Opinion

Opinion of Travis Wendt

I make my living helping people catch fish throughout the Columbia River Basin. As a guide with Reel Time Fishing, I work the Clearwater, Snake, Columbia and Grande Ronde rivers. My customers reserve motel rooms, eat in local restaurants, buy fuel and tackle, and often plan their trips months in advance.

That business depends on one thing I cannot manufacture: fish.

This year, I was counting on a productive spring chinook season on the Clearwater River, followed by sockeye fishing on the upper Columbia. Instead, both opportunities largely disappeared.

Idaho’s spring chinook season opened April 25 with cautious optimism. The preseason sport harvest share for the Clearwater basin was estimated at more than 2,000 adult chinook. As the run weakened, that estimate fell to 1,202, then ultimately to just 644 adults.

Historically, about 95% of Idaho-bound chinook passing Ice Harbor Dam are expected to reach Lower Granite Dam. This year, that conversion rate dropped to approximately 87%.

The lower Clearwater closed after only a brief period of productive fishing, and the rest of the basin soon followed. Guides went from preparing for a season to canceling trips and explaining why the fish our customers expected never arrived.

When a season collapses, guides do not simply rearrange a few appointments. We refund deposits. We lose income. Deckhands lose work. Customers cancel hotel rooms and restaurant reservations. Fuel stations, sporting goods stores and other small businesses lose money they expected to earn.

Many guides spread that risk by working different fisheries. That is why I was also counting on the upper Columbia sockeye season.

The preseason forecast called for roughly 275,000 sockeye past Bonneville Dam, enough to support a summer fishery. Instead, the run came in far below expectations, and Washington state canceled the season before it opened. Another important piece of the guiding calendar vanished.

No responsible guide wants managers to keep fishing when conservation needs cannot be met. Closing a fishery when there are not enough salmon is the right decision.

But we should not mistake closures for successful salmon management.

Managing scarcity is not recovery. Reducing harvest shares is not recovery. Asking guides, anglers, tribes and river communities to accept shorter seasons is not recovery.

On the Clearwater, we also cannot ignore the four lower Snake River dams every Idaho salmon must pass twice — once as a juvenile heading to the ocean and again as an adult returning home.

Habitat restoration, hatcheries, spill and fish-passage improvements all matter. But after decades of mitigation, Idaho is still getting abbreviated fisheries and emergency closures. The status quo has not produced the healthy, harvestable salmon runs our communities were promised.

Restoring a free-flowing lower Snake River by removing its four federal dams is the most important action available to improve survival for Idaho’s salmon and steelhead. The transportation, irrigation and energy services those dams provide must be responsibly replaced, but continuing to manage salmon toward smaller runs and shorter seasons is not acceptable.

The most immediate action we can take is to implement more aggressive predator management. Nonnative walleye and bass, along with predatory birds such as pelicans and cormorants, place increasing pressure on juvenile salmon and steelhead. Simply asking anglers to harvest walleye and report their catches is not enough. Idaho, Washington and Oregon need to develop incentive-based programs modeled after the successful Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Program to meaningfully reduce predator populations that consume large numbers of young salmon.

State leaders should also work with federal agencies to manage overabundant predatory birds where they are demonstrably harming struggling salmon populations. Predator management cannot remain an afterthought.

As this commentary goes to print, Idaho’s A-run steelhead return is falling dramatically short of expectations — thousands below the 10-year average and less than half of last year’s return. These disappointing numbers are becoming part of a troubling pattern. Without decisive action, today’s disappointing returns risk becoming tomorrow’s new normal.

I want to take families fishing. I want customers to return year after year. I want young guides to believe they can build a future on these rivers.

That future requires more than forecasts and apologies.

Wendt has been part of the recreational fishing industry in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley for more than 21 years as a professional fishing guide.

Lewiston Tribune OPINION: Action needed: A fishing season cannot survive on promises

We’ve been hearing a lot lately from public utilities calling on Gov. Tina Kotek and others challenging the Trump Administration’s inadequate and illegal salmon recovery plan to choose “collaboration” over litigation (“Readers respond: Hydropower lawsuit hurts affordability,” July 13). The problem is this: Fruitful collaboration must be built on a foundation of trust; defenders of the failed status quo have given salmon advocates little reason to trust their good faith. Just look at the record.

Beginning in 2023, we had a credible plan that balanced the salmon and dams equation: the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement. The agreement resulted from a collaborative process involving Washington and Oregon, Northwest tribes, non-governmental advocacy organizations and the Biden Administration. Input from other stakeholders, like these utilities, was welcomed, but they brought nothing to the table other than a defense of the Trump salmon plan.

In June 2025, the Trump Administration, cheered on by many public utilities, unilaterally abrogated that agreement. The agreement had allowed salmon advocates to pause litigation challenging the Trump salmon recovery plan. With collaboration tossed aside, advocates had no choice but to return to court.

This was just the latest chapter in a decades-long saga of bad faith plans for recovery of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin. Over three decades of litigation, federal courts have declared six different federal plans illegal, including every one since 2000.

Why should salmon advocates, given that history, believe that these agencies, and their public utility allies, are now ready to engage in good faith collaborative efforts to have both salmon and clean, affordable energy?

Marc Sullivan, Sequim
Sullivan is a contract consultant for the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition.

Oregon Live: Readers respond: Utilities’ disingenuous call for ‘collaboration’

By Roy Akins
August 19, 2026

My wife, Karen, and I moved to Riggins in 1995 to build a life along the Salmon River. We raised our family here and built Rapid River Outfitters around a simple belief: Healthy rivers and returning salmon can support working families and rural communities.

Our business employs guides, buys locally and brings customers to Riggins restaurants, motels, campgrounds and stores. During spring Chinook season, the economic activity reaches far beyond our boats.

But that only happens when the salmon come home.

This year, they did not return in the numbers Idaho was promised.

Idaho Fish and Game opened the 2026 spring Chinook season on April 25. By late May, the lower Salmon River had closed after expected late-season pulses failed to materialize. On June 2, the agency reported returns well below preseason expectations and announced some of Idaho’s earliest spring Chinook closures in recent years. The remaining Little Salmon River opportunity closed June 8.

For people outside Riggins, those dates may look routine. Here, they mean canceled trips, empty boats, lost guide days and customers who never make the drive into town.

When a trip is canceled, the loss does not stop with the outfitter. A guide loses work. A motel loses a reservation. A restaurant loses a table. A gas station sells less fuel. Families who might have stayed several nights instead go somewhere else.

Idaho Fish and Game has documented what a strong salmon season can mean. Following the 2001 spring Chinook season, the department estimated anglers generated $46.1 million in direct spending. That was in 2001 dollars and did not include the broader economic activity created as those dollars circulated through Idaho communities.

That is the opportunity rural river towns lose when salmon do not return.

Nobody in Riggins expects every season to be perfect. Fishing has always involved uncertainty, and we understand that Fish and Game must protect broodstock when returns are poor.

But managing scarcity is not the same as recovering salmon.

For decades, the federal government has told Idaho communities that the Columbia and Snake River hydropower system could operate while maintaining healthy, harvestable salmon runs. Billions have been spent modifying dams, transporting juvenile fish, producing hatchery salmon, controlling predators and studying the same problems.

Yet here we are again: fewer fish, shorter seasons and rural communities absorbing the consequences.

The federal agencies responsible for the hydropower system do not lose a paycheck when the season closes. Their offices remain open. Their budgets continue.

My guides do not have that luxury.

A canceled fishing day cannot be saved for next year. These are seasonal jobs and businesses. When the opportunity disappears, so does the income.

Idaho was promised more than survival. We were promised recovery and fishable runs supporting anglers, outfitters, tribal fisheries and river communities.

A salmon run that cannot reliably support a fishing season is not recovered. A system producing an occasional good year surrounded by closures is not working for Idaho.

From where I sit, that truth is visible in an empty boat, a guide who expected to work but did not and a Main Street losing spring fishing traffic too soon.

Idaho’s elected leaders should demand a full accounting of federal salmon mitigation. How much has been spent? What measurable recovery has it produced? Why are Idaho businesses still bearing the economic cost of a federal hydropower system that continues to fall short?

Riggins has upheld its end of the bargain. Our guides work hard. Our businesses welcome visitors. Our community supports responsible fishing regulations and conservation.

It is time for the federal government to uphold its end by delivering what Idaho was promised: abundant, harvestable salmon returning to the Salmon River reliably enough to sustain the people and communities that have waited far too long.

Roy Akins is the owner of Rapid River Outfitters in Riggins.

Idaho Statesman Opinion: If we let Idaho salmon vanish, places like Riggins will pay the price

Travis Kavulla was sworn in as Bonneville Power Administration’s newest administrator at the end of June. BPA supplies more than a third of the Northwest’s electricity and operates about three-quarters of our region’s transmission system. The agency plays an outsized role in the Northwest’s energy future and Administrator Kavulla is taking the helm at a pivotal time.

The Northwest’s energy future is changing at warp speed, with energy needs growing faster than in decades. BPA has not done enough to meet this major challenge while salmon populations fall deeper into peril. Electricity bills are rising, temperatures are increasing, and snowpack is declining.

BPA is legally required to provide reliable and affordable electricity while also protecting and enhancing fish and wildlife resources in the Columbia Basin under the Northwest Power Act. For decades, our region has enjoyed affordable, abundant, and clean energy supplied by the Columbia Basin hydropower system that BPA manages. But that power has come at a devastating cost to salmon, other natural resources, and Native American tribes.

Fortunately, the challenges now facing the region are balanced by ample opportunities. These include vast and growing clean energy sources like wind, solar, and battery storage, investments and updates that could be made to the region’s grid, new ways of maximizing energy efficiency, and a western energy market choice that could help lower the region’s energy prices, increase reliability and help unite the region.

Our organizations advocate for clean, affordable, reliable energy alongside climate and environmental protections across the four Northwest states within BPA’s core service area. We are optimistic Administrator Kavulla can usher in a new era that rapidly modernizes our region’s energy system while better protecting our region’s salmon and natural resources that are essential to our economy and ways of life. He is well positioned to make positive change that could unite the Northwest and the other western states served by BPA, but the path ahead will require both bold and well-planned action.

Administrator Kavulla knows these issues well, having worked in both private and public energy sectors in the Northwest, including eight years as a commissioner on the Montana Public Service Commission and a stint with the nonprofit corporation that manages much of the western energy grid. He has a reputation as a thoughtful, innovative leader who could revive the legacy of BPA as a leader in clean, coordinated, and affordable energy while protecting and enhancing our natural resources.

Here are three concrete actions BPA could undertake to address these challenges and usher in a new era of leadership in the Northwest:

• Revisit BPA’s 2025 decision to join a day-ahead energy trading system called Markets+. That decision is forecast to increase regional electricity costs by more than $4 billion in the coming decade. BPA’s decision would require it to leave the Western Energy Imbalance Market despite WEIM having enhanced reliability and saving BPA customers $127 million since it joined WEIM in 2022. BPA should stay the course with the WEIM and then reconsider whether to join a larger western market called the Extended Day Ahead Market with access to far more renewable energy options that would diversify the system and increase reliability even more.
• Modernize the transmission system. Better connect clean energy generation with the sources of energy demand by upgrading and modernizing BPA’s antiquated transmission system. BPA must take a more nimble, efficient, and community-oriented approach to address the massive backlog of pending requests for transmission service so affordable clean energy projects can reliably connect to the grid and meet our growing needs.
• Support and expand BPA’s role in developing ways to conserve energy, increase energy efficiency and shift how customers consume energy, thereby reducing the need for expensive new power generation. Helping customers use energy efficiently and flexibly is a win-win solution that will keep bills affordable, improve reliability, and reduce BPA’s reliance on our stressed hydro system.

While BPA must also do significantly more to restore salmon and meet its obligations to Native American tribes, seriously addressing each of the above issues with strong and fresh thinking would demonstrate BPA is ready to address challenges it faces today and will face even more tomorrow. We look forward to working with BPA’s new leadership to address these shared challenges. Together, we can create an affordable, abundant, and robust clean energy system while restoring the fish, wildlife and cultural resources that make the Northwest so vibrant.

Tamara Kennedy is the executive director at the NW Energy Coalition.

Anne Hedges is executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center.

Bob Jenks is executive director of the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board.

Brad Smith is interim executive director of the Idaho Conservation League.

Washington State Standard: Bonneville Power Administration must balance energy needs with affordability and salmon protections

By  KC Golden | Special to The Seattle Times

As power-hungry data centers seek to expand and we electrify our vehicles and buildings, warnings about looming electricity shortfalls are growing louder. The concern is real, but much of the recent commentary overemphasizes manageable, moderate risks while ignoring more urgent and costly ones. Weakening clean energy laws to allow more gas power plants, as some have proposed, would throw us from the frying pan into the fire.

Many of these warnings cite the January 2024 cold snap, which strained the electrical grid’s capacity, as a cautionary example. We didn’t fall short of power during that event, but we narrowly avoided “rolling blackouts” — power interruptions that typically last 60-90 minutes to keep supply and demand in balance. Power providers build the electric grid with extra “reserve” capacity so these emergency measures are rarely needed.

But while that specter — a near miss of scheduled power interruptions — is being used to lobby for more gas, much more serious power outages have actually occurred. Last December, nearly 1 million Washingtonians lost power for up to four days due to wind and flooding from an extreme storm that had “the fingerprints of climate change” all over it. Like most power outages, this one was caused by damage to distribution systems, not power supply shortfalls. Building power plants powered by fossil fuels makes these storms and the associated power failures worse, by stoking the climate heating that exacerbates extreme weather.

Another recent catastrophe — the heat dome of 2021 — was amplified and made vastly more likely by climate disruption. It directly or indirectly caused over 400 deaths in Washington. Europe recorded 10,000 excess deaths in this June’s heat wave. As climate change intensifies wildfires, mortality from acute pulmonary impacts increases, while everyone who breathes suffers worsening health effects. As I write, over 100 million Americans are breathing smoke-filled air. Energy choices that prolong fossil fuel dependence make these events more dangerous and costly.

So why do these real catastrophes seem to get less attention from energy providers than hypothetical and manageable power shortfalls?

In the excellent book “Fire Weather,” John Vaillant describes the “Lucretius Effect”: We misperceive risks that are outside our normal frame of reference. I might also suggest a “Serenity Prayer Effect”: In the face of terrible climate news, we seek “serenity to accept the things we cannot change,” forgetting that the prayer also calls for courage to change the things we can and wisdom to know the difference.

Why do we jump to serenity and bypass courage and wisdom?

Because climate disruption is too damned big — scary, depressing and seemingly beyond our power to make a difference. Politics plays a big role too: We see climate change through the distorting lens of political gamesmanship and oil industry deception, rather than the clear, harsh light of objective reality. Many political consultants advise candidates to avoid the topic altogether.

But physics doesn’t play politics. The consequences of fossil fuel dependence are upon us. To respond effectively, we need an accurate sense of proportion about the risks associated with our energy decisions. We cannot afford “solutions” to manageable energy challenges that make climate disruption unmanageable.

This is not to advocate complacency in the face of a prospective energy crunch. It’s a pressing challenge and we need to tackle it. The Northwest Power and Conservation Council, on which I serve as a representative of Washington, is charged with delivering a regional power plan that minimizes costs, balances risks, and maintains a high standard of power resource adequacy.

Because our council represents Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana, our plan will require compromise. Some gas will be in the mix — probably more than Washington would like. But we will also propose cost-effective solutions like energy conservation, renewable power, battery storage and “demand response” measures that give consumers more control over energy costs. Our plan will abide by state policies, including Washington’s clean energy laws. I invite everyone who cares about energy affordability and reliability to help us develop the best possible plan — one that delivers on our climate commitments instead of undermining them. We expect to issue a draft regional power and conservation plan soon. We welcome your comments; learn more at st.news/power.

KC Golden: directed Washington’s Energy Policy Office in the mid-1990s and has served in a variety of nonprofit positions supporting climate solutions. He represents Washington on the NW Power and Conservation Council.

Seattle Times Opinion: Energy reliability is what we need to talk about when it comes to power

By Anne Hedges and Tamara Kennedy Special to The Seattle Times

For decades the Northwest has enjoyed affordable, abundant and clean electricity. We enjoy some of the lowest electric rates in the country because of our hydropower resources and now, with vast wind and solar resources at hand, we can meet future challenges, too.

Because of rising electricity bills, growing energy needs, increasing temperatures and declining snowpack, we must redouble our efforts to create an electric power system for the future that meets our needs while protecting salmon, steelhead and other natural resources that our Northwest economy and cultures depend on. Whether one takes the perspective of an electric customer, a utility providing power or a salmon trying to survive a warming world, we must take action now to preserve and enhance the quality of life that makes our region special.

This is why the recent announcement of Travis Kavulla as the next Bonneville Power Administrator is a key moment. BPA plays an outsized role in our region by operating about three-quarters of the transmission system and marketing federal hydropower that supplies more than one-third of our electricity. This scale means BPA’s policies, investments, and programs are essential to energy affordability and reliability for all customers across the Northwest.

Under the Northwest Power Act and other laws, BPA is charged with balancing the need for a reliable and affordable supply of electricity with the requirement to protect and enhance fish and wildlife resources in the Columbia Basin. This is a tall order and for much too long, BPA has responded too slowly to market signals and failed to make needed investments in our transmission system, to address imperiled salmon populations and help customers use energy efficiently.

BPA’s new administrator is in a unique position to modernize the agency so it can plan and build a power system that enhances our economy, keeps customer bills truly affordable and protects our environment. Kavulla’s past experience as an energy regulator, his work in the private sector and his reputation as a thoughtful leader position him well to revive the legacy of BPA as a leader in clean, coordinated, and affordable power that protects our natural resources and unites the Northwest.

To meet this challenge, we need fresh, innovative thinking to change stagnant patterns and make strategic investments in our shared infrastructure. By growing clean energy, and joining together across the West to better trade power and balance the grid, we can meet our rising energy needs, keep bills affordable and protect the shared natural resources we all value.

BPA’s success in meeting this challenge underpins our economic success as a region. Here are three issues that should be at the top of Administrator Kavulla’s to-do list:

• Revisit BPA’s 2025 decision to join the day-ahead energy trading system Markets+. That decision is forecast to increase electricity costs by more than $4 billion in the coming decade. Instead, BPA should remain in the Western Energy Imbalance Market that has enhanced reliability and saved customers tens of millions of dollars since its inception in 2014.
• Modernize the transmission system. Plan, upgrade and improve the transmission system to better connect clean energy generation with the sources of energy demand. BPA must be more nimble, efficient, and community-oriented in addressing the massive backlog of pending requests for transmission service so that affordable clean energy projects can serve our growing needs.
• Support and expand BPA’s role in developing ways to conserve energy, like increasing energy efficiency and shifting how customers consume energy to reduce the need for more power generation. Helping customers use energy efficiently and flexibly is a win-win solution that will result in more affordable bills, more reliable service and reduce BPA’s reliance on our stressed hydro system. Welcome back to the Northwest, Administrator Kavulla. We look forward to working together to address our shared challenge — creating an affordable, abundant and clean energy system while restoring the fish, wildlife and cultural resources that make the Northwest so vibrant.

Anne Hedges is executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center.

Tamara Kennedy is The NW Energy Coalition executive director.