FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 11, 2025
CONTACTS:
Joseph Bogaard, executive director, Save Our wild Salmon Coalition
joseph@wildsalmon.org // 206-300-1003
Tanya Riordan, policy and advocacy director, Save Our wild Salmon Coalition
tanya@wildsalmon.org // 509-990-9777
Salmon and fishing advocates applaud Tribal, State and NGO plaintiffs as they file motion in federal court to protect critically endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia-Snake rivers.
President Trump recently terminated the historic Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA), putting the Northwest’s future at stake.
STATEMENT from Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition:
“Pacific Northwest salmon are facing extinction. Today—salmon, fishing, and clean energy advocates applaud the Tribes, States, and non-governmental organizations for filing a motion with the U.S. District Court in Portland to lift a litigation stay that had been put in place as part of an historic regional agreement. Announced in December 2023, the RCBA, developed by the Biden Administration with Northwest Tribes, states, and stakeholders, represented a significant step toward implementing a comprehensive and collaborative roadmap to recover imperiled salmon, expand clean energy sources across the region, honor Tribal treaty rights, and restore healthy ecosystems while supporting a robust Pacific Northwest economy.
The Trump Administration’s decision to terminate the RCBA this past June represents a huge blow to severely imperiled salmon populations in the Columbia Basin and for the collaborative planning and investment in our region’s communities, infrastructure, and economy.
Without the agreement in place, plaintiffs are left with no alternative but to return to court to seek critical near-term actions to improve the survival of ocean-bound out-migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead and adults returning in search of their natal spawning beds. There are 13 wild salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia and Snake rivers today protected under the Endangered Species Act. Seven of these imperiled stocks spawn and rear in rivers and streams above Bonneville Dam on the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries. Returning today at less than 1 or 2 percent historic levels, many of these stocks teeter on the brink of extinction. See this factsheet for additional details on status of fish populations.
The motion filed today also suggests a schedule for requesting injunctive relief that could provide urgent measures required for salmon and steelhead, who need additional actions now to stop or slow their decline toward extinction.
Our coalition members deeply appreciate the leadership of the plaintiffs, and we hope the court will act expeditiously in order to provide the urgent measures needed to improve dismal survival rates of salmon and steelhead in time for the upcoming 2026 spring-summer migration season.”
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