Columbia Snake River Campaign Challenges BPA on Attempting to Gut Salmon Recovery Goals

Today, the Columbia Snake River Campaign issued a sharp rebuke of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for its reckless recommendations to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (the Council) for updating its Fish and Wildlife Program. In an outright abdication of duty, BPA is urging the Council to abandon its long-standing goal of restoring adult salmon and steelhead runs to five million fish annually—despite decades of scientific consensus and bipartisan support. 

“Instead of meeting their responsibilities, BPA is pushing to move the goalposts,” said Kayeloni Scott, Executive Director of the Columbia Snake River Campaign. “They’re recommending eliminating salmon recovery and mitigation goals—not because the science has changed, but because they don’t want to be held accountable. But this is their responsibility. Salmon won’t recover through bureaucratic retreat. We need commitment, collaboration, urgency, and effective action.”

Since 1987, the Council’s Fish and Wildlife Program has maintained a modest, science-based interim goal of five million adult salmon and steelhead returning annually to the Columbia Basin—less than half of historic returns. This goal has guided restoration and mitigation efforts for nearly four decades and reflects BPA’s legal obligation under the Northwest Power Act to offset the devastating impacts of federal hydroelectric dams on fish populations.

But BPA’s latest recommendations call for scrapping or watering down this target. Worse, BPA argues it bears no responsibility for meeting the Council’s Congressionally mandated recovery and mitigation target responsibilities, even if they are retained.

“We have a very real and urgent extinction crisis on our hands that numerous mitigation efforts and billions of dollars over the past several decades have largely failed to solve,” said Scott. “Eliminating the goal solves nothing. When one idea doesn’t work, you look for better solutions.”

In stark contrast to BPA, states and Tribes have submitted a comprehensive, science-based suite of measures to the Council that would actually help meet salmon recovery goals. These include dam operations reform, habitat restoration, predator management, and reintroducing salmon to blocked areas—all directly linked to hydropower impacts. 

“BPA has the opportunity to align with a comprehensive approach that upholds treaty obligations, protects Southern Resident orcas, and sustains regional economies that depend on these fish, ” said Scott, referring to the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative. “Instead, they’re passing the buck—actively undermining the region’s best hope at salmon recovery.”