Oregon Vows To Continue Columbia Basin Salmon, Steelhead Restoration Efforts

Yesterday, the federal government backed out of a “landmark” deal aimed at restoring salmon and steelhead runs in the Columbia Basin. But the work is far from dead.

So vowed Tucker Jones, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s ocean and Columbia River fishery manager as he briefed his state Fish and Wildlife Commission this morning on both the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement – which was torpedoed by the White House Thursday – and the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative, the states’ and tribes’ efforts.

“The RCBA, by beginning to implement the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative, was the best path forward toward starting this basinwide recovery effort towards healthy and abundant levels (of salmon and steelhead). But it’s not the only path, and the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative is still there, it is still the six sovereigns’ roadmap to ecosystem recovery,” Jones told commissioners.

It’s all a bit of an “alphabet soup,” in Jones’ words, but the RCBA was the December 2023 deal reached under the Biden Administration that paused a decades-long court case over federal hydropower system impacts to listed fish. It also provided a pathway to breaching the lower Snake River dams while replacing power generation and transportation needs.

The Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative is centered on the six sovereigns, the states of Oregon and Washington and the Nez Perce Tribe, Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation.

“(The CRBI) is an expansive and holistic approach to this, and it is a document that talks about not just ecosystem recovery, but it looks at looking at meeting our decarbonization goals and energy needs, and tribal sovereignty,” Jones continued. “It is, I believe, a really important document, and it is not ending the six sovereigns’ commitment towards that document, nor our work together.”

“I believe our coalition is strong. I believe we will continue to work. It recognizes that we need that significant increase in funding. That funding cannot come from traditional partners; it’s going to require going to Congress and looking for those funds. It was always going to require political solutions. It’s still going to require that work. It’s going to take time and effort, and I believe everyone is still committed to that work. We’re definitely going to have to take stock amongst our sovereign group and figure out next steps. Definitely disappointing, but it is not the end of the work that we’re doing together, and it’s certainly not the end of Oregon’s or the other … sovereigns’ commitment to basinwide recovery,” he added.

Commissioner Leslie King of Portland asked what it meant to not have the feds in the game now.

Jones said that some of the 63 commitments in the RCBA had already been completed, but Oregon had also not seen any of the promised funding via the Bonneville Power Administration, including for “desperately needed” deferred maintenance at Snake River compensation plan hatcheries, as well as certain mitigation measures.

Jones wasn’t the only one this morning talking about Thursday’s presidential memo that ordered the secretaries of four federal agencies – Commerce, Interior, Energy and the Corps of Engineers – to pull out of the RCBA. It was also the subject of comments from Corinne Sams, CTUIR chair.

“We are facing devastating impacts to our shared interests,” Sams said. “Yesterday’s news of the Trump Administration withdrawing from the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, paired with already elevated climate issues, water quality, predation, federal work force cuts (and) funding cuts unfolding in real time is certainly overwhelming. We must take a moment to breathe and to remain confident in accomplishing our shared priorities. We will progress with lessons learned, transparency and partnership to mitigate and continue to move natural resource priorities forward in these times of adversity.”

“We will not allow the current federal political climate to distract us from how far we have come and how much we have accomplished,” she stated.

Sams was before the commission to welcome them to Pendleton, where they are meeting today and which is located just outside the reservation but firmly in the Umatillas’ ancestral rounds. Yesterday, tribal officials were part of a commission field trip around the region, including stops at McKay Dam, a restoration project on Birch Creek and the tribal Imtwaha Hatchery.

Her greeting included a tribal history that spoke to the landscape before settlement, the Whitman Massacre and hanging of five Cayuse men, ceding of 6.4 million acres to the US government, 50 years as comanagers, and buying lands back as they became available on the market.

The Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement appears dead, but the resiliency of the CTUIR and state of Oregon would appear to be undaunted.

“Oregon is committed to these actions. Extinction for these fish is not an option,” stated ODFW’s Jones.