Columbia River tribes, Oregon, Washington and conservationists ask judge to lift litigation stay following Trump admin decision to kill agreement
Credit: Ecoflight
By Eric Barker | Outdoor and Environmental Editor
September 12, 2025
Columbia River tribes along with the states of Oregon and Washington asked a federal judge Thursday to lift a stay blocking further litigation over harm caused to salmon and steelhead by federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers.
The expected move was spurred by President Donald Trump’s executive order in June that torpedoed an agreement the plaintiffs had made with the Biden Administration to study dam removal on the Snake River while funding salmon recovery and tribal renewable energy projects.
According to documents filed Thursday in Oregon District Court, attorneys for plaintiffs and the federal government have agreed to a schedule that would resume legal filings in the case as soon as Oct. 8.
Shannon Wheeler, chairperson of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, said salmon remain in danger of extinction and the status quo is neither alleviating that risk nor moving them toward recovery.
“If this wasn’t the answer to solving the problem, then what is,” he said. “We have to try to do whatever we can for the species.”
The 2023 agreement that was signed by the Nez Perce and other tribes in the basin was seen by salmon advocates as a breakthrough in their decades-long effort to recover wild salmon and steelhead that are protected by the Endangered Species Act. While it did not authorize dam breaching, it did call for studies focused on how to replace barging, power generation and irrigation made possible the dams. It also pledged $1 billion in spending on salmon recovery and renewable energy development. In exchange, the plaintiffs agreed to pause litigation in a three-decades-old case for at least five years.
The agreement was decried by agricultural groups, power interests and others who said they would be harmed by dam breaching and were not included in the talks that led to it.
In June, Trump directed members of his cabinet to withdraw from the agreement, calling it part of a “radical green agenda.”
In their motion Thursday, attorneys for the plaintiffs noted that when federal Judge Michael Simon at Portland approved the stay, he wrote it would serve the “orderly course of justice” as both sides seek remedies outside of the courtroom. With the Trump administration killing the agreement, they argued the stay no longer meets that standard.
“The Trump administration’s recent actions leave us with no choice but to return to court,” Earthjustice Attorney Amanda Goodin said in a news release. “Since this administration has reneged on this carefully negotiated agreement — with no alternative plan to restore our imperiled salmon and steelhead — we find ourselves once again on a course towards extinction of these critically important species. Earthjustice and our plaintiffs, alongside state and tribal partners, have spent decades protecting Pacific Northwest salmon and steelhead — and we won’t back down now.”
The legal fight over how much blame for dwindling wild salmon and steelhead runs should be placed on dams has been going on for more than 30 years. Salmon advocates have successfully challenged multiple iterations of the federal government’s plan to operate the dams while also trying to reduce the harm they cause to fish. Simon and his predecessor Judge James Redden have ruled the government’s plans that have dismissed dam breaching in favor actions like restoration of spawning habitat and spill water at the dams have not met the standards of the Endangered Species Act.
The latest version of that plan was written during Trump’s first term and prior to the agreement struck by the Biden administration, was being challenged by the tribes, conservation and fishing groups and the state of Oregon.
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