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Groups Ask Judge to End Pause on Salmon Litigation by Staff Capital Press, September 11, 2025

"Healthy runs are key for successful fish migration --
and our salmon and steelhead runs are in crisis,"
-- Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek

Conservation, fishing and clean energy groups have filed a motion requesting the U.S. District Court in Oregon end a multi-year pause on the groups' long-running litigation regarding endangered Columbia Basin wild salmon and steelhead and federal dams.

"The Trump administration's recent actions leave us with no choice but to return to court," Earthjustice attorney Amanda Goodin said in a press release.

National Wildlife Federation plaintiffs are listed as the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, the Institute for Fisheries Resources, Sierra Club, Idaho Rivers United, Northwest Sport Fishing Industry Association, NW Energy Coalition, National Wildlife Federation, Columbia Riverkeeper, Idaho Conservation League, and Fly Fishers International, Inc.

Participants in a December 2023 federal agreement with the Biden administration to pause the litigation -- the states of Oregon and Washington and the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Confederation Tribes -- joined the request to lift the stay, according to the Earthjustice press release.

The agreement at the time was viewed as a pathway to breaching the four lower Snake River dams -- Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams.

As part of the agreement, the parties had agreed to a five-year pause of litigation that could have extended five more years, as long as the agreement was in effect and the federal government continued to work with the states and Tribes on a plan to restore the salmon and steelhead populations, according to the Earthjustice press release.

President Donald Trump revoked the agreement in June in a presidential memorandum.

"Since this administration has reneged on this carefully negotiated agreement -- with no alternative plan to restore our imperiled salmon and steelhead -- we find ourselves once again on a course towards extinction of these critically important species," Goodin stated. "Earthjustice and our plaintiffs, alongside state and tribal partners, have spent decades protecting Pacific Northwest salmon and steelhead -- and we won't back down now."

"Healthy runs are key for successful fish migration -- and our salmon and steelhead runs are in crisis," Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement. "President Trump walking away from these commitments presents a very real threat at a time when the fish are on the brink of extinction. It also continues our nation's shameful legacy of broken promises to sovereign tribal nations that this partnership sought to repair."

Kotek said she has directed staff and agencies to protect existing salmon runs and advocate for sustainable salmon population restoration.

"Extinction of iconic Columbia River salmon runs is not an option; we can have both healthy and abundant fish runs and power to meet our growing energy needs," she said. "The state of Oregon will return to federal court and seek an injunction to address urgent needs for the fish, including requiring the federal government to operate the hydropower system to help salmon complete their downstream migration next spring, maximizing the chance that they will return as adults."

In December, the Northwest Power Council reported a 10-year rolling average of 2.3 million adult salmon and steelhead returning to the basin, an improvement from an average of 1.3 million fish in the 1990s, but below the annual goal of 5 million fish returning.

Many agricultural advocates felt shut out and ignored during the original federal negotiating process for the agreement.

The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association's Inland Ports and Navigation Group, an intervenor defendant in the original agreement, took no position on the motion to lift the stay but opposed the request for expedited consideration of the motion, according to the legal motion.

The federal defendants, which include the National Marine Fisheries Service, did not oppose the motion, but did not agree that expedited consideration of the motion to lift the stay is warranted.

"Given that the administrative records have been compiled, the Federal Defendants' position is that this case could proceed directly to summary judgment," the motion states.