Operations Plan spill level for Ice Harbor and John Day dams—a change proposed by the Defendant-Intervenor Group.

For fall and winter spill, Simon approved the plaintiffs’ request to spill more water for longer hours and for more days, in various combinations at the dams, finding it “will provide immediate benefit to the listed species.”

With respect to the increased spill, Simon wrote, “The Court is unpersuaded by arguments that spill will create various catastrophic results. Defendants have raised these concerns each time spill is litigated without them coming to fruition. The majority of the spill has been implemented over the years without such negative repercussions, and the Court does not anticipate such calamities will ensue from the current spill order.

By Samantha Wohlfeil
Feb 12, 2026

Last week, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council met in Spokane to take public comment on its draft Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, a plan that is updated every five years.

Congress created the power council to represent the interests of people in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, with the passage of the Northwest Power Act in 1980. In addition to tasking the council with creating a plan to mitigate fish and wildlife impacts from the region’s hydroelectric dams, the act also calls for the council to create and regularly update a power plan for the dams, which are managed by Bonneville Power Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Bureau of Reclamation.

The current draft Fish and Wildlife Program, which was released in December, is one of the main updates before the council creates the Ninth Power Plan, which is expected to be released later this year.

The Fish and Wildlife Program calls for consistent spring and summer spill (noting voluntary spill over the dams has changed frequently over the last decade) in order to reliably track how it may help juvenile salmon reach the ocean. It also calls for increased management of predators, including walleye, northern pike and northern pikeminnow, which are all voracious eaters of other fish and thrive in the river conditions created by the dams.

The program also calls for habitat restoration, including land acquisition and maintenance, and vegetation planting to restore ecosystems that are vital to weakened fish runs.

The many goals in the nearly 200-page document will translate into real projects that the Bonneville Power Administration pays for, to the tune of about $300 million per year, including funding for state and tribal fisheries, hatcheries, and more.

‘THEY’RE NOT HERE’

After dams were built across Northwest rivers over the last century, historically abundant salmon and steelhead populations in the Snake and Columbia rivers plummeted, and access was completely lost to some tributaries, including the Spokane River.

Since 1987, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s goal has been to get the number of fish returning to the Columbia River back up to 5 million among all species.

“We are nowhere near that, with less than 2.5 million fish returning annually (and the majority are hatchery fish, not wild),” says Tanya Riordan, policy and advocacy director for Save Our Wild Salmon, via email to the Inlander.

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council notes the “10-year rolling average has been 2.3 million fish, a significant improvement from the 1990s when the average dipped to a low of 1.3 million and many stocks were listed under the Endangered Species Act.”

During the Spokane public hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 3, Save Our Wild Salmon staff and others called on the council to include explicit accountability measures for Bonneville Power to meet the fish goal.

“In previous iterations of the Fish and Wildlife Program, clear accountability metrics, timelines, and actions defined if fish recovery goals are not met have not been included,” Riordan writes. “With the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement terminated by the Trump administration and continued efforts to weaken protections for endangered species, the NPCC 2026 Fish and Wildlife Program (and the Ninth Power Plan) is the best path right now to mitigate further harm to fish from hydropower operations in the Columbia and Snake rivers and make actionable progress towards recovery goals.”

Several speakers also asked for increased summer spill over the four lower Snake River dams through Aug. 31 (the program currently calls for elevated spill from mid-June to Aug. 1). They also requested the council include the potential for breaching those dams in the Ninth Power Plan.

Harvey Morrison, conservation chair of the Spokane Falls chapter of Trout Unlimited, told the council the hearing should have been conducted a day earlier, on Groundhog Day.

“Seems like I’ve played this day over and over and over,” Morrison said, referencing the 1993 movie that sees Bill Murray’s character stuck in a timeloop reliving the same day. “I first testified before this council on this Fish and Wildlife Program over 30 years ago.”

As he’s argued before, Morrison said the four lower Snake River dams never should have been built, and he noted that some fish runs now hover near extinction.

“For many years, I held the optimistic hope that this council would recognize that building these dams was a tragic and costly economic and ecological mistake, and that breaching them was the only sensible thing to do,” he said. “I urge the council to structure the Fish and Wildlife Program to facilitate the inevitable day when it becomes obvious that removing the dams is the only reasonable alternative.”

Craig Hill, 27, the youngest fluent speaker of the Spokane interior Salish language, spoke of the importance of fish to the Spokane Tribe and his great-great-grandmother, Sadie Boyd, who was alive before the Little Falls dam was built on the Spokane River in 1907-1910.

Similar to other speakers, he requested additional spill over the four lower Snake River dams, and consideration for breaching them.

Hill is from the Middle Band of the Spokane Tribe, known as snxʷméneʔi, and told the council the word for salmon, smłič, means “many backs,” a reference to abundant runs that used to populate the rivers before the dams.

“The literal translation of snxʷméneʔi is steelhead. I can’t call them smłič if they’re not here,” Hill said. “I can’t call myself snxʷméneʔi if they’re not here.”

Later, Hill tells the Inlander he finds it sad that some Spokane tribal members don’t realize they come from fishermen, because multiple generations have now grown up without having that connection to the river.

“My ancestors didn’t have a choice of whether they could have electricity or salmon. … Three generations of my family have lost our culture and language due to these impacts,” Hill says. “I enjoy electricity just as much as the next person, but I’d be willing to learn how to live without electricity if I could have salmon back. I know that’s not possible, not realistic, but that’s how important it is to my great-great-grandmother and my people.”

Public comment on the draft can be submitted by March 2 online.

Inlander: Salmon supporters lament a repeating cycle as a Northwest fish and wildlife plan still aims to restore runs after 40+ years

By K.C. Mehaffey
February 9, 2026

Without issuing a ruling on Feb. 6, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon said he was “tentatively inclined to deny the [federal defendants’] motion to dismiss, and to grant the [plaintiffs’] motion for preliminary injunction,” in a lawsuit over Columbia River System Operations.

Instead, he asked plaintiffs, defendants and intervening parties of National Wildlife Federation et al. v. National Marine Fisheries Service et al. [01-640] to attempt to reach agreement on as many points as possible in the plaintiffs’ proposed order for a preliminary injunction and to file a new proposed order by Feb. 20.

Simon said he will work on his decision over the next two weeks, and plans to issue a ruling Feb. 23, after seeing the new proposed order. The decision will cover both the federal government’s request to dismiss the case (Clearing Up No. 2242) and the preliminary injunction sought by 10 conservation groups and the State of Oregon (Clearing Up No. 2232).

Federal defendants—comprised of NMFS, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—say the region would lose 407 aMW annually under the preliminary injunction compared to Columbia River hydro generation under the 2020 CRSO record of decision.

The Public Power Council said in court documents that the proposed injunction would result in a 1,600-MW capacity deficit and cost public-power customers $150 million a year (Clearing Up No. 2241).

During the 3.5-hour hearing, Simon asked parties about the potential for mediation while hearing arguments about whether he should issue an emergency order for increased spill, lower minimum operating pools (MOP), and a list of non-operational actions to aid Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead.

Near the end of the hearing, the judge asked all of the parties to come together on as many issues in the proposed order for injunctive relief as possible over the next two weeks.

He asked them to consider what they can live with—hypothetically—if he were to deny the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case and at least partially grant the preliminary injunction.

He said areas of agreement should be written in black print. “Where there’s disagreement on particular provisions, I’d like to see plaintiffs’ version in blue, and defendants’ version in yellow,” he said.

Simon said he also wanted input from intervening parties in the case—in different colors if necessary—and clarification on some issues raised in court, such as whether the injunction allows for variances in MOP.

“I probably will not be having further arguments on how do I decide between blue and yellow. And I might very well sort of do a baseball arbitration, and pick whichever one looks more reasonable,” Simon said.

It wasn’t Simon’s only reference to baseball during this hearing.

Pointing out the decades that this case has been in court, Simon quoted baseball legend Yogi Berra at the beginning of the hearing by saying, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

And at the end of the hearing, he quoted Berra again: “If you don’t know where you’re going, when you get there you’ll be lost.”

He advised the parties that this is not the time to take an extreme stance on any of the provisions for which agreement can’t be reached, as he likely won’t be figuring out a middle path. “If blue is more reasonable than yellow, I’m going to take blue. If yellow is more reasonable than blue, I’m going to take yellow,” he said.

None of the parties are giving up their rights to appeal his decision, Simon said. But he also said he expects his Feb. 23 order to be followed this year, beginning with the start of spring spill March 1.

Plaintiffs, defendants and intervenors largely reiterated arguments already made in prior court briefings filed in the past few months.

Amanda Goodin, supervising senior attorney for Earthjustice, which represents the 10 conservation groups, said federal defendants want to “throw out” all of the science, standards and thresholds showing that increased spill and reduced reservoir elevations are the best tools to prevent irreparable harm.

“Instead, they want to look at whether we have a couple more fish or a couple less fish” in the system, she said.

Goodin stressed that the spring spill requested in the injunction is not much different from 2025 operations. And, she said, the level of spill in the federal government’s proposed 2026 Fish Operations Plan is lower than the level of spill that Simon ordered in 2017.

With respect to MOP, Goodin said it’s difficult to quantify the benefits to fish, but lowering reservoir elevations is a key tool for reducing juvenile fish travel times, which increases survival rates.

John Martin, senior trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, countered that there’s not a linear relationship between increased spill and juvenile salmon survival.

He said that in 2024 and 2025, when the projects spilled at the highest levels ever, juvenile salmon had the lowest survival rates in the last five years. He said the plaintiffs’ argument ignores this most recent evidence on abundance.

Additionally, he said, high spill is harming Columbia Basin bull trout, which are also listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

He said operations under the injunction, which combine higher year-round spill with lower reservoir levels, are unprecedented.

During arguments, Simon often interjected with his own thoughts and concerns.

With respect to spill, he told Goodin, “I’m really interested not only in what plaintiffs are asking for versus what defendants are proposing, but also how it compares to what actually happened in 2025.” He later asked about the likely effect on salmonid survival if he ordered the 2025 spill operations instead of those in the preliminary injunction.

Regarding lower reservoir elevations or MOP, he said, “Here’s my concern … From what I’ve read from defendants, and mostly from the amici supporting defendants, that would have catastrophic results for several of the amici’s agricultural operations and other needed operations.”

Simon also questioned whether some of the non-operational measures—such as hydroelectric facility repairs—are reasonable requests for a preliminary injunction as opposed to a permanent injunction to resolve the case.

During DOJ’s arguments, he commented, “[I]t’s the operation of the hydroelectric facility that’s causing the harm to the endangered and threatened species. And they’re not asking you to shut down the hydroelectric operations. They’re asking for something less than that, and that’s what makes this specific request sound more reasonable—much more reasonable than if they would have asked to shut down the entire hydroelectric operation.”

And, in response to DOJ’s concerns about how bargaining over the 2026 operations would impact a potential appeal, Simon explained his reason for asking the parties to find areas of agreement.

“It’s a partial reaction to what some of you said about wanting to ensure navigational safety is addressed, variability when need be, [and] what the irrigators’ needs are,” he said. He explained that if he grants a preliminary injunction, he wants it to cause less harm to defendants in areas where plaintiffs are willing to compromise. “I don’t want to inadvertently cause more harm than need be,” he said.

Clearing Up: Judge Urges Mediation and Compromise Prior to CRSO Lawsuit Decision

Feb. 6, 2026
By CLAIRE RUSH/The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Lawyers for conservation groups, Native American tribes, and the states of Oregon and Washington returned to court Friday to seek changes to dam operations on the Snake and Columbia Rivers, following the collapse of a landmark agreement with the federal government to help recover critically imperiled salmon runs.

Last year President Donald Trump torpedoed the 2023 deal, in which the Biden administration had promised to spend $1 billion over a decade to help restore salmon while also boosting tribal clean energy projects. The White House called it “radical environmentalism” that could have resulted in the breaching of four controversial dams on the Snake River.

Referring to the decades-long litigation, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon in Portland said it was “deja vu all over again” as he opened the hearing in a packed courtroom.

The plaintiffs argue that the way the government operates the dams violates the Endangered Species Act, and judges have repeatedly ordered changes to help the fish over the years. They’re asking the court to order changes at eight large hydropower dams, including lowering reservoir water levels, which can help fish travel through them faster, and increasing spill, which can help juvenile fish pass over dams instead of through turbines.

“We are looking at fish that are on the cusp of extinction,” Amanda Goodin, an attorney with Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm representing conservation, clean energy and fishing groups in the litigation, said during the hearing. “This is not a situation that can wait.”

In opposing arguments, an attorney for the federal government said “there’s not a linear relationship that more spill equals more benefit” for salmon.

In court filings, the federal government called the request a “sweeping scheme to wrest control” of the dams that would compromise the ability to operate them safely and efficiently. Any such court order could also raise rates for utility customers, the government said.

The lengthy legal battle was revived after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement last June. The pact with Washington, Oregon and four Native American tribes had allowed for a pause in the litigation.

The plaintiffs, which include the state of Oregon and a coalition of conservation and fishing groups such as the National Wildlife Federation, filed the motion for a preliminary injunction, with Washington state, the Nez Perce Tribe and Yakama Nation supporting it as “friends of the court.” The parties have described salmon as central to Northwest tribal life.

The Columbia River Basin, spanning an area roughly the size of Texas, was once the world’s greatest salmon-producing river system, with at least 16 stocks of salmon and steelhead. Today, four are extinct and seven are endangered or threatened. Another iconic but endangered Northwest species, a population of killer whales, also depend on the salmon.

The construction of the first dams on the Columbia River, including the Grand Coulee and Bonneville in the 1930s, provided jobs during the Great Depression as well as hydropower and navigation. They made the town of Lewiston, Idaho, the most inland seaport on the West Coast, and many farmers continue to rely on barges to ship their crops.

Opponents of the proposed dam changes include the Inland Ports and Navigation Group, which said in a statement last year that increasing spill “can disproportionately hurt navigation, resulting in disruptions in the flow of commerce that has a highly destructive impact on our communities and economy.”

However, the dams are also a main culprit behind the decline of salmon, which regional tribes consider part of their cultural and spiritual identity.

Speaking before the hearing, Jeremy Takala of the Yakama Nation Tribal Council said “extinction is not an option.”

“This is very personal to me. It’s very intimate,” he said, describing how his grandfather took him to go fishing. “Every season of lower survival means closed subsistence fisheries, loss of ceremonies and fewer elders able to pass on fishing traditions to the next generation.”

The dams for which changes are being sought are the Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite on the Snake River, and the Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary on the Columbia.

AP in Seattle Times: Oregon, Washington and tribes head back to court after Trump pulls out of deal to recover salmon

Following President Donald Trump’s abandonment of the Resilient Columbia River Basin Agreement in June, Native nations, Oregon, Washington and conservation groups returned to court on Friday, renewing litigation against the federal government to protect endangered salmon runs.

Speakers and attendees at a press conference held in downtown Portland on Feb. 6, taking place prior to opening arguments for renewed litigation against the federal government to protect endangered salmon runs. Speakers included representatives from Yakama Nation, Earthjustice and the Northwest Energy Coalition. (Photo by Jarrette Werk, Underscore Native News)

By Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News + ICT and Photos by Jarrette Werk, Underscore Native News

February 6, 2026

PORTLAND – In the U.S. District Court on Friday, lawyers for conservation groups, Native nations, and the states of Oregon and Washington returned to court asking for changes to dam operations on the Snake and Columbia Rivers to protect salmon and steelhead species, which are on the brink of extinction.

Following nearly four hours of oral arguments, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon directed the plaintiffs and defendants to confer and come back with a rewritten injunction, also known as a court order, that would outline wants of all parties. The rewritten injunction is due back on February 23 before Judge Simon will make a final decision. 

The initial injunction submitted by the plaintiffs outlined their requests for the federal government to change how they operate dams in the Columbia River Basin, claiming that current operations violate the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by harming ESA-listed salmon and steelhead.

The arguments in court on Friday reopened decades old litigation to protect endangered Columbia Basin wild salmon and steelhead from federal dams. The litigation went on pause in 2023 following the Biden administration’s signing of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, which allocated over a billion dollars in federal funds to fish restoration efforts and tribal energy development.

In June 2025, President Trump pulled out of the agreement. 

Back in court, plaintiffs argued for three main changes to dam operations throughout the basin. 

First, to increase the dam spills, which can allow juvenile fish to pass over the dams versus through turbines. 

Second, to lower reservoir water levels, helping fish travel faster. The plaintiffs claim that they are asking the federal government to operate the reservoirs at the bottom level of their own water range they have outlined. 

Lastly, to make repairs at the McNary and Bonneville dams and continue the anti-predator programs. 

Deanna Chang, attorney for the State of Oregon, argued that repairs have been slated at the Bonneville dam for years, but continue to be delayed, impacting dam spills critical to endangered fish. 

“We are just asking you to set the default at a place that’s right for fish and they can adjust as needed when the occasion arises,” said Amanda Goodin, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm representing conservation, clean energy and fishing groups in the litigation.  “We are looking at fish that are on the cusp of extinction. We are looking at populations that are at and below the functional extinction threshold today. This is not a situation that can wait.”

Defendants in this case, including the National Marine Fisheries Service and intervenor-defendants the Public Power Council pushed back on these arguments. Defendants made a motion to dismiss the injunction.

John Martin, the attorney representing the National Marine Fisheries Service, alleged that data shows transporting salmon and steelhead leads to more adult returns than increasing the dam spills would, though plaintiffs disagree. 

Martin said that there has not been a proven linear relationship that shows that more dam spills leads to more returning salmon and steelhead. He also claimed that the increase in dam spills could be harmful to bull trout populations. 

Defendants on the case also asserted that the district court lacks jurisdiction in this case and that it belongs in the ninth circuit court.

Other arguments brought forth by intervenor defendants included the worry that agriculture would suffer with lower reservoir levels due to the need to water crops and that the proposed injunction would reduce the capacity of the hydro-system thus increasing the capacity, cost, and emissions for the electricity grid throughout the region. 

How did we get here?

In June 2025, President Trump issued a memorandum pulling out of a historic salmon recovery deal made by the Biden administration in 2023 between environmental advocates and four Native nations with treaty fishing rights in the Columbia River Basin: the Nez Perce, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, and the Yakama Nation.

The 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement promised over a billion dollars in federal funds to be allocated for wild fish restoration efforts and tribal energy development over a decade. The funds also had the potential to lead to the eventual removal of the Snake River Dams to further aid in native salmon recovery efforts.

The initial agreement came about following two years of negotiations and paused decades of lawsuits filed by Native nations over the harm done to salmon populations along the Columbia River by federally-owned dams along the Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia.  

The Columbia River Basin was once one of the most prolific salmon runs in the world, with at least 16 stocks, or distinct groups, of salmon and steelhead. Now over half of those stocks are listed as threatened or endangered.

 “The salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers are perilously close to going extinct,” said Kristen Boyles, northwest regional office managing attorney at Earthjustice. “This loss would be catastrophic to our region.”

Much of the reason for this stems from the construction of dams throughout the Columbia River Basin. 

Construction of the first dams on the Columbia River began with the Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams in the early 1930s by colonial settlers. In 1957, the Dalles Dam submerged Wy-am, also known as Celilo Falls. 

Before the U.S. government erected the Dalles Dam, Wy-am was a crucial gathering site for Native nations up and down the river, a place previously known to be abundant with giant chinook and other salmon. 

On the Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia, the four lower Snake River dams were built in the 1960s and 70s. The dams continue to decimate salmon runs, creating a series of warm, shallow lakes in the Lower Snake River, with predators, dam turbines and hot water killing many migrating salmon.

The 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement felt like a turning point for many Native nations, offering a sense of hope that federal dollars could make a significant impact on salmon and steelhead recovery efforts. 

“Now that the federal government has withdrawn from both the Fish Accords and the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, this buyout stands alone and fails to protect endangered salmon from jeopardy,” said Jeremy Takala, chair of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and a councilman of the Yakama Nation. “The biggest concern that we have is that extinction is not an option.”

‘Burdens fall first and hardest on tribal families’ 

As a young boy, Pax’una’shut, whose English name is Jeremey Takala, remembers his grandfather teaching him to fish along the Columbia River, as is his inherent right as a citizen of the Yakama Nation. 

Though he carries on the tradition of fishing on the Columbia River Basin with his own children, there is the potential of a future in which he cannot do the same for his grandkids. Thinking about future generations, Takala now works fighting for salmon and the treaty-rights of his people, as the chair of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and a councilman of the Yakama Nation. 

“When the federal system harms fish, tribal families pay first,” Takala said during a press conference on February 6. The press conference took place just a few hours before the Oregon federal court heard arguments about how to protect salmon in the Columbia River Basin.

“The Treaty of 1855 guarantees the continued existence of fish, not just access to empty fishing places,” he added. “For tribal families, delay isn't neutral. Every season of lower survival means closed subsistence fisheries, loss of ceremonies, fewer elders able to pass on fishing traditions to the next generation.”

Lawyers for both the Nez Perce Tribe and the Yakama Nation appeared on Friday, representing the tribes.

Both argued that Columbia River treaty tribes will continue to bear the brunt of the harm as salmon and steelhead continue to edge closer toward extinction. 

Kate Markworth, lawyer for the Yakama Nation, argued that tribes are forced to carry the burden of a failing system, one they did not create nor do they control.

“These conservation burdens are not abstract. They weigh on the shoulders of tribal leaders, who must restrict when and how their people can fish,” Markworth said. “The tribes impose these restrictions voluntarily because they want to prevent extinction grounds and ultimately see them recover. But these restrictions are painful.” 

Markworth further argued that the defendants must comply with the Endangered Species Act as a prerequisite for upholding treaty and trust obligations to Native nations within the Columbia River Basin. The obligations guarantee the continued access to fishing within the Columbia River Basin.

David Cummings, senior staff attorney for the Nez Perce Tribe, echoed that sentiment. 

He pointed to the treaty and trust responsibilities outlined in the 1855 treaty with Nez Perce, promising that they would be able to fish at all usual and accustomed fishing sites forever, as they had since time immemorial. Other Native nations throughout the Columbia River Basin also signed treaties with the U.S. government promising rights to fish.

 “As the salmon go, so do the salmon people,” Cummings said. “And that's why the Nez Perce tribe is here again today, because of the unquestionably dire status of these ESA listed fish.”

Underscore News: Legal Battle Over Columbia Basin Dams Returns to Court

This article first appeared on Underscore Native News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.