Wild Salmon & Steelhead News is published monthly by the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition. Read on to learn about the Columbia-Snake River Basin’s endangered wild salmon and steelhead, the many benefits they deliver to people and ecosystems, and the extinction crisis they face today - unless we act! Find out how SOS is helping lead efforts to restore health, connectivity, and resilience to the rivers and streams these fish depend upon in the Columbia-Snake Basin and how you can get involved to help restore healthy, abundant, and harvestable populations and sustain more just and prosperous communities. To learn more and/or get involved, contact Martha Campos.
1. Our way forward to defend salmon and steelhead from extinction
2. Coming soon: 'Hot Water Report' for the lower Snake and Columbia Rivers
3. Join Nimíipuu Protecting the Environment's 'Envisioning a Restored Lower Snake River Flotilla' August 15-16!
4. Salmon media round-up
1. Our way forward to defend salmon and steelhead from extinction
Salmon AK © Dave McCoyThis past month brought devastating news regarding the federal government's commitments to protect imperiled salmon and steelhead populations and restore a healthier, more resilient Columbia Basin. In this newsletter, we review what has happened and the important ways you can take action.
Trump Administration withdraws from the 'Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement'
Salmon, orca, and fishing advocates are deeply disappointed by the Trump Administration’s announcement to withdraw from the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA). Announced in December 2023, this historic agreement between the federal government and the states, Tribes, and people of the Pacific Northwest created a long-sought, much-needed opportunity to collaboratively restore endangered native fish populations, invest in communities and critical infrastructure, and address a set of linked challenges concerning clean energy, irrigation, transportation, and recreation. With its Executive Order issued on June 12, the Trump Administration ignored the pressing needs, interests, and values of many Tribal and non-tribal communities that strongly support salmon recovery and necessary investments to upgrade aging infrastructure, including the replacement of the services currently provided by the lower Snake River dams.
The abrupt termination of the RCBA represents a huge missed opportunity for the people of the Northwest and nation - a chance to move beyond decades of costly, divisive litigation and conflict and toward an inclusive and collaborative approach focused on developing shared solutions and meeting the needs of imperiled salmon, their rivers, and Tribal and non-tribal communities alike.
The federal government: a 5-time loser in court. For nearly three decades before the RCBA, fishing, environmental, and clean energy groups, all represented by Earthjustice, have been in constant litigation with BPA, Army Corps, and their allies to protect wild salmon and steelhead populations facing extinction in the Columbia and Snake rivers. Five consecutive salmon plans developed by the federal government dating back to the 1990s that cost in excess of $25B were all found to be inadequate and illegal in the U.S.district court. A multi-year stay or pause of that long-running litigation that began in 2021 was a key element of the RCBA - as long as progress was being made to implement it. But now, with the Trump Administration's recent decision to abandon the RCBA, salmon and fishing advocates and their allies are assessing possible next steps, including litigation.
Our collective work with you, our NGO partners, scientists, and policymakers to defend and advocate for salmon and steelhead is more important now than ever! Our voices and coordinated action are essential to ensure a future with abundant, fishable, life-giving salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia-Snake River Basin and across the Northwest. At this very challenging time, we all have a role to play to protect and preserve the integral link between salmon and our region’s special way of life.
Thank you for your past advocacy to protect salmon, their rivers, and a healthy Columbia-Snake River Basin. Team SOS looks forward to continuing our work with you - we are always stronger together!
Take action to defend salmon and steelhead from extinction:
Advancing the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI): SOS will continue to work towards solutions outlined in the CBRI with members of Congress and other regional policymakers. The CBRI, developed by the Six Sovereigns, is a visionary, comprehensive, regionally supported roadmap to rebuild imperiled native fish populations, ensure a clean and socially just energy future, support local economic resilience, and honor federal commitments to Tribal Nations. The CBRI includes many important pieces, including a path to lower Snake River dam removal, starting with dam service replacement planning that is underway through Washington State agencies.
Urging members of Congress to support urgent Columbia Basin salmon investments in FY2026 appropriations bills: We will continue to support the leadership of regional sovereigns and fight for policies and funding needed to protect, restore, and reconnect the habitats that wild salmon and steelhead require. We are urging members of Congress to fund critical investments in the FY26 appropriations bills (supporting the same request made earlier this year by the Six Sovereigns) to recover salmon and invest in our communities—moving everyone forward together. Recently, SOS and salmon/fishing advocates from Oregon and Washington traveled to Washington D.C to meet with policymakers and their staff, sharing how the crisis facing salmon and steelhead impacts our region's economy and culture, and asking for their help to support the CBRI and fund key federal programs that support the restoration of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin. Take Action: Contact your members of Congress to secure important salmon recovery investments.
Holding Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) accountable for its legal obligations to protect salmon and steelhead in the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC) 2026 Fish and Wildlife Plan: In 1980, with the alarming decline in Columbia River Basin salmon, Congress enacted the Northwest Power Act. With the Act, Congress created the NPCC and directed it to develop and periodically amend a fish and wildlife program in which BPA has an obligation to “protect, mitigate, and enhance” fish and wildlife impacted by hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River and its tributaries.
Currently, NPCC is in the process of developing its 2026 Fish and Wildlife Program, which includes targets for salmon abundance and details on how to achieve those targets. Since 1987, the Council has repeatedly reaffirmed a salmon abundance goal of 5 million adult fish returning annually to the Basin. In recommendations recently filed with the NPCC as it considers amendments to the Fish and Wildlife Plan, BPA requested that NPCC eliminate its longstanding target of 5 million salmon returning to the Columbia River Basin annually. BPA also argued it should not have any responsibility to help meet the targets if the NPCC decides to retain them. Clearly, BPA is attempting to abandon its legal responsibility to protect and rebuild salmon populations in the Columbia River Basin and is pushing endangered salmon and steelhead closer to the brink of extinction. Take Action: Submit a comment to NPCC’s 2026 Fish and Wildlife Plan to hold BPA accountable and protect salmon recovery goals and efforts.
Join the Hear the People, Heal the River: Virtual Action Hour: SOS recently launched a new monthly virtual action hour series to promote collective action to protect salmon and defend the historic progress our region has made towards salmon recovery. Join the action hour to hear updates from experts on issues impacting salmon recovery and the health of the Columbia-Snake Rivers, ask questions, and get resources and information about how you can take action NOW.
Save the date for the next action hour on July 22, at 12:30pm AND 5:30pm PT. Afternoon and evening sessions will be identical, so you can choose the time that works best for you!
2. Coming soon: 'Hot Water Report' for the lower Snake and Columbia rivers
Save Our wild Salmon and coalition partners will soon kick off our 10th annual series of the Hot Water Report.
The once-abundant anadromous fish populations in the Columbia-Snake River Basin are struggling to survive today primarily due to multiple harms caused by the federal dams and their warm stagnant reservoirs. Each summer, for the past 10 years, we have reported and tracked the rising water temperatures, which harm and kill both juvenile and adult fish as they migrate to and from the Pacific Ocean.
These cold-water fish begin to suffer harmful effects when water temperatures exceed 68° Fahrenheit. Scientists have identified the 68°F threshold as the biological limit that water temperatures should remain under to protect salmon and steelhead. The longer and the higher water temperatures rise above 68°F, the greater the harm to the fish, including: migration disruption, increased metabolism, increased susceptibility to disease, reduced reproductive potential (by reducing egg viability), suffocation (warm water carries less oxygen), and in the worst case - death.
Stay tuned as we launch the Hot Water Report, where we will track water temperatures in real-time and highlight related issues and challenges facing the Columbia and Snake rivers, including the opportunities to improve them in order to recover healthy, resilient fish populations and the benefits they deliver to the Northwest and nation’s culture, economy, and ecology.
3. Join Nimíipuu Protecting the Environment's 'Envisioning a Restored Lower Snake River Flotilla' - August 15 and 16!
You’re invited to Nimíipuu Protecting the Environment's Envisioning a Restored Lower Snake River Flotilla, on August 15-16 at Hells Gate State Park in Lewiston, ID.
Join us to celebrate the profound opportunities a free-flowing lower Snake River and abundant salmon and steelhead will bring—Tribal justice, ecosystem health, community resilience, recreation, and more—while calling on our policymakers to take meaningful action for salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin.
Let's come together and take action to heal the Snake River. This special two-day event will be our biggest rally on the river in years—also featuring on-land activities including inspiring Tribal speakers, food, live music, a film screening, interactive art, and more! The Flotilla is family-friendly and open to everyone. All are welcome at this free community gathering.
Join more summer events at wildsalmon.org/events
Here are a couple of recent stories about the urgency and opportunity today for salmon recovery and river restoration:
News:
- Seattle Times: Trump cancels landmark Columbia River agreement with tribes, WA, OR
- Lewiston Morning Tribune: Trump spikes Northwest salmon agreement
- Moscow-Pullman Daily News: Report says Snake River chinook and steelhead still in peril
- OPB: The president just unraveled years of work on tribal rights, salmon and clean energy. So what happens next?
Opinions and Editorials:
- The Hill Opinion: Energy Secretary Wright ‘passionately’ ignorant about Northwest hydropower
- Everett Herald Editorial: A loss for Northwest tribes salmon and energy
- The Columbian Editorial: In Our View: Move to end critical fish deal offers no solutions
- The Columbian: Letter: Salmon decision is shortsighted
