Decades-Long Legal Battle Over Columbia Basin Salmon Reignites

For over 3 decades, salmon advocates have been fighting to protect the Columbia Basin salmon. In 2025, this long-running legal battle has reignited after the federal government recently reneged on a historic agreement to protect these endangered fish.

Since 1992, federal agencies have put forth no fewer than 8 plans for operating the hydropower system while ostensibly protecting threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin. However, 3 different federal district judges have declared 6 of these plans illegal for failing to adequately protect salmon and steelhead. The very first plan was invalidated in 1994, with the judge proclaiming that the "situation literally cries out for a major overhaul."

Despite repeated court orders, the federal agencies have refused to produce the "major overhaul" needed, and as a result, not one of the 13 listed salmon populations is on a path to recovery. Most of these stocks are actually on a path to extinction, despite misleading claims from federal agencies and other river user groups.

In 2023, the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement was adopted, which included investments, changes in dam operations, and studies on replacing the services of four dams on the lower Snake River. However, in June 2025, the second Trump administration unilaterally renounced this agreement, leaving nothing to replace it except the illegal 2020 Trump salmon plan. This has now led the plaintiffs to return to court to protect the Columbia Basin salmon once again.