Scuttling Columbia Basin pact ignores peril to salmon
By Joseph Bogaard / For The Herald
Imagine a win-win-win solution to linked challenges that have dogged our Northwest home for decades: endangered salmon and steelhead, aging and inadequate energy infrastructure and broken promises to Tribal nations.
Our region was on the cusp of making real progress toward a comprehensive and collaborative solution to these intertwined challenges with the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, the historic accord announced in 2023 by the Biden administration and an alliance of four Columbia Basin Tribes and the states of Washington and Oregon. The region was finally on course to restore imperiled native fish, invest in a clean energy transition and make good on our nation’s treaty promises to Northwest Tribes.
Then in June, the Trump administration abruptly axed the agreement, leaving the Northwest with no plan and no path as we face a rapidly escalating crisis.
Fish biologists continue to sound the alarm: Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead runs are collapsing, and if we lose them, we lose so much more than a fish. Salmon swim through the heart of our Northwest identity. They are foundational to countless communities, people’s livelihoods and the ecosystem we all depend on. Rebuilding salmon abundance is central to making good on the promises our nation made long ago to our region’s original stewards. The economic, environmental and moral implications of losing this emblematic fish cannot be overstated.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-scuttling-columbia-basin-pact-ignores-peril-to-salmon/