“Actions since 1855, including the Federal Government’s
construction and operation of dams in the Basin, have severely depleted fish
populations.”
The Memorandum went on to declare a federal policy
“…to carry out the requirement of the Pacific Northwest
Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act (Public Law 96-501) to operate,
manage, and regulate the [Columbia River System] to adequately protect,
mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife affected by Federal dams in the Basin in
a manner that provides equitable treatment for fish and wildlife with the other
purposes for which the Federal dams are managed and operated.”
The Biden administration followed up three months later by
announcing an agreement that
“when combined with other funding that the Administration is
anticipated to deliver to the region, will bring more than $1 billion in new
Federal investments to wild fish restoration over the next decade and enable an
unprecedented 10-year break from decades-long litigation against the Federal
government’s operation of its dams in the Pacific Northwest.”
That agreement, entered into between the United States and
other parties to ongoing litigation, was filed in the Federal District Court
for the District of Oregon, and was to be implemented through a memorandum of
understanding between the United States, the states of Washington and Oregon,
four Native American tribes, and various environmental organizations.
However, the Trump administration has recently caused the
United States to breach its written agreement with the other parties, and
destroy much of the progress that has been made in reaching agreement on how to
conserve and, ideally, rebuild native fish stocks in the Columbia River Basin.
A
so-called “fact sheet” issued by the White House on June 12 announced that
“President Donald Trump Stops the Green Agenda in the
Columbia River Basin.”
The “fact sheet” began:
“STOPPING RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a
Presidential Memorandum revoking an executive action issued by the prior
administration that called for ‘equitable treatment for fish.’”
Bullet points in the “fact sheet” noted, among other things,
that
“Today’s Memorandum revokes the Biden Administration’s
‘Restoring Healthy and Abundant Salmon, Steelhead, and Other Native Fish in the
Columbia River Basin’ Memorandum, which placed concerns about climate change
above the Nation’s interests in reliable energy resources,”
and
“The specified agencies will coordinate with the Council on
Environmental Quality to review and revise environmental review processes
related to matters in the [Memorandum of Understanding filed with the Federal
District Court], save federal funds, and withdraw from the [Memorandum of
Understanding].”
And that was the
last time that the “fact sheet” even mentioned the words “salmon,” “steelhead,”
or “fish,” words that the rest of the document made clear were hardly in the
administration’s vocabulary. Instead, it
immediately went on to blare,
“RESTORING AMERICAN ENERGY DOMINANCE AND SECURING AMERICAN
PROSPERITY: President Trump
continues to prioritize our Nation’s energy infrastructure and use of natural
resources to lower the cost of living for all Americans over speculative
climate change concerns.”
The salmon and other depleted fish stocks are given a little
lip service, with the statement that
“President Trump recognizes the importance of ensuring the
future of wildlife populations in the Columbia River Basin, while also
advancing the country’s energy creation to benefit the American public.”
Which may well be true.
Trump might truly recognize “the importance of ensuring the future of
wildlife populations in the Columbia River Basin,” but there is a big
difference between merely recognizing something, and taking meaningful action,
and when it comes to wildlife—in just about any context, not just the Columbia
River—it’s pretty clear that Trump has little desire to take any action to
preserve its future, particularly if that actions might make corporate interests
uneasy. Thus, the “fact sheet” complains
that
“The [Memorandum of Understanding] required the Federal
government to spend millions of dollars and comply with 36 pages of onerous
commitments to dam operations on the Lower Snake River,”
and that
“Dam breaching would have resulted in reduced water supply to
farmers, eliminated several shipping channels, had devastating impacts to
agriculture, increased energy costs, and eliminated recreational opportunities
throughout the region,”
but never mentions how dishonoring the Memorandum of
Understanding, and not breaching the lower Snake River dams, will impact the
future of wildlife—and most particularly the runs of anadromous fishes—in the
Columbia River Basin.
Because, if we want to be honest, he doesn’t particularly
care.
Instead of even mentioning the future of currently
threatened and endangered salmon runs, or of promising some sort of action that
might preserve their future, the fact sheet ignores the fish entirely, and
instead trumpets that
“President Trump signed an Executive Order reinvigorating
America’s beautiful clean coal industry to support grid stability and hundreds
of thousands of U.S. jobs.”
We are assured that
“President Trump’s commonsense approach to environmental
conservation empowers the American people to take full advantage of our
nation’s vast and great natural resources.”
At least, so long as those resources last.
“This withdrawal is a necessary course correction toward
energy reliability, affordability, and transparency. In an era of skyrocketing electricity demand,
these dams are essential to maintaining grid reliability and keeping energy
bills affordable.”
Similarly, the executive director of Northwest River
Partners, the trade association representing those who use and profit from the
dammed river, said that
“Now is the time to come together and chart a sustainable
path toward effective solutions that protect salmon and maintain affordable and
reliable hydropower needed by millions of people in the Pacific Northwest.”
It is probably notable, however, that he didn’t even try to
suggest what such solutions might be.
But the various industries with a financial incentive to
support the status quo aren’t the only people to speak out on the issue. Anyone focused on the river’s value to
salmon, rather to various corporate uses, probably condemned the current
administration’s decision.
The four Native American tribes that had been involved in
the long-lived litigation that had was, temporarily, stayed after the Biden-era
agreement was filed with the Federal Court—the Yakima, Nez Perce, Warm Springs,
and Umatilla—were among the most aggrieved of the parties; such tribes had been
guaranteed access to the river and to its salmon in treaties dating back to the
19th century.
Gerald
Lewis, chairman of the Yakima Tribal Council, stated that
“The federal government’s historic river management approach
is unsustainable and will lead to salmon extinction. Courtroom battles cannot provide the
innovative, holistic solutions we need.
This termination will severely disrupt vital fishery restoration
efforts, eliminate certainty for hydro operations, and likely result in
increased energy costs and regional instability.”
But perhaps the most succinct, and most appropriate, comment
came from the chair of the Yakimas’ Fish and Wildlife Committee, Jeremy Takala,
who observed that
“We reserved the right to actually catch fish, not merely the
right to dip our nets into barren waters.”
But Native Americans aren’t the only people who expect to
get hurt.
“It was a big loss for the Northwest’s economy, and a dagger
to the heart of our industry.”
“The survival problems of various [Endangered Species
Act]-listed salmon and steelhead species in the Columbia Basin cannot be solved
without removing four dams on the Lower Snake River.”
The letter came to the conclusion that
“These four dams must be removed to not only avoid
extinction, but also to restore abundant salmon runs.”
The Outdoor Life piece went on to observe that
“In its June 12 memorandum, however, the Trump Administration
chalked up those conclusions to ‘speculative climate change concerns.’ It explained that by pulling the federal
government and its funding out of the [agreement], it was ‘stopping radical
environmentalism’ and ‘securing American prosperity.’ In addition to fundamentally mischaracterizing
the agreement itself, Thursday’s announcement appeared to imply that speaking
up for fish and considering alternatives to the status quo is part of a green
agenda meant to harm the American public. [emphasis added]”
The Outdoor Life
piece continued,
“Conservationists and wild fish advocates are deeply
disappointed by Trump’s decision to axe the agreement, which also paused a
series of ongoing lawsuits that have dragged on for decades, and would have
contributed more than a billion dollars in federal funding to solving a big,
hairy problem. They say the move sets
back our country’s salmon recovery efforts substantially, returning us to a
zero-sum game of endless litigation that pits energy against fish.”
The magazine quotes Chris Wood, the president of Trout
Unlimited, who lamented that
“It was one of the first times that we had a collaborative
effort where people agreed to come together—nobody’s hand was forced, there
wasn’t a judge or a court insisting on this.
Now, we’re back to the beginning—where we had been for the previous 20
years, which is just relying on the Endangered Species Act to keep these most
amazing of God’s creatures from blinking out.”
To provide some context to the issue, the magazine article
notes that
“The Columbia-Snake River system was once the most productive
salmon and steelhead fishery in the world.
Today, these anadromous runs are a shadow of their former selves, with
wild fish returning at less than two percent of their historical abundance…
“The main objective of the 2023 agreement, Wood adds, was for
stakeholders to work together to increase those returns. It was not a decision to breach the Lower
Four Snake River Dams, nor did it support legislation to authorize dam
breaching. The dams are owned by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and removing or redesigning them would require an
act of Congress…
“In many ways, the agreement reached in 2023 provided a road
map for…difficult conversations. It
established a Tribal Energy Program to help the Columbia River Treaty Tribes
develop their own renewable energy sources.
It provided federal guidance for replacing and/or redesigning the
current irrigation and transportation systems in the Lower Snake region. And it provided the funds to make those
solutions workable. Perhaps more
importantly, though, it paused the Gordian knot of ongoing lawsuits around the
Lower Four dams in an effort to bring stakeholders back to the negotiating
table.”
“So without the agreement, there is no longer any basis for a stay [of the ongoing litigation]."
The litigation will almost certainly resume.
It’s not a great solution.
But when plaintiffs are forced to deal with a nation willing and seemingly eager to break
its word and dishonor its promises, it is the only solution that they have.
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