President Donald Trump has scrapped a landmark agreement meant to help salmon populations recover in the Pacific Northwest, calling the plan “radical environmentalism.”
In a presidential order issued Thursday, Trump pulled the federal government out of a deal negotiated by President Joe Biden with the states of Washington and Oregon, and four Native American tribes. The agreement, known as the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, aimed to restore salmon runs and build clean energy projects for the region.
The tribes have long argued that four dams on the Snake River in eastern Washington are killing off salmon. The federal government had agreed to study how those dams affect fish, and to invest over $1 billion over the next decade in salmon recovery and clean energy alternatives.
Trump has now shut that effort down.
In his memo, Trump said he would rather prioritize “our nation’s energy infrastructure and use of natural resources to lower the cost of living for all Americans over speculative climate change concerns.”
That move drew swift and sharp criticism.
“This decision is grievously wrong and couldn’t be more shortsighted,” said U.S. Senator Patty Murray of Washington. “Donald Trump doesn’t know the first thing about the Northwest and our way of life – so of course, he is abruptly and unilaterally upending a historic agreement that finally put us on a path to salmon recovery.”
Tribal leaders were outraged. Gerald Lewis, chairman of the Yakama Tribal Council, said the decision “echoes the federal government’s historic pattern of broken promises to tribes” and betrays Trump’s own words about supporting domestic energy.
The Nez Perce, Yakama, and other tribes involved have warned for decades that dams were choking off salmon’s ability to return to spawning grounds. The fish are central to tribal cultures, economies, and treaty rights. When tribes ceded millions of acres to the U.S. in the 1800s, they secured the right to fish in their usual places.
But those rights mean little if the fish are gone.
The Columbia River Basin was once the richest salmon-producing river system in the world. Now, four of its native salmon and steelhead runs are extinct, and seven more are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Dams built starting in the 1930s – like Grand Coulee and Bonneville – powered homes, fueled growth, and created jobs. But scientists say they also blocked the salmon from getting to the cold mountain streams where they spawn.
Experts believe removing four dams on the Lower Snake River – Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, and Lower Granite – is the best hope of bringing salmon back. Biden’s agreement didn’t call for removing the dams right away but laid the groundwork to replace their hydropower if Congress ever approved breaching them.
Republicans in the region have mostly opposed the deal, warning of damage to the economy. But even one Republican lawmaker, Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, proposed a $33 billion plan to remove the dams and replace what they provide.
Conservationists and tribes say they’re not backing down.
“Unfortunately, this short-sighted decision to renege on this important agreement is just the latest in a series of anti-government and anti-science actions coming from the Trump administration,” said Amanda Goodin, a senior attorney at Earthjustice.
