Columbia River Basin Effort Dropped by White House

Four Pacific Northwest Tribes are expressing their disappointment following a decision to pull back from a salmon restoration and renewable energy project on the Columbia River.

In June, President Trump withdrew federal funding and support for the “Restoring Healthy and Abundant Salmon, Steelhead and Other Native Fish Populations in the Columbia River Basin” Memorandum, which was signed in December of 2023.

The Memorandum of Understanding joined Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Yakama Nation, and the Nez Perce Tribe, as well as state governments in Washington and Oregon and other conservation groups, to focus on solutions for the dwindling salmon and native fish populations in the Columbia River Basin. At the time, President Biden called on his Administration to “honor Federal trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations –including those Tribal Nations harmed by the construction and operation of federal dams that are part of the Columbia River system.”

The MOU also paused litigation of related dam-related cases on the Columbia River, and ordered the federal government to work with local communities on infrastructure reinvestment and renewable energy projects to make up for lost hydropower revenue.

According to a statement from the White House, the move to overturn was an aim at “stopping environmental radicalism” and an effort to “prioritize [the] Nation’s energy infrastructure and use of natural resources to lower the cost of living for all Americans over speculative climate change concerns”.