The scientifically proven way to recover Idaho’s salmon and steelhead remains the removal of four dams and restoration on the Lower Snake River. Salmon and other native fish across the Columbia Basin face an array of challenges that will require comprehensive restoration of river habitat and ecosystem functions. Yet, as far as Snake River salmon are concerned, Lower Snake River dams (LSRD) removal is the center-piece action that will boost migration survival sufficient to halt a slow-slide towards extinction and recover populations back towards real abundance. A mountain of scientific literature tells us as much.

The path towards achieving dam removal is winding, but increasingly well-defined thanks to the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI) crafted by the Six Sovereigns (Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, Nez Perce Tribe, Oregon, and Washington). This plan builds on the work of Congressman Mike Simpson, as well as Governor Jay Inslee and Senator Patty Murray, by advancing a comprehensive strategy that restores salmon and steelhead to abundance, honors federal commitments to Tribal Nations, delivers affordable and reliable clean power, and makes communities more resilient.

The CBRI outlines the necessary work to replace the services provided by the four dams before removal. It places the ongoing injustice and inequity to Tribal Nations, caused by the construction of the hydrosystem and subsequent decimation of salmon runs, as a central obligation for the federal government to invest in native fish. The CBRI states,

“When Tribes in good faith signed treaties with the US Government that provided for settlement of millions of acres of aboriginal lands, the Tribes expected that in return their Treaty rights to fish would be honored, and that the right to fish meant there would be fish in the rivers. The settlement occurred, but honoring the Treaty right to fish is long past due. It is time to rebalance the allocation of the natural resources of the Columbia River Basin.”

The Lower Snake River shows all the signs of an ecosystem severely out of balance. Its hydro-development has been a cost to wild salmon that has never been recovered. The dams and reservoirs that have been superimposed on the river from Lewiston to the estuary were the final straw that caused the collapse of self-sustaining wild runs of salmon and steelhead in Idaho. This same system remains the bottleneck to meaningful recovery, survival of juvenile salmon through the system is just too low to rebuild struggling populations, let alone maintain their already low numbers. In the late summer and early fall hot water pollution from the dams heats the river to levels lethal to migrating adult salmon and beyond water quality standards.

The U.S. government took a big step in enacting the vision of the CBRI through its commitments and investments in salmon recovery, Lower Snake dam services studies and replacement, and clean energy development under the December 14th agreement, which paused long-running litigation over the hydrosystem. Ensuring a continuity of services, while securing full funding for the ongoing, but historically underfunded, fisheries restoration work across the Basin is the important first step. That work has progressed over the last year with federal agencies and the state of Washington undertaking studies on the viability of replacing the water supply, energy, recreation, and transportation services provided by the LSRDs.

The CBRI presents a win-win scenario where infrastructure development and investment in energy, agriculture, and water supply allows communities to adapt to climate change, while dam removal and river restoration allow for healthier, more resilient ecosystems and fish populations on a recovery trajectory.

This comprehensive vision has effectively folded Lower Snake dam removal into the bigger picture of the clean energy transition occurring regionally and nationally. The development of clean energy resources in the Northwest is being helped along thanks to the federal commitments and investments related to salmon, but it is also happening independently at a larger scale in order to meet state decarbonization goals and rising demand. Electrical utilities understand that planning for a future with less certainty around water supply and many options for clean, reliable power means diversification away from the hydrosystem.

While proponents of the dams would have you believe that the clean energy build-out means that they are as valuable as ever, the development of tens of thousands of megawatts of electricity to meet growing demand is in fact diluting their small contribution to the regional power grid. The four dams contributed just 0.74% of the average annual energy produced across the West last year.

Energy planning at a West-wide scale is increasingly relevant. The development of a single, unified energy market for the region has the potential to better support customers during extreme weather events, and increase efficiency. A single market would dispatch energy across a large footprint covering the West’s diverse geography. During this January’s cold snap in the Northwest it was not the LSRDs that helped meet energy demand, but imported solar and wind electricity from the Southwest and California, thanks to an increasingly integrated grid across the West.

As conservation and clean energy groups across the region have pointed out, the LSRDs as “run-of-river” dams with no storage provide the most power when we need it least (during spring runoff), and the least power when we need it most (during winter and summer). The dams are generating resources that are already out of step with today’s energy needs. Climate change will only amplify their shortcomings, as the timing and amount of flow in rivers will become more uncertain.

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has a critical role to play in shaping the future of the regional power grid, and lessening the burden on the hydrosystem. By the agency’s own calculations, the U.S. government commitments under the litigation agreement will lead to just a 0.7% average annual rate increase for power customers. For removal of the dams to become palatable to Congress, BPA must be all in on diversifying away from the hydrosystem and striving towards a unified energy market across the West. The large toolbox available includes clean energy generating resources like solar and wind power, battery storage, and energy efficiency in customer-side resources and more connected power grids across the region. The agency must treat the health of salmon and other native fish populations not as a cost of doing business, but an unmet benefit to the region that is recoverable while maintaining a reliable, resilient, and clean electrical grid.

The CBRI outlines pragmatic steps the region should take to better prepare for a changing climate and energy landscape, while also placing the health of our rivers and fish at the forefront of decision making. While this work has been greatly supported by the US government, there are opportunities to implement this strategy at a state, tribal, and regional level, as well as Congressional. Momentum towards recovering Idaho’s salmon via dam removal has never been greater, and with smart planning and investment from decision makers the region can create certainty for communities with stable fisheries, healthy rivers, and a clean, reliable power grid.

Fall 2024 salmon return numbers