Thank you for supporting SOS’ organizing and advocacy work to rebuild the health, connectivity, and resilience of the Columbia and Snake Rivers, salmon and steelhead and orcas, and the many benefits they bring to our region and nation.

The year has flashed by. SOS’ strategic collaborative leadership continues to move both salmon policy and politics. Working with our partners, we’ve mobilized people to support and lean on our decision-makers to act on their commitments. We continue to deepen our relationships and work with Indigenous communities, and we’re investing more to support youth advocates and develop their leadership.

The new emerging political landscape will bring both change and challenge. The strong alliances we’ve developed recently will be critical for both defending our gains and moving key policies and programs forward regionally in the next several years. Read on to learn about some of our accomplishments and key developments in 2024 – and look ahead to the new year. We hope you will support our work with a generous tax-deductible year-end donation and help propel us forward in 2025.

We appreciate your partnership and wish you and yours a peaceful, restful holiday season.

I. Celebrating some 'salmon country' milestones in 2024:

We'll start with a shout-out for a restored Klamath River! The historic removal of four dams was just completed in October. Thanks to the leadership of Klamath Basin Tribes and conservation and fishing allies, the river is flowing freely for the first time in a century. 450+ miles of ancestral habitat is again available for anadromous fish – and they aren’t wasting any time. Big, beautiful chinook salmon have already dug redds 100+ miles upriver, above former dam sites. There’s still lots of healing work to do – by the river itself, and by Tribes and partners who are working hard to replant native vegetation, restore habitat, and much more.

Supporting Tribes and working with our partners and allies, Save Our wild Salmon covered important ground in the Columbia-Snake River Basin in 2024! Our team has been very busy – coordinating, communicating, and collaborating to educate and mobilize people and policymakers, strengthen our relationships and alliances, and support and apply pressure to key decision-makers in the Northwest and in D.C.

SOS worked closely with our coalition member organizations to support, defend, and help advance key elements of the historic Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA) announced a year ago by Biden Administration and the ‘Six Sovereigns’: a powerful new regional alliance with four Tribes – the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Yakama Nations – and two states – Oregon and Washington. The RCBA is the first significant step forward to realize the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI) – the visionary regional salmon recovery strategy developed recently by the Six Sovereigns. It includes many important pieces, including a path to lower Snake River dam removal, starting with dam service replacement planning that is now underway. 

II. Some of SOS' top accomplishments and developments in 2024:

We’ve expanded our team – with new staffer Abby Saks and consultant John Engber. Abby S. is based in Spokane with Tanya Riordan where she'll focus on outreach and organizing projects in Inland Northwest communities. SOS has a long relationship with John that began back when he was serving as Sen. Patty Murray’s state director. You can view our whole team here.

Under Abby Dalke’s leadership this year, SOS launched the NextGen Salmon Collective – a new program focused on developing youth leadership and supporting salmon, orca, and justice advocacy by students across the Northwest to build our support base and engage key policymakers. NextGen leaders Keyen Singer and Owen Begley-Collier joined Abby, Tanya, Joseph, and others in D.C. as part of a week-long citizen lobbying visit in September.

SOS partnered with publisher Braided River to launch a new book: Big River: Resilience and Renewal in the Columbia Basin. We hosted events that reached thousands of people in Seattle and nine Columbia Basin communities. We showcased the book’s beautiful imagery and commentary and featured local Tribal and community leaders who shared their perspectives on the importance of abundant salmon and healthy waters for all communities.

We published our 9th annual Hot Water Report this summer. Delivered weekly to policymakers, the press, and the public, the Hot Water Report highlights the now-routine harmful water temperatures in the lower Snake and Columbia river reservoirs during July and August. SOS also published a Toxic Algal Blooms White Paper as part of a larger effort to bring attention to this new emerging issue on the lower Snake River. We first observed these 'blooms' in the summer of 2023, and they returned and expanded this year. These blooms thrive in the warm, stagnant waters created by the reservoirs; they can cause illness and death to people, pets, and wildlife; and are symptomatic of a sick river getting sicker.

SOS continues to challenge the Bonneville Power Administration to be a regional partner rather than a problem. In one highly visible project, SOS organized 27 coalition partners for a full-page ad in the Seattle Times calling on BPA to not “short-circuit our region’s future” as it considers joining a new regional energy market. After steady pressure from policymakers, NGOs, and others, BPA has extended its decision timeline by several months, but this critical battle over BPA’s decision on markets will continue in 2025.

Under Britt Freda’s leadership, Northwest Artists Against Extinction has expanded its work with artists to reach people’s hearts as well as minds; to inspire action; and to deepen our relationships with both people and the places we call home.

• We just published a beautiful children’s book, Autumn Spawn, by Robin Koontz.
• We hosted an art contest in spring and then featured the winning entries in a series of powerful posters as part of our creative ‘Get Out The Vote’ project during the summer and fall. Working with dozens of volunteers, we distributed and displayed more than 1,000 posters (shown above), which feature artwork by a few of the art competition winners: Cyaltsa Finkbonner (Lummi Nation), Mollie Brown, Antonia Prinster, and Kat Martin.
• Artwork from NWAAE partner artists was featured at events throughout the year. Photos above show Gabriel Newton’s SUPER POD paintings and Cyaltsa Finkbonner’s All Our Relations steel sculpture, which were part of the All Our Relations: Tribute to the Orca event.

SOS is supporting Tribal priorities and elevating Indigenous voices and perspectives:

• SOS played a leading role working with other organizations to support the Indigenous-led NGO Se’Si’Le to host a standing room-only event – All Our Relations: Tribute to the Orca – at the Seattle Aquarium as part of Orca Action Month this past June.
• As an extension of that event, we worked with Se’Si’Le and others to produce this powerful 7-minute film to help deliver Indigenous voices and values to many more people and policymakers.
• We are supporting and attending the second annual Rise Up Northwest in Unity Convening this December – led by the Nez Perce Tribe, and joined by many Tribes, NGO leaders, advocates, and the public.

SOS continues to lead the U.S. Conservation Caucus coordinating people and NGOs to advocate for a modernized Columbia River Treaty. For 60+ years, the Treaty has prioritized power and flood control while ignoring fish and river health, the climate crisis, and Indigenous expertise. After six years of confidential negotiations, the U.S. and Canada announced an Agreement in Principle (AIP) in July that may perpetuate many of the original Treaty's failings. Our urgent organizing projects with members and outreach to press and policymakers is pushing for meaningful improvements before the terms of a new Treaty are finalized.

III. Looking ahead into the new year:

2025 will bring a new and challenging political environment. We're gearing up now to work with our partners, policymakers, and people to defend our progress and advance our priorities. SOS will support the leadership of the Six Sovereigns and work to build support for and implement key elements of the RCBA and CBRI. We’ll lean in on our strengths – coordinating with allies on strategic communications, community organizing projects, and policy advocacy to expand public support for salmon and orca recovery and to hold our elected officials accountable.

We’ll work to ensure that we (1) fund critical projects, (2) keep lower Snake River dam service replacement planning moving forward, and (3) expand Congressional support for dam removal as part of a larger regional strategy to rebuild salmon and orca populations and invest in healthier, more sustainable communities, lands, and waters.

With support and assistance from you and many others, SOS' collaborative leadership and coordinated community organizing, strategic communications, and policy advocacy has accomplished a tremendous amount in 2024. Our coalition is heading into the new year with momentum and opportunity to build upon our recent successes.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND ADVOCACY!

We are grateful and humbled by your partnership and support. To see some additional highlights from the SOS team in 2024, visit our Year-In-Review photo gallery.

Please reach out if you have questions about our priorities and program work in the coming year, how you can support us, or to get more involved.

Onward together,
Joseph and the whole SOS team

________________________

P.S. – You can make a year-end gift online or you can mail it to our office here:

Save Our wild Salmon
811 First Ave., Suite 305

Seattle, WA 98104

SOS' IRS 501(c)(3) EIN: 91-1673170

Thank you!