Wild Salmon & Steelhead News is published regularly 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. The fight for salmon, their rivers, and the spirit and identity of the Northwest.
2. Join in: Giving Tuesday (December 2) and SOS’ Year End Giving Campaign!
3. The path forward must be paved with facts and dialogue... not harmful and misleading soundbites!
4. The profound silence of a sick river.
5. Join the RECIPROCITY webinar with Rena Priest on 11/20 at 6pm PT!
6. 'And So it Flows' by Erik Sandgren, Northwest Artist Against Extinction collaborative partner
7. Welcome Tyler Troelsen, Western Washington Organizer!
8. Salmon media roundup
1. The fight for salmon, their rivers, and the spirit and identity the Northwest.
Pilgrimage, 2020, acrylic painting on birch panel, 24" x 30" © Josh Udesen
The past year has brought significant setbacks and challenges for salmon, their rivers, people, and our communities. Historic agreements have been dismantled, federal agencies gutted, and our lands, waters, and species are under attack. Meanwhile, our rivers are sick and getting sicker, with an historic drought, low snowpack, rising water temperatures, toxic algal blooms, and imperiled species struggling to survive.
And although the setbacks are heartbreaking, Save Our wild Salmon and Coalition Partners are fighting back—in our communities, in Washington D.C., in the courts, and across the region.
We're fighting to protect salmon and steelhead across the Columbia Basin, and given the challenging political landscape at the national level, we’re focusing more than ever to build power in the Pacific Northwest—to defend against attacks and to seize important opportunities that are essential for advancing long-term recovery priorities.
Actions and opportunities include the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Fish and Wildlife plan, supporting partners' renewed litigation and emergency measures to provide immediate help for at-risk native fish, continuous engagement with policymakers, and strengthened grassroots advocacy.
We're embracing our strength and power together—to stand up collectively for what salmon need—now and in the future.
SOS team and partners travel to Washington D.C.:
In early November, our team and advocates from across the Northwest met with members of Congress in our nation’s capitol! The team included an energy expert, partners from Idaho Rivers United and American Whitewater, a NextGen student leader, and SOS staff members Tanya Riordan and Abby Dalke. We traveled to D.C. to speak up for healthy and abundant salmon populations and the benefits to communities, cultures, and ecosystems across the Pacific Northwest.
Despite the historically long-running government shutdown and deeply disturbing political battles to keep people fed, provide access to healthcare, manage inflation, and secure appropriations for critical basic needs and services, members of Congress and their staff embraced our conversations regarding the crisis facing salmon and what they can do right now to help protect against further harm and extinction.
We shared deep concerns about the precarious status of salmon and steelhead across the Columbia-Snake rivers, and we asked for leadership and support to advance necessary solutions to save these iconic species at the heart of our region’s identity— and ensure they survive into the future.
It’s clear that our democracy and political system is very broken right now—but we also know our voice and advocacy does make a difference still, and engaging our policymakers matters!
We had many heartfelt and informative conversations—and we’re looking forward to continued coordination with members of Congress and many other policymakers to ensure we prioritize and advance meaningful solutions to restore our beloved salmon and steelhead—and honor the spirit and identity of the Northwest.
Columbia-Snake River Litigation: Salmon Advocates are back in Court!
Lower Snake River Dam © Ecoflight
The Columbia-Snake River Basin once sustained 10-16 million salmon and steelhead, and a wide variety of other native fish species. Today, over one-third of the historic salmon and steelhead populations are extinct, and many of those that remain are endangered and declining—due primarily to the harmful impacts of federal hydropower operations.
In 1991, Snake River sockeye salmon became the first Columbia Basin salmonid to be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and in response, in 1992, the first legal action ensued.
Since then, 6 federal plans—required to address hydropower impacts and recover ESA-listed species—have been declared illegal and inadequate by a federal judge. Each time, the Court has requested the federal agencies to develop a new plan that complies with the law.
Meanwhile, in 2025, only 14 wild Snake River Sockeye salmon were able to reach their spawning grounds in central Idaho. Only 14! They are worse off now than when they were first listed as endangered, not better.
And now, following the Trump Administration’s abrupt and unilateral withdrawal from the historic agreement to restore Columbia basin and invest in communities, plaintiffs, led by Earthjustice, are left with no alternative but to return to court to seek critical near-term actions to improve the survival of out-migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead and adults returning to the river in search of their natal spawning beds.
In order to survive and recover, the Northwest's native fish need more dam spill and water flow during their migration - to cool waters and reduce travel time to the ocean. The emergency measures recently requested by the Plaintiffs in U.S. District Court include changes to dam operations to address these urgent needs, such as increased spill, lower reservoir levels, and other conservation measures.
Save Our wild Salmon Coalition is not an official party to the litigation, but many of the involved NGOs are Coalition Partners and we're actively supporting the Plaintiffs' request for the emergency measures necessary, and are strongly advocating for the urgent implementation—in time for upcoming 2026 spring salmon migration. Wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries are running out of time.
Northwest Power and Conservation Council's new Fish & Wildlife Program:
In 1980, Congress passed the Northwest Power Act, triggered by the twin crisis of rapidly declining salmon populations in the Columbia-Snake Basin, (amid fears that salmon could be listed under the ESA), and the need for smart energy development and planning. The fears about the future of the fish were warranted, of course, and by 1999, a total of 13 Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead stocks had been listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The Northwest Power Act mandates that Columbia River power production and fisheries be managed as coequals and created the Northwest Power and Conservation Council—to develop and regularly update a Fish & Wildlife Plan and Regional Energy Plan to “protect, mitigate, and enhance” fish and wildlife populations in the Columbia-Snake Basin impacted by dams.
In 1987, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council set an interim annual goal of five million fish returning to the Basin. This goal was established to directly address the minimum (5-11 million fish) impacted by hydropower operations in the Columbia Basin. Current basin-wide returns (wild and hatchery fish) are less than half of that goal at about 2.3 million—nowhere near the 5 million interim goal, nor the historic abundance of 10-16 million.
Right now, the Council is working on amendments to update its Fish & Wildlife Program and is in the early stages of updating its Regional Energy Plan. As an initial step in the Fish & Wildlife Program, the Council received recommendations from state, federal, and Tribal fisheries managers, and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), among others.
BPA’s recommendations and their lack of accountability or interest to uphold their obligation to salmon was shocking. BPA requested the Council to abandon its long-held goal of 5 million adult salmon and steelhead returning annually to the Columbia Basin to spawn, and requested the Council to eliminate BPA’s legal obligation to meet any numerical goals the Council sets.
SOS and partners delivered a petition to the Council recently, with over 2,500 signers asking the Council to:
- Uphold the “interim goal” of 5 million adult salmon and steelhead returning annually to the Columbia Basin
- Analyze and prioritize changes in hydropower operations to speed smolt travel time from natal rivers to the ocean
- Include ALL recommendations from State and Tribal fisheries managers in the updated Fish and Wildlife Plan
- Affirm BPA’s responsibility to “protect, mitigate, and enhance” salmon populations “consistent with” the Council’s Fish and Wildlife Program
Thank you to all who took action for fish & wildlife, and communities in the Columbia Basin! Stay tuned for upcoming advocacy opportunities and to provide feedback to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. A draft Fish and Wildlife Plan will be released soon, and a public comment period will be available to share your input.
A comprehensive Fish and Wildlife Plan that incorporates all the recommendations from State and Tribal Fishery managers is our best pathway forward right now to implement regionally supported, longer-term actions for salmon and steelhead throughout the Columbia Basin.
2. Join in: for Giving Tuesday (December 2) and SOS’ Year End Giving Campaign!
Giving Tuesday is coming up on Dec. 2 – and it kicks off our year-end giving campaign. Your generous financial support is critical to ensuring that SOS has the resources we need to advance our work together to protect and restore rivers, salmon, and orcas, and defend the Pacific Northwest’s special way of life.
Together, we are working every day to defend our gains, create and seize new opportunities, and engage with Northwest people and policymakers for a brighter, more resilient, and more hopeful future with healthy rivers, thriving salmon, and the many gifts they bring.
With your help, we continue to lean into our strengths – collaborative leadership, education, inspiration and organizing, policy advocacy, and strategic communications. We’re focused on supporting and pressing key Northwest policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels to champion Columbia-Snake salmon and the Southern Resident orcas that rely upon them.
Thanks to your strong support and advocacy, SOS has made a real difference in 2025 – look for highlights of our shared accomplishments coming soon. Our work and program impact wouldn’t be possible without you, and we’re incredibly grateful for your support and partnership. Please donate to SOS today to help us carry our momentum into the new year!
3. The path forward must be paved with facts and dialogue... not harmful and misleading soundbites!
The Six Sovereigns' State and Tribal Fishery Managers wrote a letter to Northwest River Partners and Northwest Public Power Association regarding their recent misleading ad campaign about the status of salmon returns in the Columbia Basin.
The letter focuses on clarifying the true status of distinct salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia Basin. The letter also encourages increased dialogue and agreement "on the challenges our region faces as we seek to chart a path forward for healthy, abundant salmon and steelhead populations and clean, reliable, and affordable energy. We share your priority of ensuring affordable and reliable energy in the Pacific Northwest.”
The Fishery Managers stated in the letter, "when it comes to characterizing the state of Columbia Basin salmon recovery – which our entities collectively assess and manage along with our federal colleagues and other regional sovereigns – we are less confident that we are operating from shared facts. Far from being recovered, many salmon stocks are at high risk of extinction, and most populations are far from sustainable healthy and abundant levels."
The false claims and misleading narrative on the status of salmon that is being pushed onto the public by heavily funded industry lobby groups is based on incomplete and misleading aggregate data and faulty comparisons from the 1930s.
The Fishery Managers explained, "aggregate dam counts provide useful information, but they are of limited value in assessing the status of the individual runs. Progress toward recovery is assessed on a stock-by-stock basis by looking at spawner counts. Based on these counts, most individual stocks of naturally reproducing salmon and steelhead in the interior Columbia Basin are struggling. While lumping together all fish passing various dams is an incomplete measure, total returns do provide a helpful snapshot within the broader context described above and with appropriate caveats. But comparing current total fish numbers with those observed in the 1930s does not provide an accurate picture."
To understand the urgency and crisis facing salmon, it's important to discuss the unique and specific status of each individual stock. Here are a few of the facts conveniently left out of the misleading ad campaign:
- The Columbia-Snake River Basin once sustained 10-16 million salmon and steelhead, and a wide variety of other native fish species. Today, over one-third of the historic salmon and steelhead populations are extinct, and many of those remaining are considered quasi-extinct.
- In 2025, only 14 wild Snake River Sockeye salmon were able to reach their spawning grounds in central Idaho.
- Snake River Spring/Summer Chinook is one of the species hovering closest to extinction, especially the Tucannon Spring Chinook population. In 2025, Fishery Managers relocated Tucannon stocks away from the Snake River as an emergency and high-risk measure, in an attempt to prevent the population from becoming extinct.
- Wild salmon returns to the Snake Basin are 0.1% to 2% of their historical abundance. The chart above depicts the status of each of the ESA-listed interior Columbia Basin Stocks. See Six Sovereigns' Fish Facts for current status of each ESA-listed Interior Columbia-Snake Basin Stocks)
Inaccurate and deceptive public advertising campaigns are as old as junk food, Coca-Cola, and cigarettes. And this case is no different. The harms caused to the public are longstanding and dangerous, and ultimately a roadblock to effective dialogue and building the necessary solutions to address large-scale and urgent issues. Much like the tobacco industry that used harmful advertising practices and catchy slogans to mislead the public – industry lobby groups are attempting to deceive the public about the crisis we and salmon are facing– instead of acknowledging the facts and bringing actual solutions and a spirit of true partnership and collaboration that move us ALL forward together.
Save Our wild Salmon and Coalition Partners will continue fighting for salmon, advocating for affordable and clean energy, and advancing solutions that work for all of the people and communities who rely on and cherish our river.
We invite the industry groups to join us in this effort and help pave the pathway forward with facts, meaningful solutions, and true collaboration!
4. The profound silence of a sick river.
Scott Putnam worked for decades as a Regional Wild Salmon and Steelhead Trout Fisheries Biologist. After retiring in Lewiston (ID) in December 2024, he’s spent much of his time documenting the presence of toxic algal blooms on the lower Snake River and their impact on fish and local communities. This past summer and fall, eleven toxic algal blooms were documented across the Columbia-Snake Rivers. Concerned about the effects of the toxic algal blooms and the need for additional public information, Scott created a 7-minute film, The Sound of Silence, Two Visions for One River, highlighting the profound silence of a sick river.
This is the third consecutive year of worsening toxic conditions across the lower Snake River. The four lower Snake River dams transformed this once highly productive river and prolific salmon migration corridor into a series of stagnant reservoirs, creating unhealthy, hot, toxic river conditions, including increasingly prominent and dangerous toxic algal blooms.
Toxic algal blooms contain microcystins, a liver toxin that can pose a significant health risk if touched, ingested, or inhaled. Microcystins are dangerous to people, pets, and imperiled salmon and steelhead. Health advisories posted warned people NOT to be in or even around the river, preventing access to important cultural, recreational, and economic activities and connection to the river.
Factors that contribute to these toxic blooms include high temperatures, hot and stagnant water conditions, and an influx of nutrients (namely nitrogen and phosphorus) usually entering via runoff. The combination of these conditions is most likely to materialize in late summer and early fall, when water and air temperatures are often at their highest (and precipitation and snowpack at their lowest). The lower Snake River dams create these conditions, forming slow-moving reservoirs that trap heat and toxic nutrients throughout the summer.
Toxic algal blooms and high water temperatures create dangerous conditions for migrating salmon and steelhead by increasing their susceptibility to infections, causing oxygen depletion, and slowing or stopping their migration entirely.
Toxic algal blooms are a strong indicator of the poor health of our river and ecosystem. As we’ve seen with other restored rivers such as the Klamath, when rivers function as they are meant to, with cold, free-flowing water and healthy habitats, they can heal and rapidly restore the balance of the ecosystem.
The question is, as Scott asked in The Sound of Silence, Two Visions for One River, “The Snake River’s unhealthy condition is serious enough and the timeframe for change short enough to warrant all parties come together now to effectively communicate and decide: Will society, including you, choose to restore the sounds of flowing waters, and with them, the health of the Snake River? Or, will society accept the river’s adulterations, substitutions, consequences, and with them, the sound of silence?
Watch and share the shorter versions of the film on SOS' social media and on Scott Putnam's YouTube channel:
5. Join the RECIPROCITY webinar with Rena Priest on 11/20 at 6pm PT!
Join Raven Chronicles Press, North Cascades Institute, & SOS for a virtual evening with award-winning author and poet Rena Priest on November 20 at 6pm PT!
In her new book, Positively Uncivilized, Priest examines the impact of human inhabitants on the planet earth. Alongside personal accounts of the deterioration of salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest and the loss of Indigenous history, the twelve essays in her new collection emphasize the necessity of community to overcome the damage done by socioeconomic and political systems designed to isolate and silence those who are vulnerable to these unfair systems.
The 90-minute webinar will include a reading, a moderated discussion, and a Q&A with attendees. Sign up today to join the final RECIPROCITY webinar of 2025! Following your registration, a Zoom link will be sent directly to your inbox.
In October, SOS, Oregon Wild, and Washington Wild hosted the RECIPROCITY webinar featuring Lynda V. Mapes, award-winning journalist and author of The Trees are Speaking – Dispatches from the salmon forests.
We were honored and grateful to spend an evening with Lynda Mapes as she shared her journey to salmon forests of the east and west coasts, listening and learning from Indigenous Peoples, new foresters, and the ecosystems themselves. Throughout Lynda's presentation, we were inspired by her photographs of diverse landscapes and forests, and by her reflections on the connections we as humans have with forests, salmon, rivers, and the soil beneath our feet. Watch the recording here!
6. And So it Flows
By Erik Sandgren, Northwest Artist Against Extinction collaborative partner
November 8, 2025
Deep Stream of Summer, watercolor ©Erik Sandgren
I have just returned, sated, to Portland from the Big Apple. For a month, I traded the Columbia, Tualatin, and Willamette Rivers of my neighborhood here for the Hudson, Delaware, and East River while visiting world-class exhibitions there. Art derives from both nature and other art, and so I have returned, like a salmon ready to spawn, to native waters with strong feelings and intention about how that urban and cultural stimulus will affect my studio practice here.
Fine Asian pieces in the Metropolitan Museum, ancient artifacts, some contemporary artists, and revisits with work of Cézanne, Ruth Asawa, John Marin, Wassily Kandinsky, Ben Shahn, and George Morrison have each spoken to me through their tough and honest confrontations with the art and nature of their times. Their various sensibilities consistently produced striking and highly individuated forms derived from their respective convictions about the world at large. Each has discernible arcs to their production as they mastered some things, became aware of others, and as their worlds changed around them.
For the Classical Chinese, what we call landscape painting is named by combining the characters for Mountain and Water. My own practice reflects this insight: alternating between water and rock: apparent flux and fluidity contrasting with relative fixity. The act of painting shifts constantly for me between the poles of touch and concept, object and space, observation and imagination. I constantly seek a resonant equilibrium between these antipodes.
Back home with Pacific Northwest waters, realizing esthetic form in the service of truth increasingly feels like an act of resistance and non-conformity. All the more reason to carry on.
And so it flows.
Erik recently concluded a solo show, “Ravens: Landscapes of Thought and Memory,” at Art Adventure Gallery in Madras, Oregon. Erik’s work can be seen at the “Naturally Northwest: Prints and Poems” exhibition with Northwest printmakers at the Grey Raven Gallery in Beaverton, OR, which opened on November 10th. In addition, find his work at The Portland Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery’s Member Artists 2025 Winter Show. And from March 4 – April 18, 2026, Erik will exhibit in a group show titled “Where We Belong,” at Karin Clarke Gallery in Eugene, OR.
We are deeply grateful to Erik for granting SOS permissions to gift a limited run of prints for a set of our supporters.
7. Welcome Tyler Troelsen, Western Washington Organizer!
Tyler Troelsen, Abby Dalke, and Joseph Bogaard at the Rise Up Northwest in Unity Convening, hosted by the Nez Perce Tribe and the Columbia Snake River Campaign.
We are excited to introduce a new staff member joining the team, Tyler Troelsen! Tyler is the Western Washington Organizer working for Save Our wild Salmon Coalition and Sierra Club.
Tyler is a lifelong Vancouverite with deep roots in Southwest Washington and a strong passion for environmental justice. Tyler graduated from the University of Washington, where he studied Political Science and Law, Societies, and Justice, with a minor in Spanish. His interest in politics and advocacy began at an early age, and his fieldwork began with door-to-door fundraising at age 19. He previously worked on the congressional campaigns of both Rep. Kim Schrier (2022) and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (2023-2024), and he served as a session legislative aide to state Senator Rebecca Saldaña (2023). Most recently, he worked as Field Director for a successful ballot measure campaign to restore levy funding for Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries.
Now, Tyler focuses on building a broad, diverse coalition in Southwest Washington to support the recovery of wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin and to protect public lands for future generations.
He enjoys swimming with his local team, running, reading, and spending time outdoors. Whether on the trail or at the doors, Tyler is driven by a vision of a more sustainable, equitable future for his home region.
Here are a couple of recent stories about the urgency and opportunity today for salmon recovery and river restoration:
Opinion:
- Spokesman-Review: Clean power and abundant salmon – both are possible written by Josh Mills, local fisherman and Mike Leahy, Senior Director of Wildlife, Hunting and Fishing Policy with the National Wildlife Federation.
- Spokesman-Review Letters to the Editor: Keep fighting to protect our beloved salmon written by Scott Putnam, Lewiston, Idaho
- Spokesman-Review Letters to the Editor: Impact of dams on the salmon written by Amy G. Mazur, Moscow, Idaho
- Everett Herald Guest Opinion: Scuttling Columbia Basin pact ignores peril to salmon written by Joseph Bogaard, executive director of Save Our wild Salmon Coalition
- Seattle Times Opinion: We’re back in court for Columbia Basin salmon’s survival written by Amanda Goodin, attorney with Earthjustice.
- Washington State Standard Opinion: Federal agencies need a workable plan to protect salmon in the Columbia Basin written by Marc Sullivan, western Washington coordinator at Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition.
- Spokesman-Review Guest Opinion: The importance of the Columbia River Treaty for our communities, economy and environment written by Tanya Riordan, Policy and Advocacy Director for the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition. Tom Soeldner, retired clergyman and educator who helps to coordinate the One River, Ethics Matter project and volunteers with the Sierra Club’s Columbia River Team.
News:
- Seattle Times: Oregon, environmental groups ask courts to help Columbia Basin fish
- KOMO News: Orca calf J-64 likely dead, Center for Whale Research to monitor future encounter
- OPB: Klamath River temperatures changed dramatically after dam removal. That’s helping salmon swim farther upstream
Documentaries:
- OPB documentary: First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath follows Indigenous kayakers on a historic journey after dam removal. The nonprofit Ríos to Rivers and its program Paddle Tribal Waters organized the expedition, which was the first source-to-sea descent of the Klamath since the removal of J.C. Boyle, Copco 1, Copco 2, and Iron Gate dams in 2023 and 2024.
- People of the Salmon, a public radio documentary and podcast by Jane Fritz and Justin Lantrip, explores the Nez Perce Tribe’s historical, cultural and spiritual connection to the five species of ocean-going salmon in the Columbia River system, the impacts from the eight dams on the rivers, and Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries restoration efforts. Learn more and listen to the podcast at mythweaver.org or on Spotify and Apple Podcasts under Voices of the Wild Earth.
