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
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.
