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Federal Judge Orders Protections for Salmon on Columbia River by Isabella Breda The Chronicle , February 26, 2026

"One of the foundational symbols of the West... the beating heart and guaranteed resource
protected by treaties with several Native American tribes is disappearing from the landscape."
-- U.S. District Judge Michael Simon

A federal judge in Portland ordered changes Wednesday to operations of eight dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers intended to reduce harm to salmon.

The order comes after the Trump administration last June abandoned a landmark agreement intended to provide a road map for salmon recovery in the basin.

Columbia River basin dam operations have been fought over in court for decades. Meanwhile, salmon and steelhead are facing extinction and the dams are a key culprit.

Opening his order, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon wrote: "One of the foundational symbols of the West, a critical recreational, cultural, and economic driver for Western states, and the beating heart and guaranteed resource protected by treaties with several Native American tribes is disappearing from the landscape."

"And yet the litigation continues in much the same way as it has for 30 years," he continued.

The groups had asked to pause the litigation in 2021 to work toward "a global resolution of issues," Simon wrote.

And the Biden administration in 2023 entered the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement with the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, Yakama Nation, the states of Washington and Oregon and conservation groups.

Then the Trump administration last year imploded the deal, which had committed $1 billion to restore salmon, boost tribal clean energy projects and look at alternatives to the transportation and irrigation infrastructure provided by the four Lower Snake River dams.

Fishing and conservation groups and the state of Oregon revived the legal fight last fall, asking a judge for changes in hydropower operations to reduce harm to salmon. Yakama Nation, the Nez Perce Tribe and Washington state joined as plaintiff-aligned friends of the court.

Opening a hearing in a Portland courtroom earlier this month, Judge Simon said it was "deja vu all over again," the Associated Press reported.

After hours of oral arguments, Underscore Native News reported, Simon instructed plaintiffs and defendants to confer and provide him a revised version of a proposed order, or injunction, including each of the parties' requests.

"Upon receipt of the various proposals," plaintiffs wrote in a Friday filing, "it became apparent that there was little, if anything, that all parties agreed upon and that one document with tracked changes in different colors would be virtually impossible to decipher and would not facilitate the Court's review ... "

The plaintiffs had requested increasing spill over the dams so juvenile salmon can pass over the dams instead of through lethal turbines, and lowering reservoir levels to reduce the time it takes salmon to navigate warm, predator-ridden pools.

The Public Power Council and other defendant-intervenors sought to claw back spill and reservoir drawdown proposed by plaintiffs, in their markup highlighting concerns for power reliability in the hottest months with the lowest flows.

Federal defendants argued the plaintiff's proposal was unworkable.

Certain concerns raised by defendant-intervenors and federal defendants were incorporated in the plaintiff's revised order. This included making clear the flexibility in dam operations to make short-term changes to fish passage operations to accommodate other services of the dams, such as navigation, flood control and power reliability.

The judge on Monday requested additional information from the parties, and in his Wednesday order wrote that the changes he ordered to spill and reservoir levels that were "narrowly tailored" and "essentially maintains the status quo."

"The Federal Defendants have, for years, maintained a safe and reliable power system and dam operations with the nearly the same spill levels as ordered here," Simon wrote, "and with the same reservoir levels from 2025."

Simon wrote that the federal defendants' argument is "particularly specious" where the federal agencies "have the benefit" of nearly 30 years of litigation over the dam operations.

The agencies were on notice, Simon wrote, of the "potential arbitrary and capricious nature" of adopting prior Biological Opinions, "which were found to violate the [Endangered Species Act] the last four times they were challenged in this case."

The judge granted nearly all the spill plaintiffs requested, mostly similar to 2025 operations with some modest increases, said senior Earthjustice attorney Amanda Goodin. The court did not grant plaintiffs' request for lower reservoir elevation, Goodin said, instead ordering what had been in place in 2025.

The changes ordered will be implemented at lower Snake dams Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, Lower Granite; and Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary on the mainstem Columbia.

At issue in the long-running litigation is the impending extinction of salmon, a First Food central to the health, culture and religion of tribes, and Northwest economies. Climate change is turning up the heat on existing fish passage troubles, as salmon navigate a gauntlet of 325 miles of slackwater, passage over or through eight dams (both ways), predators, low flows and hot water.

Once home to some of the world's most abundant salmon runs, today more than 40% of the habitat in the basin is walled off by impassable dams.

Four of the 16 Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead stocks that historically returned to spawn above the present-day location of Bonneville Dam, about 40 miles east of Portland, are extinct. Seven are listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Of the historic populations of Snake River basin fall Chinook, spring-summer Chinook, sockeye and steelhead, half have already been lost, Nez Perce Tribe director of biological services Jay Hesse described in a declaration.

Nearly all the remaining populations remain below minimum abundance thresholds with a poor prognosis for recovery in the near future, according to Hesse.

One-third of Snake River spring-summer Chinook populations and 14% of wild Snake River steelhead populations had fewer than 50 adult fish that returned to spawn in 2024, according to Hesse.

The southern resident orcas, which depend on Chinook salmon as their preferred food, are also endangered. Some scientists point to dam removal as one way to help the orcas.

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a 2022 report found that dam removal on the Lower Snake must be part of the suite of solutions needed to rebuild salmon runs to fishable levels in the Columbia Basin.

"We've been seeing population declines for a long time," senior Earthjustice attorney Amanda Goodin said in a Monday interview, "and the federal government has never come up with a plan. The way they want to operate the hydro system is driving listed salmon to extinction."

The Public Power Council in a news release said it appreciated the flexibility the court provided, which included a larger operating range than what the plaintiffs requested.

"We appreciate that the court recognized the need for operational flexibility and declined to impose several far-reaching measures that are better addressed through long-term policy and congressional processes rather than a preliminary injunction," Scott Simms, executive director and CEO of the Public Power Council, said in a statement.

While the Inland Ports and Navigation Group opposed the order and said it would introduce "safety and grid reliability concerns."

Related Pages:
Opinion and Order by Judge Michael H. Simon, February 25, 2026
Legal Battle Reignites Over Lower Snake River Dams, Salmon by Isabella Breda, Seattle Times, 9/11/25
PNW Tribal Nations, States Sign Historic Columbia Basin Agreement with U.S. by Isabella Breda, Seattle Times, 2/23/24