Restoring at least 5 million steelhead and salmon to the Columbia River Basin is still a long way off, according to officials. New research, however, indicates that the overall abundance of fish in the basin is trending upward.
This is the opinion of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, which convened via Zoom on Tuesday to deliberate on the most recent information regarding the numbers of steelhead and salmon in the Columbia River Basin.
It was estimated that between 10 and 16 million salmon and steelhead ran to the Columbia River Basin each year before to 1850. Those rushes were severely broken up by dams, and by the 1990s, the number of runs had dropped to around 1 million annually.
But according to council data, the most recent 10-year rolling average from 2014–2023 shows that 2.3 million salmon and steelhead are returning to the basin, which is comparable to the average of 2.4 million fish from 2004–2013 and better than the average from the 1990s, which dropped to 1.3 million fish.
Council Member Louie Pitt, who represents Oregon and is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, stated in a press release that the Columbia River Basin has seen significant development in the previous 40 years in terms of the amount of salmon and steelhead, particularly above Bonneville Dam.
Thirty-seven years later, the council has yet to meet its target of five million fish returns.
The Northwest Power Act of 1980 created the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, allowing Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington to create a program to safeguard, reduce, and improve fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin that are impacted by hydroelectric systems.
The Bonneville Power Administration provides funding for the council’s fish and wildlife program, which allocates approximately $280 million a year to 300 programs across the basin.
By 2025, 5 million steelhead and salmon should have returned to the basin past Bonneville Dam, according to a 1987 council target.Additionally, as flow sizes continued to drop, 12 salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River Basin were designated for protection under the Endangered Species Act until the 1990s.
Since then, only in 2014, when 4.6 million steelhead and salmon returned to the basin, has the council come close to meeting its 5 million target.
According to Pitt, dams are the main obstacle to the recovery of the salmon and steelhead populations, but these species are also severely stressed by climate change, pressures from the basin’s growing human population, and other environmental factors.
“Everywhere we can, including in blocked areas of our basin like above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams, we cannot slow down our collective efforts to help these fish populations grow stronger and larger,” Pitt added.
Coordination between state, federal, and tribal agencies as well as other partners throughout the Columbia River Basin is responsible for the improvement, according to Ed Schriever, a council member representing Idaho and a former director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
According to the press release, the region’s fish and wildlife managers have greatly expanded their ability to carry out mitigation, stewardship, and improvement during the last forty years. As our grasp of science has advanced, the management have also improved their procedures and approaches. Today’s effort is more focused and intentional than it has ever been.
Data indicates that fish output has increased above Bonneville Dam.
An improvement in the production of steelhead and salmon above Bonneville Dam since the creation of the council’s Endangered Species Act designations is another important finding from Tuesday’s presentation.
According to council spokesperson Peter Jensen, early 20th-century efforts to restore steelhead and salmon populations, including hatcheries, primarily targeted the lower Columbia River to support commercial fishing and ocean harvest. This neglected upstream fisheries, especially those that belonged to tribes, which suffered the greatest declines in steelhead and salmon populations.
Some of those losses have since been partially mitigated by the establishment of additional hatcheries upstream of Bonneville Dam, many of which are run or co-managed by tribes.
With current and historical estimates of proportions of ocean harvest, returns to the river mouth, and adult fish tracked past Bonneville Dam as they migrate upriver to breed, the data presented on Tuesday provides a more comprehensive picture of salmon and steelhead returns in the basin. Fish migration past Bonneville Dam was the only focus of earlier efforts.
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