Cell phones and cameras rose above a packed room to capture the moment Friday each of the six sovereigns – the Nez Perce, Yakama, Warm Springs and Umatilla Tribes and the governors of Washington and Oregon – was signed the historic Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative, held securely in a maroon binder.
The tough agreement ended decades of court cases over efforts to protect salmon and steelhead, while dealing with complex problems in the Northwest: energy transitions, irrigation and transportation.
This agreement, combined with other funding, will bring more than $1 billion to wild fish restoration and a 10-year break from court cases, according to the Biden administration.
Tribal, state and federal leaders officially signed the historic agreement Friday in Washington, DC Supporters say the plan will protect salmon and help ensure an ecological future in the Northwest.
“When one side is burdened, like we have a lack of salmon in the system, then we have an obligation to come to other sovereigns and say, ‘Hey, what happened here affects our salmon run and, therefore, our treaty. rights. Therefore, we need to sit down and talk about how we can fix this,'” said Shannon Wheeler, Nez Perce Tribe Chairman.
An entire system should not burden one group, he said.
At the ceremony, Gerland Lewis, Chairman of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, said the level of commitment from the federal government is unprecedented.
“Our fishermen have empty nets and our homes have empty tables because, historically, the federal government has not done enough to mitigate these impacts,” Lewis said.
Treaties with the federal government ensure that tribes have the right to fish in common and customary areas, forever. Since the dams were built, tribal leaders say the federal government has not held up its end of the treaty.
“Now, we have an opportunity to do better and have tribes at the table,” Lewis said.
The work is not new, said Corinne Sams, Fish and Wildlife Committee Chair for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
“All we’re doing is collaborating and partnering, which is what we should be doing all along,” Sams said.
Moreover, this agreement “paves a new and exciting path,” said Brenda Mallory, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
“We will find ways to ensure a better future for all of the Northwest,” Mallory said.
A better future for the tribes includes more salmon, said Jonathan Smith, Chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation.
“We are working to improve the lives of our tribal members but it is difficult when the main source of wealth – the natural resources of the Columbia River and the landscape – is taken from us,” Smith said.
In December, the Biden administration announced an agreement with tribes and the states of Oregon and Washington to restore healthy and abundant fish populations, grow carbon-free energy projects in the tribe and find ways to replace the benefits supplied by four Lower Snake River dams.
Those benefits are many, from upriver transportation to Lewiston, irrigation to farms near the Tri-Cities, and carbon-free energy provided by dams.
However, the benefits come at a cost, Wheeler said. Tribesmen and biologists say removing the four dams is a major action that needs to happen to keep wild salmon from extinction in the Snake.
“When you turn on your lights, when you charge your phone, when your heater turns on or your cooling system, you don’t understand that what you’re doing is actually affecting the salmon. We’re just used to it,” Wheeler said in an interview.
Now, more than ever, Northwesterners need to come up with innovative ideas and solutions, he said.
Especially as the climate continues to change, salmon have years, not decades, said Collin O’Mara, president of the National Wildlife Federation.
“Politics is one thing,” O’Mara said. “But science is always unforgiving. We have to make sure we act according to science.”
Although the agreement did not guarantee the removal of the dams, it was widely seen as a path to help understand how to do so. Studies on the transfer of transportation, irrigation and energy benefits from the dams will help Congress make a decision on the fate of the Snake River dams.
However, some members of Congress representing the districts where the dams are located have stood firm on keeping the four dams in place.
“The Biden administration crossed the line with its blatant, hypocritical attack on the Lower Snake River Dams,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., in an earlier statement.
Over the past two years, many reports and recommendations have supported breaching the four dams, as long as there is a plan to help all those who use the services provided by the dams.
In 2022, US Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, also a Democrat, released a report that found removing the dams would benefit the fish – but it can’t be considered until people find a way to offset the benefits of the dams.
A federal report, from the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, the agency charged with managing endangered and threatened fish, was released a month after the expected Murray-Inslee report. It also recommends breaching dams to save fish.
There was also a growing chorus from tribal governments and their supporters. They asked the federal government to uphold its end of treaty obligations that had been in place since 1855: for the tribes to be able to fish in common and customary areas forever, which the diminishing returns of the salmon had denied them.
Wheeler said the administration listened.
Last September, the Biden administration released a memo directing all federal agencies to work toward “healthy and harvestable” salmon populations in the Columbia River System. That difference would improve salmon numbers without being removed from the Endangered Species List.
Now, Wheeler says, it’s time for a more honest conversation.
“We roll up our sleeves and, you know, we get together and, and we work,” Wheeler said. “We want to change things that will be positive for future generations and fundamentally build those foundations. So that future generations can make decisions without feeling the problems of the past have not been corrected.”
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