FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 5, 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

Save Our wild Salmon Coaliton stands with Yakama Nation in urging BPA to restore $50M in withheld Salmon Recovery Funds

Tribe warns withheld funds jeopardize salmon recovery and federal ESA obligations.

The Save Our wild Salmon Coalition is deeply concerned by BPA's recent decision to terminate Yakama Nation's Columbia Basin Fish Accords and withhold more than $50 million - funding that has already been secured by BPA and designated for important fish and wildlife program commitments and projects. BPA must keep its promises to the Yakama Nation to support salmon and steelhead recovery and rebuild valuable fisheries that benefit many tribal and non-tribal communities - in the Columbia Basin, in Northwest coastal waters and up into southeast Alaska.

"Pacific Northwest conservation and fishing advocates stand with the Yakama Nation and call on BPA to honor its Fish Accord commitments, uphold its legal obligations to mitigate harms caused by federal hydropower operations, and constructively collaborate with State and Tribal Fishery Managers to protect and recover healthy, harvestable native fish populations in the Columbia Basin," said Joseph Bogaard. Executive Director, Save Our wild Salmon Coalition.

"Many of the basin's ecologically, economically and culturally valuable fish populations have already been extinguished due to habitat loss and degradation, and many of those that remain today are in decline and at-risk. It’s long past due to right this historic wrong and, as the agency that markets power generated by the federal hydro-system, BPA has a very significant role to play." 

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