Former President Trump has abandoned a landmark $1 billion commitment to Northwest tribes, leaving Native communities reeling and salmon populations at risk. The 2023 agreement, hailed as historic, promised substantial federal support for salmon recovery, infrastructure, and cultural priorities. Now? Just another broken promise.
The science couldn’t be clearer. Four lower Snake River dams stand as the primary roadblock to salmon recovery. Period. These concrete monsters create deadly conditions for fish – warm slackwater, toxic algal blooms, and migration nightmares. Billions spent on alternative solutions haven’t moved the needle. Fish populations remain critically low, with survival rates persistently below the 2% threshold. Scientists say they need at least 4-6% to bounce back.
For tribes, this isn’t just about fish. It’s about treaty rights, cultural survival, and federal obligations dating back generations. The dams directly impede legally protected tribal access to salmon – a cornerstone of Native spiritual, cultural, and economic life. Funny how these “sacred obligations” become optional when political winds shift.
NOAA and countless studies identify dam removal as the centerpiece for real recovery. No other action comes close to the potential 4x increase in survival rates that breaching these dams would provide. But hey, who needs science when you’ve got politics?
The fallout extends beyond empty nets. Tribal communities face continued damage to fisheries, economies, and public health. Traditional foods vanish. Cultural practices wither. Jobs disappear. Meanwhile, the federal government shrugs off trust responsibilities established by treaty.
The recent federal pullback signals a disturbing pattern – prioritizing concrete over communities, politics over promises. These actions mirror the recent forest protection dismantling through executive orders that favor resource exploitation over conservation. Environmental groups and independent scientists have sounded alarms about the urgent need for dam removal. Taxpayers have already spent over $8 billion on failed salmon recovery efforts over the past two decades. Water temperatures in these reservoirs regularly exceed 68°F harm threshold for approximately 60 days each summer, creating lethal conditions for migrating salmon.
For Northwest tribes watching yet another commitment dissolve, the message feels painfully familiar. Treaty rights apparently come with an asterisk: *Valid only when politically convenient.
References
- https://www.tu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Science-of-Dam-Removal_2023.pdf
- https://www.wildsalmon.org/projects/restoring-the-lower-snake-river/
- https://www.wildsalmon.org/facts-and-information/why-remove-the-4-lower-snake-river-dams.html
- https://earthjustice.org/feature/remove-four-lower-snake-river-dams
- https://www.nwcouncil.org/history/DamsImpacts/
