Tuesday, October 7, 2025
By Matthew Weaver

Dam advocates placed a full-page advertisement in the Seattle Times last week asking Oregon and Washington’s governors to seek conversation, not lawsuits.

Oregon and Washington’s governors answered by saying it was the Trump administration’s decision to leave the December 2023 agreement negotiated between the Biden administration, several Pacific Northwest Tribes and their states.

“The Trump administration’s decision to walk away from the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement — without even contacting Washington, Oregon or the tribal signatories — ensured we ended up back in court,” Dan Jackson, deputy communications manager with Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office, told Capital Press. “The agreement kept us out of the courtroom by creating a constructive partnership to address these issues without litigation. The administration made this choice.”

“The state of Oregon remains committed to a negotiated solution for Columbia Basin salmon recovery; it is precisely why the state of Oregon entered the 2023 agreement in good faith,” said Anca Matica, spokesperson for Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s office. “The Trump Administration chose to walk away from that partnership, not us.”

The state will use every tool available, including litigation, to prevent extinction, Matica said.

“That said, our door remains open to anyone serious about achieving healthy and abundant salmon populations through real solutions and genuine partnership,” she said.

The ad was signed by the Northwest Public Power Association, Northwest River Partners, The Public Power Council, the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association’s Inland Ports and Navigation Group and Washington Association of Wheat Growers.

Several of the groups were intervenor defendants in the negotiation process, but felt shut out or ignored.

“We may not get a direct response, but we do want to impress upon Governors Kotek and Ferguson the sincerity of our organizations to collaborate on solutions that protect salmon while preserving reliable, carbon-free hydropower and maintaining efficient, sustainable river navigation,” said Leslie Druffel, co-chair for the navigation group. “We are eager to build new partnerships and strengthen existing relationships that allow all of us to achieve our respective goals.”

‘The science is clear’

Ferguson’s office has “regular” conversations with the groups, voicing the same concerns that appear in the ad, Jackson said.

“Endangered salmon and steelhead stocks on the upper Columbia and Snake River remain far below historical levels,” Jackson said. “Adding healthier salmon populations to inflate the numbers doesn’t change the fact that none of the listed populations have made meaningful progress toward healthier numbers in decades.”

“The science is clear: While total salmon numbers include both hatchery and wild fish, we must look at individual stocks as the Endangered Species Act requires,” Matica said. “The state of Oregon Governor’s Office is committed to continuing to work with regional sovereigns, stakeholders, and communities to ensure healthy and abundant fish.”

Irrigators’ perspective

Darryll Olsen, board representative for the Columbia Snake River Irrigators Association, called the advertisement, and the groups’ arguments about secret negotiations, “complete propaganda, as far removed from the truth as they can possibly be.”

The irrigators association was another intervenor defendant in the mediation process. They support the December 2023 agreement. Its members irrigate about 300,000 acres of Eastern Washington crop, vineyard and orchard lands.

Olsen argues that the dam advocacy groups “were offered every opportunity to convey their positions, or state alternatives, during multiple mediation sessions.”

The groups’ dissatisfaction with the litigation settlement agreement “made no sense whatsoever,” as it put a hold for five to 10 years on any decision regarding dam breaching, Olsen said.

“The intervenor defendants are the ones that goaded the Trump administration into canceling the regional process that was in play,” he said. “That was the opportunity to discuss things, and they basically executed it. That’s just complete hypocrisy.”

In a press release, the irrigators association affirmed its support for the 2023 agreement and the litigation pause, and called for continued “good-faith regional collaboration.”

“CSRIA supported the mediated settlement because it provided a structured, regional review process and avoided immediate, economically disruptive outcomes,” the press release states. “CSRIA will keep listening to plaintiffs and partners and work toward a durable regional solution."

Capital Press: Governors respond to ad placed by dam advocates