Wild Salmon & Steelhead News (Sept./Oct. 2024)

WSSNWild Salmon & Steelhead News is published monthly by the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition. Read on to learn about the Columbia-Snake River Basin’s endangered wild salmon and steelhead, the many benefits they deliver to people and ecosystems, and the extinction crisis they face today - unless we act! Find out how SOS is helping lead efforts to restore health, connectivity, and resilience to the rivers and streams these fish depend upon in the Columbia-Snake Basin and how you can get involved to help restore healthy, abundant, and harvestable populations and sustain more just and prosperous communities. To learn more and/or get involved, contact Martha Campos.

Table of Contents:

1. Klamath River runs freely for the first time in a century!
2. Oregon Gov. Kotek plants a stake firmly in support of salmon recovery 
3. SOS Team travels to Washington D.C. to advocate for salmon and orcas! 
4. New study: BPA’s energy market decision can deliver big benefits – or big costs
5. The lower Snake: A sick river is getting sicker
6. Are you ready to VOTE? Make your voting plan today!
7. L128 - new orca calf in a dire state
8. Salmon media round-up

1. Klamath River runs freely for the first time in a century!

The Hillman family, from left, Leaf, Lisa, and Chaas, hug as the construction crew removed the final cofferdam that was left of Iron Gate Dam along the Klamath River to run freely near Hornbrook, CA.© Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco ChronicleLast month, the historic four-dam removal on the Klamath River straddling the border of Oregon and California was completed. After more than two decades of campaigning, negotiating and planning - led by Klamath Basin Tribes with support from a range of conservation and fishing organizations and state and federal policymakers, 400 miles of river and stream is once again flowing freely through the heart of what was formerly the third most productive salmon watershed on the West Coast. 

For the first time in more than a century, scientists at California Trout spotted the first chinook salmon to migrate where Iron Gate Dam once stood. Since breaching the dams, salmon regained access to their habitat, water temperature decreased, and its quality improved, stated Michael Belchik, senior water policy analyst for the Yurok Tribe. 

At Save Our wild Salmon, we extend our hearty congratulations and deep gratitude to everyone from the grassroots to the grasstops who worked across so many years to make this restoration possible. This is a tremendous and healing step for the Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa, and Shasta Tribes; it's a huge step forward for tribal and non-tribal residents and communities and businesses alike. It could not have come at a better time from the perspective of the ailing river and estuary ecosystem and struggling spring chinook, Pacific lamprey and many other fish and wildlife populations in this basin that teeter today on the edge of extinction.

Lots of exciting and necessary work remains to restore the lands that were inundated by the reservoirs and support the successful return of salmon to their ancestral spawning gravels.

Follow these links to learn more about how we got here, the kinds of ecological and community benefits that are already accruing, and lessons we can all learn for the Snake River and many other important initiatives underway today to right historic wrongs, heal ecological harms, and develop durable collaborative solutions that plant the seeds for a brighter and more just future for us all:

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2. Oregon Gov. Kotek plants a stake firmly in support of salmon recovery 

Chair Shannon Wheeler and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek AP PhotoSusan WalshChair Shannon Wheeler of the Nez Perce Tribe and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, pose for a photo following ceremony of a signing of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement in Washington DC, Feb 2024. (AP Photo: Susan Walsh)

On September 30, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek issued an Executive Order reaffirming the state of Oregon’s commitment to restoring wild salmon and steelhead and other native fish populations in the Columbia River Basin. Executive order 24-28 aligns with the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI) and the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA). This Executive Order was issued almost exactly one year after President Biden announced his historic Presidential Memorandum that established for the first time Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead recovery as a federal priority and directed all relevant federal agencies, including the Bonneville Power Administration, to align its programs and spending to support these goals and the government’s longstanding commitments to Northwest Treaty Tribes.

“The Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative is the result of a historic, unified partnership with sovereign Tribal nations and the states of Oregon and Washington – and I am committed to full implementation of our agreement over the next decade,” Governor Kotek said in a press release. “My directives to state agencies will uphold our state’s commitment and complement other efforts by the state to build a resilient and adaptive future to climate change, while also positioning our communities for a prosperous economic future.”

On the same day the Executive Order was announced, the Columbia River Task Force met in Washington D.C. with representatives of the 'Six Sovereigns' to review progress to implement the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA), announced in Dec. 2023. The Task Force was established last June by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and co-chaired by three federal agencies: Dept. of Interior, Dept. of Energy, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The RCBA aims to restore salmon abundance in the Columbia Basin, expand clean energy production and increase resilience for communities across the Pacific Northwest. The ‘Six Sovereigns’ include the four Tribal Nations – Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Yakama – and the states of Oregon and Washington.

They reviewed progress on the list of over 60 commitments the U.S. Government made as part of the Agreement. They acknowledged success in the full or partial completion of commitments, including an update of the Tribal Circumstances Report, which, for the first time, acknowledged the historic and ongoing impacts of Federal Columbia River dams on Tribal communities. The Task Force and Sovereigns also reviewed the status of studies newly underway to examine scenarios for future water supply and energy needs in the Basin, including scenarios to replace current services of the four lower Snake River dams. You can read more about the Columbia River Task Force’s meeting with representatives of the 6 Sovereigns here.

The Save Our wild Salmon Coalition thanks Governor Kotek, the Columbia River Task Force, and the Six Sovereigns for their leadership to fulfill commitments to recover salmon, uphold our nation’s promise to Tribal Nations, and work collaboratively for a more resilient and healthier Columbia-Snake River Basin.

Learn more and take action:

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3. SOS Team travels to Washington D.C. to advocate for salmon and orcas!

Last month, Save Our wild Salmon traveled to Washington D.C. with our partners and allies in the Columbia Snake River Campaign (CSRC) to advocate for urgent action to protect and recover native fish and their rivers – and help guard against the extinction of the Southern Resident orcas. Our SOS team included two NextGen Salmon Collective members – Keyen Singer and Owen Begley-Collier – along with Abby Dalke, Tanya Riordan, and Joseph Bogaard. More than two dozen people - Tribal members, youth activists, conservationists, business reps, and renewable energy leaders joined forces in the nation’s capitol the week of September 16 to deliver a strong message directly to our elected leaders in Congress and the Biden Administration. We held over 30 meetings with key policymakers and federal agencies. We delivered “thanks” for leadership and recent policy progress – and we also continued to push hard for urgent action to address the extinction crisis facing Columbia Basin salmon and Southern Resident orcas.

Our message was clear and consistent: salmon and steelhead are running out of time and the tribal and non-tribal communities that depend upon and cherish them are paying a heartbreaking price. Our meetings focused on supporting the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI) and the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA) announced nearly a year ago. The RCBA contains dozens of specific commitments to enact policy and over $1 billion in funding to realize urgent restoration priorities - including the processes that are now underway to plan for the replacement of the lower Snake River dams' services.

Keyen and Owen, NextGen Salmon Collective student leaders, reflected on their time in Washington DC and shared the following words:

Keyen Singer at DC"I'm very grateful and humbled to have been invited to attend and share my Indigenous perspective about the importance of advocating for salmon recovery and breaching the four lower Snake River dams. My reason for advocating for salmon is the legacy of my own great-grandmother and family members. I have many relatives who have grown up fishing on the river and bringing home fish for our families and tribe, but as they grow older, they recognize that the salmon are diminishing and have been since dams were placed. I felt uplifted to know that each person that was in that room had traveled to DC all for one thing, to save our wild salmon."—Keyen Singer, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation tribal member, and student at the University of Oregon.

"I think it’s important that our elected leaders understand the urgency on this issue for salmon and orca. During our trip to DC I remember giving everyone the news that there was a new calf in the Southern Resident Orca population, L128. Just a few days ago, however, this calf was spotted emaciated and is unlikely to make it. The calves that should be growing up to be the next generation of Southern Residents are not making it to adulthood, largely because of a lack of food (chinook salmon). Salmon are resilient, we can save them, and the orca, if we act now."—Owen Begley-Collier, student at Western Washington University.

You – and all of our supporters and partners - were there with us in the nation’s capitol! Your dedicated support and your advocacy represent the heart and soul of SOS’ impact and influence.

Thank you for standing with us and many others in the Northwest as we push for the big, urgent changes we need to protect and recover salmon, orcas, and more resilient ecosystems and communities. We appreciate your continued support as we work to hold policymakers accountable and ensure the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative is fully implemented.

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4. New study: BPA’s energy market decision can deliver big benefits – or big costs

Nimiipuu Energy © Mezia Creative MediaSalmon, orca and fishing advocates have long said that participation by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in the emerging west-wide energy market would offer it and its customer utilities access to a wider diversity of clean energy resources and other important benefits. The availability of a more robust and much-diversified energy portfolio would expand resource options and increase system resilience and flexibility. And this can be used to reduce pressure on the federal hydro-system in the Columbia Basin and allow for some additional, much-needed space for endangered salmon and steelhead populations who call the Columbia and Snake rivers home to survive and begin to restore themselves.

Right now, BPA is facing this important decision between two very different energy markets, and their decision will affect Northwest energy consumers and the Columbia and Snake rivers for years to come. SOS and many regional conservation and clean energy advocates are strongly encouraging BPA to join the Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM) over the alternative, Markets+, that’s being developed by the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).

EDAM is evolving from the existing Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) in which BPA and almost all Western utilities already participate. Despite its name, SPP is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas and participants in its existing energy imbalance market today are almost entirely located east of the Continental Divide.

An important new study by the Brattle Group released last week finds that EDAM offers substantial economic benefits to BPA and Pacific Northwest communities and economy, compared to Markets+. In this groundbreaking study, the Brattle Group modeled how the two markets would perform in the year 2032. The central conclusions:

  • “BPA’s net system cost decreases by $65 million from joining EDAM while their net system cost increases by $83 million from joining Markets+”.
  • “We estimate that the PNW’s (Pacific Northwest) net system cost decreases by $430 million in the EDAM case and increases by $18 million in the Markets+ case”.

Note that these cost differences apply just to 2032 - the study year. If the study year is a representative sample, then, over ten years of market operation, the cost of the Pacific Northwest electricity system would be about $4.5 billion less if BPA and Northwest utilities were in EDAM rather than Markets+. As Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen once said, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it begins to add up to real money.”

The study was carried out on behalf of a diverse group of clients including PNGC Power (representing a number of NW electric cooperatives), Northwest and intermountain Power Producers Coalition, GridLab, Renewable Northwest, and NW Energy Coalition (NWEC; SOS is a member of the coalition). Read more about the study on NWEC's factsheet here. 

With apparent benefits for fish and for power system costs, EDAM appears, now more than ever, to be the best choice for BPA and the region. Bonneville has previously communicated a strong preference for joining Markets+. Under pressure from Washington and Oregon’s U.S. Senators Murray, Cantwell, Wyden, and Merkley – as well as many regional stakeholders including Save Our wild Salmon (see our full-page ad in the Seattle Times here.) – BPA recently agreed to push off a "preliminary decision" on which market to join from this past August until March 2025.

While BPA’s announcement to extend its decision-making timeline is encouraging, what’s most important is that it makes the right decision for everyone in the region. We can hope that the agency carefully considers the Brattle study, but it's going to take continued vigilance by our leading state and federal policymakers – and all Northwest people – to ensure that BPA gets this very important decision right!

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5. The lower Snake: A sick river is getting sicker

Toxic algal blooms span the lower Snake River. Photo taken at the Lower Granite Reservoir. September 2024.

SOS and 13 coalition partners recently completed our 9th annual weekly Hot Water Report, which tracks water temperatures in the lower Columbia and Snake River reservoirs and reports the challenges facing these rivers and opportunities to recover healthy, resilient fish populations.

Salmon and steelhead require clean, cold water, and free-flowing rivers for successful migration, spawning, and rearing. However, the once free-flowing lower Snake River has been transformed by dams and their reservoirs, creating harmful and toxic conditions–further threatening the survival and recovery of endangered salmon and steelhead. This already sick river is getting sicker.

From July to September, juvenile and adult salmon and steelhead attempted to migrate through waters exceeding the 68°F harm threshold. Many of the reservoirs sustained temperatures between 70°F - 72°F for weeks, if not months at a time.

In addition to harmful water temperatures this summer, toxic algal blooms re-emerged for the second year in a row on the reservoirs of the lower Snake River. In August, Whitman County Public Health Department issued a health advisory confirming a large toxic algal bloom in the lower Snake River stretching intermittently for 50 miles between Nisqually John Landing (in the lower Granite Reservoir) and Little Goose Dam in Southeast Washington State.

The Whitman County Public Health Department warned people to avoid the area, stating:

  • “Harmful algal blooms can impact human health and ecosystems, including fish and other aquatic animals.”
  • “When algal blooms are toxic, they can be harmful to the health of you, your family, your animals, & the Palouse ecosystem.”

More recently, on October 4, the Walla Walla County Department of Community Health issued a toxic algal bloom warning advisory for Charbonneau Park and Hood Park in Burbank, WA (near the Ice Harbor Dam). At this time, the toxic algal blooms continue to spread across the lower Snake River. 

In 2024, relatively good ocean conditions provided hope and opportunity for returning adult salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers. However, due to hot, unhealthy waters in these reservoirs, fish returning have struggled to complete their migration and reach their spawning grounds.

Despite decades of failed mitigation efforts and many billions of dollars in recovery spending, these fish remain on the edge of extinction. Wild fish returns are just 0.1-2% of historic levels - and far below recovery goals to achieve healthy and abundant levels. The lower Snake River is sick, but we CAN and MUST restore the health of the river and our ecosystem, protect salmon and orca from extinction, and uphold our nation's Treaty obligations to Tribes.

Learn more about the impacts of toxic algal blooms in the lower Snake River: 

A special thank you to our Hot Water Report partners: Association of Northwest Steelheaders, Columbia Riverkeeper, Earthjustice, Endangered Species Coalition, Idaho Conservation League, Idaho Rivers United, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Orca Network, Sierra Club, Snake River Waterkeeper, and Wild Steelhead Coalition.

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6. Are you ready to VOTE? Make your voting plan today!

Poster artwork: ©Cyaltsa Finkbonner (Lummi), ©Mollie Brown, ©Antonia Prinster, ©Kat Martin“Vote for our planet, as we are woven together by the ocean and rivers. Together, we are stronger and even more resilient.” —Cyaltsa Finkbonner (Lummi Nation), artist

To celebrate this election season and civic engagement, Save Our wild Salmon Coalition recently launched our 'Get Out the Vote' Poster Campaign featuring VOTE2024 posters with artwork by Northwest Artists Against Extinction 2024 Poster Competition winners: Cyaltsa Finkbonner (Lummi Nation), Mollie Brown, Antonia Prinster, and Kat Martin. Our 'Get Out the Vote' campaign aims to remind and encourage all eligible voters across the Northwest and nation to vote for a future that centers salmon and orcas; healthy waters, lands, and air; and the quality of life we seek for ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities. 

Are you ready to vote? SOS has a guide to help you make a voting plan with important deadlines, resources to research ballot information, and more at wildsalmon.org/Vote.

Thank you for voting and encouraging your friends, family, and community to vote!

As part of our 'Get Out the Vote' Poster Campaign, SOS volunteers are working to distribute and display posters across communities in the Northwest. We are deeply grateful to all the volunteers for your dedication and diligent work in spreading the message to vote for the health of salmon, orcas, and rivers!

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7. L128 - new orca calf in a dire state

On September 15, a new Southern Resident orca calf, L128, was first spotted with mother L90 north off Lime Kiln in the San Juan Islands by members of the Whale Sightings in the San Juan Islands and then by the Center for Whale Research (CWR).

It is with unspeakable heartbreak that we report the dire status of L128. On October 11, CWR shared on Facebook that L83 approached CWR biologist Mark Malleson with the emaciated calf draped across her rostrum, while L90 foraged for salmon. L83 jiggled the calf, as if desperately trying to revive it. CWR said it cannot yet categorize L128 as missing or dead.

Southern Resident orcas desperately need more salmon to survive and reproduce. Snake River Spring/Summer Chinook and Snake River Fall Chinook, as well as many Columbia-Basin salmon runs, are identified as some of the top priority Chinook stocks to feed orcas and sustain their recovery. However, far less Snake River salmon complete their migration today and return to the ocean due significantly to the lower Snake River dams and reservoirs, causing these orcas to starve. According to the Center for Whale Research’s annual census of the Southern Resident population completed in July 2024, the orca population has declined to a record low – just 73 individuals remain today. (Note: the census does not include the status of L128).

It is with great urgency we need to support Southern Residents by achieving key actions to restore healthy and abundant salmon, including removing the four lower Snake River dams, restoring salmon habitats across the Columbia Basin and Pacific Northwest, and protecting marine habitats in order to increase Southern Residents’ ability to reproduce and rebuild their numbers.

Learn more about L128 and orca census information:

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8. Salmon media round-up

Here are a couple of recent stories about the urgency and opportunity today for salmon recovery and river restoration:

News Coverage:

Opinion and Letters to the Editor:

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