FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 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 Seeking Emergency Actions to Protect Imperiled Columbia Basin Salmon
President Trump’s decision to terminate the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement leaves plaintiffs no choice but to seek additional protections for imperiled wild salmon and steelhead populations.
Plaintiff groups led by Earthjustice and supported by the lower Columbia River Tribes and states of Oregon and Washington filed a motion last month to lift the litigation stay that had been provided as part of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA). The U.S. District Court overseeing this case quickly approved their request. TODAY—additional court filings by plaintiffs and aligned parties seek a preliminary injunction to require emergency measures to protect endangered salmon and steelhead from harms caused by lower Snake and Columbia River dam operations. If the plaintiffs' request is granted by the court this fall or early winter, it could require operational changes for the federal hydro-system in time for the 2026 juvenile fish out-migration that begins each year in early April and continues through the end of August.
STATEMENT from Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition:
“Despite cynical and misleading claims by heavily funded lobby groups, our region's deeply cherished salmon populations are running out of time. The science is clear: many native fish populations in the Columbia and Snake rivers today face extinction, and immediate action is urgently needed to give them a fighting chance to survive and recover. Salmon, fishing and clean energy advocates applaud the Tribes, States and non-governmental organizations for asking the U.S. District Court in Portland to require emergency injunctive relief measures to improve fish survival as they migrate past dams and reservoirs in the Columbia and Snake Rivers in time for the juvenile out-migration next year.
Announced in December 2023, the RCBA was developed by the Biden Administration in collaboration with Northwest Tribes, states and regional stakeholders. It represented a first significant step toward implementing a comprehensive strategy to recover imperiled salmon, expand clean energy resources, honor Tribal treaty rights, and restore healthy ecosystems while also supporting a robust Pacific Northwest economy.
The Trump Administration’s sudden decision in June to unilaterally terminate the RCBA has forced salmon and fishing advocates to seek emergency actions to aid these imperiled populations. Actions requested today include increased dam spill, lower reservoir elevations, removal of passage barriers that impede the migration of critically endangered Tucannon River spring Chinook, and increased federal action to control predators like invasive walleye and some birds that prey heavily on juvenile salmon and steelhead.
With the termination of the 2023 agreement, 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 to the river 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 in 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 and remain far, far below the recovery goals collaboratively developed by the Columbia Basin Partnership. See this factsheet for additional details on the precarious status of fish populations in the Columbia-Snake River Basin.
The Save Our wild Salmon Coalition deeply appreciates the leadership of the plaintiffs, and we hope the court will act expeditiously to approve the measures needed to improve dismal survival rates of salmon and steelhead in time for next year’s migration season.”
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