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Yes to Salmon, Yes to Dams: A Path Forward for the Northwest by Dan Keppen Farm Progress, June 26, 2025

Groups will host a tour in Idaho in July to examine
issues related to Columbia and Lower Snake rivers

The Family Farm Alliance and Idaho Water Users Association are hosting a tour in July in Lewiston, Idaho to examine the issues and challenges of managing the Columbia and Lower Snake rivers for multiple uses. The tour comes on the heels of President Trump's recent decision to cancel the settlement agreement related to the Lower Snake River dams.

Needless to say, our tour has already sold out.

Altering the operations of 31 hydropower dams along the Columbia and Lower Snake Rivers, whether through shifted flow regimes, increased spill through the dams, or dam removal, would send ripple effects throughout the broader agricultural community. Pacific Northwest irrigators and water managers have a strong interest in these discussions. Unfortunately, their voices were not fully included in these processes.

In the last two years of the prior administration, our members in the Pacific Northwest voiced their concerns with the current state of the questionable mediation process on Endangered Species Act- listed salmon and steelhead pushed by the Biden White House. The Biden MOU agreement was negotiated behind closed doors amongst the White House, certain tribal governments and the states of Oregon and Washington. It excluded many stakeholders in the region, including the states of Idaho and Montana, agricultural, ports, public utility districts, and other affected stakeholders.

The MOU was not based on sound science, nor did it factor other important regional agreements such as the Columbia River Treaty, the Nez Perce Settlement Agreement, and other environmental analyses that concluded dams and salmon can coexist. The MOU has also set in place a series of federally funded studies and actions that could lead to removing the dams.

The Alliance was one of several regional organizations calling for the new administration to rescind the Biden MOU and September 27, 2023 Biden Executive Memorandum that promoted breaching of the four lower Snake River Dams.

That wish was granted by President Trump earlier this month.

Earthjustice -- the lead litigant in multiple lawsuits challenging federal dam operations on the Columbia River system -- accused the Trump administration of "giving up on our salmon", while vowing to "keep fighting to prevent extinction".

Actually, according to the Fish Passage Center, Columbia and Snake River salmon counts have more than doubled last year's run and are three times higher than the ten-year average. Still, for more than two decades, the region has found itself embroiled in a litigation cycle that has done nothing to advance or protect the interests of the communities relying on the river system.

(bluefish notes: the above paragraph is nowhere near accurate -- Completely false)

As of 6/25/25	Thus Far - 2025	Last Year - 2024	10-Year Average
Spring Chinook	45,179	45,222	44,364
Summer Chinook	3,479	4,704	4,558
Runs Complete	2024 - 2025	2023 - 2024	10-Year Average
Summer Chinook	11,550	10,319	10,256
Fall Chinook	35,513	47,001	33,733
Sockeye	2,947	1,541	954
Steelhead	104,405	69,747	75,590
Combined	154,415	128,608	120,533

Removing the Lower Snake Rivers would send ripple effects throughout the broader agricultural community and would take out an important source of clean, renewable energy and a vital navigation link that agriculture relies on.

We stand poised to support our Columbia Basin members as they work with the new administration and the region's states, tribes and stakeholders to develop a long-term, meaningful and balanced solution that benefits the environmental, tribal interests, and American food producers.

A solution that keeps the dams in place.

Related Pages: Count the Fish, 1977 - 2024 by GAO on Nation's Salmon Recovery Efforts