"We're ensuring that this thing is moving," Shannon Wheeler, chair of the Nez Perce tribe, said at an online forum Wednesday.

By Jennifer Yachnin | 11/21/2024

Tribal officials advocating for the removal of four Pacific Northwest dams to boost beleagured salmon and steelhead populations say the effort could remain on track, even with Republicans opposing the effort prepare to take control of the White House and Congress.

Shannon Wheeler, chair of the Nez Perce tribe in north-central Idaho, said optimistic that efforts to remove the four Lower Snake River dams will continue, however slowly.

“It always has been difficult. It isn't going to change,” Wheeler said Wednesday at an online forum sponsored by the tribe’s Salmon Orca Project.

Tribal advocates scored a victory in late 2023, when the Biden administration announced a $1 billion settlement agreement in a long-running federal lawsuit over hydropower operations on the Snake and Columbia rivers.

The agreement between the federal government and the Nez Perce, Yakama, Warm Springs and Umatilla tribal nations, as well as the states of Oregon and Washington, includes funding for multiple studies on the impacts of removing the Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite hydropower dams.

The studies will examine how to ensure water supplies for crop irrigation, transportation, and recreation, as well as other sources of energy production.

Only Congress has authority to actually order the dams’ removal, and Republicans, including Oregon Rep. Cliff Bentz, have vigorously opposed the idea.

Wheeler — who along with other speakers didn't mention President-elect Donald Trump by name, or any other officials, aside from praising Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) —noted that progress on restoring fish populations has long been a complex process decades in the making.

“We're ensuring that this thing is moving,” Wheeler said. “Sometimes it may seem like it slows, but even if it moves an inch, that's enough.”

Wheeler said that tribal leaders would focus on education efforts about the salmon populations, as well as work with federal, state and local officials and environmental groups to address how to best move forward with dam removal and restoration efforts.

“Over the next five to 10 years, let's ensure that the studies that are being done in Washington are completed and our voices are being heard through that process,” Wheeler said.

“I can still see the end, the goal line here, and it gets tough in the red zone,” he added, utilizing terminology used in football when a team is near the goal line.

Kayeloni Scott, who serves as executive director of the Columbia & Snake River Campaign, a coalition of 40 organizations, said Washington and Oregon would also need to serve as leaders on the project.

“Just because our trajectory might be shifting a little bit, doesn't mean the timeline of the salmon has changed,” Scott said. “We're still looking at two life cycles before we're in serious, serious trouble, which means eight to 10 years.”

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