Trump withdraws from Biden-era agreement with Columbia Basin tribes, Washington and Oregon to restore salmon runs

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Jun. 12—WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday withdrew from a 2023 agreement between the federal government, Columbia Basin tribes, environmental groups and the states of Washington and Oregon that sought to restore salmon populations and invest in clean energy production.
A fact sheet released by the White House cast the executive action as part of Trump's effort to combat "radical environmentalism" and said it reversed a Biden administration policy that "placed concerns about climate change above the Nation's interests in reliable energy resources." The document doesn't mention Washington, Oregon or any of the tribes that agreed to halt two decades of litigation in exchange for more than $1 billion in federal funds for fish habitat and energy projects.
"President Trump recognizes the importance of ensuring the future of wildlife populations in the Columbia River Basin, while also advancing the country's energy creation to benefit the American public," the White House fact sheet said.
The move was hailed by hydropower industry groups and met with condemnation from the parties to the agreement, including the Nez Perce Tribe, the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
"This withdrawal is a necessary course correction toward energy reliability, affordability, and transparency," the Northwest Public Power Association said in a statement, noting that critics and some proponents of the agreement saw it as paving the way to eventually breaching the Lower Snake River dams.
"In an era of skyrocketing electricity demand, these dams are essential to maintaining grid reliability and keeping energy bills affordable," said the association, which includes public utilities throughout the Northwest. "Preserving the dams provides a lifeline for the Northwest's clean energy economy and its most vulnerable families."
The agreement included a plan for federal and state governments to assess options for replacing the energy generated by the four hydroelectric dams that have long been at the center of a battle over the impact of hydropower on salmon runs and the treaties that guarantee tribes the right to fish in their traditional territories. But it didn't authorize breaching the four dams, which would require action by Congress.
Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe, said the Trump administration's action "tried to hide from the truth."
"The Nez Perce Tribe holds a duty to speak the truth for the salmon, and the truth is that extinction of salmon populations is happening now," Wheeler said in a statement.
The Nez Perce, like other Northwest tribes, ceded most of its territory in an 1855 treaty with the U.S. government. In exchange, the federal government pledged that the tribe's members would always be able to hunt and fish in their "usual and accustomed places" off the Nez Perce Reservation.
"People across the Northwest know this, and people across the Nation have supported us in a vision for preventing salmon extinction that would at the same time create a stronger and better future for the Northwest," Wheeler said. "This remains the shared vision of the states of Washington and Oregon, and the Yakama, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Nez Perce tribes, as set out in our Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative. It is a vision we believe is supported, publicly or privately, by most people in the Northwest. And it is a vision underlaid by the treaties of our Northwest tribes, by the U.S. Constitution that protects those treaties, and by the federal statutes enacted by Congress to protect salmon and other species from extinction."
The Yakama Nation said the decision to revoke the deal contradicts Trump's commitment to developing domestic energy.
"The Administration's abrupt termination of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement jeopardizes not only tribal Treaty-reserved resources but also the stability of energy, transportation, and water resources essential to the region's businesses, farms, and families," stated Yakama Tribal Council Chairman Gerald Lewis in a statement. "This agreement was designed to foster collaborative and informed resource management and energy development in the Pacific Northwest, including significant tribal energy initiatives."
Several environmental and conservation groups denounced Trump's executive action as a missed opportunity.
"The Trump administration is turning its back on an unprecedented opportunity to support a thriving Columbia Basin — and ignoring the extinction crisis facing our salmon," said Amanda Goodin, senior attorney at Earthjustice, a legal nonprofit that has represented plaintiffs in the long-running litigation over the Columbia Basin.
Eric Crawford, Snake River campaign director at the conservation group Trout Unlimited, said the agreement "was the most promising framework to date for a durable, regional solution."
"It recognized that salmon recovery must go hand-in-hand with support for Northwest agriculture, investments in transportation infrastructure, and a reliable and affordable clean energy future," he said in a statement. "The decision to terminate this agreement undermines years of collaborative work, halts momentum for progress, and erodes trust among the diverse stakeholders committed to a better path forward.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress also weighed in on Trump's action.
"Donald Trump doesn't know the first thing about the Northwest and our way of life," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement. "So of course, he is abruptly and unilaterally upending a historic agreement that finally put us on a path to salmon recovery, while preserving stable dam operations for growers and producers, public utilities, river users, ports and others throughout the Northwest. This decision is grievously wrong and couldn't be more shortsighted."
Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, highlighted the role the Snake River dams play in international trade, by effectively turning the Snake and Columbia rivers into a series of pools between Lewiston, Idaho, and the Pacific Ocean that barges laden with goods can traverse.
"Today's action by President Trump reverses the efforts by the Biden administration and extreme environmental activists to remove the dams, which would have threatened the reliability of our power grid, raised energy prices, and decimated our ability to export grain to foreign markets," Newhouse said in a statement. "I want to thank the President for his decisive action to protect our dams, and I look forward to continuing to work with the administration for the benefit of the Fourth District."
Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, alleged that the Biden administration struck the deal in private without giving opponents a sufficient chance to weigh in.
"The Biden administration's one-sided, backroom agreement blatantly disregarded the essential role the lower Snake River dams play and the Idaho communities that rely on them," Risch said in a statement. "Today's announcement by President Trump represents a return to sound science and common-sense. I've long fought the attempts by radical Democrats, unelected bureaucrats, and activist litigants to tear down our dams. Congress authorized these dams, and only Congress has the power to remove them."
Abby Tinsley, vice president for conservation policy for the National Wildlife Federation, said the Trump administration "needs to do its part" to embrace solutions that would recover salmon populations while generating affordable renewable energy.
"The Presidential Memorandum takes the region in the wrong direction, it pushes Columbia River salmon and steelhead ever closer toward extinction, and it puts taxpayers and ratepayers back on the hook for inefficient industry and failed salmon recovery efforts," Tinsley said in a statement.
Orion Donovan Smith's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.