OPINION: Deal with tribes is step toward salmon restoration

This editorial was published by The Seattle Times.

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The Biden administration and Northwest Native American tribes announced a deal last week to undo a historic wrong committed against the region and its Indigenous people. Abundant salmon and other game fish might once again swim in the Upper Columbia River Basin.

For thousands of years, tribes fished the Upper Columbia River Basin. Then, in the 20th century, the descendants of white settlers built the Grand Coulee, Chief Joseph and other dams. Huge concrete barriers blocked wild salmon, steelhead and other fish from reaching their habitat. That, in turn, prevented the tribes from participating in their historic customs and practices that the United States had promised to uphold in treaties.

The dams are not evil. They produce clean electricity that powers the region’s homes and industries without contributing to climate change. They provide flood mitigation. They gather water for irrigation and other consumption. Yet one cannot ignore their negative effects, even if they were unrecognized or willfully ignored decades ago.

All of which is prelude to last week’s announcement. The Biden administration agreed to fund restoration work in the Upper Columbia. The Bonneville Power Administration will provide $200 million over 20 years, and the Department of Energy will provide $8 million over two years.

The agreement emerged from federal negotiations with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the Spokane Tribe. Those tribes have been working on a decadeslong project to bring fish back to the Upper Columbia River Basin.

During this phase, scientists will evaluate suitability of the ecosystem and ways to help migrating salmon move past the high dams that stand in their way. That includes salmon passageways and the always-amazing salmon cannon.

The tribes, for their part, agreed to pause litigation for those 20 years. That will allow collaboration without adversarial court proceedings hanging over everything. No offense to the trial lawyers, but things often go more smoothly if the parties can work together without attorneys mucking it up.

Washington’s senators — Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray — heralded the agreement. Both have championed salmon restoration in Congress.

Ecological disruption denied generations of Native Americans their rights and their traditional way of life. Finally, America will begin to end the harm and restore natural systems for fish, for tribes, for everyone. It will take decades more, but it will be worth it.

TNS