NWPCC Looking For Comments On New Draft Of Columbia Basin Fish And Wildlife Program

THE FOLLOWING IS A PRESS RELEASE FROM THE NORTHWEST POWER AND CONSERVATION COUNCIL

Long-term, consistent operations that will support juvenile migration in spring and summer and keep water temperatures cooler in the Columbia and Snake Rivers are included in a new draft of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. Other top priorities include maintaining critical assets like hatcheries and fish screens, improving fish survival by better managing predation rates, and continuing to invest in habitat restoration projects.

Following a vote on Tuesday, the Council released the draft program for public review and comment today, December 17. Under the Northwest Power Act of 1980, the Council represents Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Montana in developing a Fish and Wildlife Program to protect and benefit salmon, steelhead, white sturgeon, Pacific lamprey, bull trout, and other fish and wildlife species impacted by the Columbia Basin hydrosystem. The draft program’s full suite of actions seeks to continue progress toward the Council’s vision of contributing to the protection and restoration of the natural ecological functions and biological diversity of the Columbia River Basin by mitigating for hydrosystem impacts.

One of the program’s longstanding goals is to bring an average of 5 million adult salmon and steelhead back to the Columbia River Basin annually. The current 10-year rolling average has been 2.3 million fish, a significant improvement from the 1990s when the average dipped to a low of 1.3 million and many stocks were listed under the Endangered Species Act. 2014’s total return of adult fish was the closest to reaching that 5 million target with 4.6 million.

Bonneville Power Administration funds the program to fulfill its mitigation responsibilities under the Power Act. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also have responsibilities to implement provisions of the Fish and Wildlife Program. The program directs about $300 million annually in direct investment by Bonneville to benefit and protect fish and wildlife in the Columbia Basin, and relies heavily on state and tribal fish and wildlife agencies for implementation. Today’s release opens a 75-day public comment period, with a deadline of March 2, 2026. Public hearing processes in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana will commence early in early 2026. Hearings will be held throughout the region, including in Bend and Portland, OR, Kalispell, MT, Boise and Lewiston, ID, and Seattle, Spokane, and Yakima, WA. More information on dates and times will be announced on the Council’s website. The Council aims to approve the final program by May 2026.

Proposed hydrosystem operations

Spring is a crucial migration period for juvenile salmon and steelhead heading downriver, while summer water temperatures have posed challenges for adult migration moving upstream in recent years. Recent operations based on biological opinions and other agreements have varied over the last decade. Beginning in 2027, the draft Fish and Wildlife Program proposes long-term, consistent operations in the mainstem Columbia and Snake Rivers during the spring and summer. This is intended to keep water moving through the hydrosystem and prevent ponding, lower water temperatures, and benefit migrating juvenile and adult fish. Key components of this proposal include:

• A hydrosystem operation that prioritizes spill to the 125% gas cap 24 hours a day from April to the middle of June.
• Implementation of a consistent summer spill operation with elevated levels of spill from mid-June through Aug. 1 at the lower Snake River dams and through Aug. 15 at the lower Columbia River dams, and use in-season management to adjust as needed for migration. This proposed summer spill operation contains a safety off-ramp – the draft program states that dam operators and BPA can suspend the operation if necessary to address a power system reliability event.
• Operations that minimize ramp rates and daily flow fluctuations on the Columbia and Lower Snake during the spring and summer migration periods. Ramping and flow fluctuation between projects in these stretches could increase significantly by 2029, primarily due to the flexibility of the hydrosystem and integrating increasing generation from renewable energy resources in the Northwest. This ramping and flow fluctuation can negatively impact fish.

The draft Fish and Wildlife Program’s proposal would not be a major departure from recent operations, which have been implemented without significant impact to the Northwest’s electricity system, to other river uses, or to electricity rates in the region. However, the draft program proposes to bring consistency and stability to hydrosystem operations over the next decade, so the effects and potential benefits of these spill operations can be studied effectively and be better understood.

“Our proposal seeks long-term continuity and stability in hydro operations in the Columbia Basin,” said Peter Cogswell, Executive Director of the Council. “This will help us continue to sustain and grow fish and wildlife populations, while ensuring that we’ll continue to have the dependable, well-functioning power system that we have relied on for decades in the Northwest.”

One of the Council’s core responsibilities under the Power Act is to develop a 20-year power plan that ensures that operations in the Fish and Wildlife Program can be reliably implemented. The Council is in the process of creating its next power plan, called the Ninth Plan, and aims to release a draft for public review and comment by mid-2026, and adopt the final version by November 2026. Updating the Fish and Wildlife Program is a preliminary component that informs the regional power plan.

The Council also recognizes that these hydrosystem operations may not result in the desired benefits if the impacts of predation outweigh the gains. The draft program proposes to continue and grow existing predator management efforts for seals, sea lions, birds, northern pike, and northern pikeminnow. It also prioritizes new studies and new and expanded control methods for walleye and bass, beginning with areas of the basin where these predation problems are the most acute or emerging, such as upstream of Lower Granite Dam.

“Predation is taking a major toll on fish species in the Columbia and Snake Rivers and limiting the benefits of mitigation actions from the Council’s Fish and Wildlife Program and other restoration efforts,” said Idaho Council Member Ed Schriever. “Snake River salmon and steelhead have the longest migrations in the basin and are most exposed to these threats. Swift and bold actions are needed to address predation impacts sustainably and comprehensively. The Council is committed to working with our partners in the region to help ensure more salmon and steelhead make their journeys to and from the ocean safely and successfully.”

The Council also supports formation of a regional working group that would investigate other potential hydrosystem operations that could benefit fish. The Council provides an essential regional table where many partners, including state and federal agencies, utilities, fishing groups, tribes, community members, irrigators, and environmental groups, can gather and discuss major issues about the Columbia Basin openly and transparently.

“For over 40 years, our Fish and Wildlife Program has demonstrated the power of working together in a broad and diverse region,” said Les Purce, Council Vice Chair and Washington Member. “This year, we received hundreds of recommendations from our regional partners and the public on what the next Fish and Wildlife Program should include, and thousands of comments on these recommendations. Council Members and staff have spent countless hours engaged in careful study, thoughtful deliberation, and collaborative problem-solving. Now, we’re asking the public to weigh in on our proposal. Your input will help chart the path our Fish and Wildlife Program takes over the next decade.”

Habitat restoration

Habitat restoration and protection in the Council’s program takes place across the Columbia River Basin from the estuary, the mainstem, and in tributaries, and extends to  the Continental Divide in Idaho and Montana. To date, the program has protected over 300,000 acres of habitat through purchase or easement and restored over 760,000 acres. Between 2012-2021, the program improved, restored, or managed an average of 59,000 acres of habitat annually. To put that in perspective, it’s equivalent to approximately 92 square miles; the city of Seattle and the city of Boise are 84 and 85 square miles in size, respectively.

Dozens of proposed projects aim to benefit over 30 rivers and streams in the Columbia Basin. In many cases, new projects will build on current or former restoration and protection projects from the Fish and Wildlife Program. The list of new projects also includes proposed water transactions that will keep more water for fish to address diminished stream flows in tributary streams and rivers in the basin. Implementing these projects often requires working collaboratively with willing private landowners in rural areas of the Columbia Basin, including farmers, ranchers, and local irrigation districts.

“The Council’s restoration efforts are creating miles of clean, cold-water habitats, and securing new and expanded flows for fish in the Columbia Basin’s tributaries, mainstems, and estuary,” said Chuck Sams, an Oregon Council Member who is enrolled as Walla Walla and Cayuse in the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. “These projects are fixing ecosystem functions that have been broken for generations and addressing impacts of climate change. We’re constantly learning new insights from science and applying lessons from nature to benefit and protect our basin’s fish and wildlife for future generations. Our habitat restoration work is happening at a strong pace now, and we want to ensure this momentum continues over the next decade.”

Because this is the draft program, the list of projects could be subject to change in upcoming public processes. Additionally, decisions on how and when to add habitat projects to the pipeline for funding and implementation will come after the final Fish and Wildlife Program is adopted in spring 2026. Under a 1996 amendment to the NW Power Act by Congress, proposed projects must undergo a scientific review process by a panel of independent scientists. Tuesday’s vote marks an early step in a robust, transparent public process of organizing and vetting proposed habitat restoration projects in the Columbia Basin for implementation on the landscape.

To make ratepayer dollars go further, the Council proposes to work with regional partners in the basin to seek authorizations and funding from Congress to complement and augment ratepayer-funded efforts.

“Through prudent planning and strong fiscal discipline, the Council has been able to significantly grow the Fish and Wildlife Program’s benefits and positive impact, while keeping regional power costs among the lowest levels in the U.S., and protecting our grid’s reliability and resource adequacy,” said Council Chair Mike Milburn of Montana. “We are proud of this track record and are excited to build on this legacy. We encourage electric ratepayers in our region to engage with us and help guide future investments from our Fish and Wildlife Program.”

Protecting program infrastructure investments

The Fish & Wildlife Program has invested in an extensive network of physical assets, activities, and infrastructure in the Columbia Basin, including over 1,800 fish screens, bypasses, 16 hatcheries and two dozen related facilities, fish passage structures, and land acquisitions. These investments need maintenance and upgrades to ensure they keep functioning and continue to benefit fish. An asset management plan the Council initiated with BPA and regional partners in 2014 was highly successful, but the draft program proposes to jump-start needed long-term strategic planning.

Additionally, inflation has been impacting Fish and Wildlife Program investments in recent years, so the draft program proposes to include an inflation adjustment factor for expenditures like materials and cost-of-living.

Infrastructure maintenance and upgrades are necessary to increasing juvenile and adult survival through hydropower projects that are decades old. These projects do receive ongoing maintenance & operation funding. The Council intends to work with regional partners to secure necessary appropriations from Congress for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, to ensure that the levels are sufficient to achieve intended benefits for fish.