Action Alerts

Tell the federal government we need a plan to recover Northwest salmon

What's At Stake

Over the last several years, your advocacy has been crucial in the fight to recover imperiled Columbia Basin salmon. Many things have changed since a historic agreement to recover salmon was signed in 2023, including the inauguration of President Trump, but we won’t cede progress. We will continue to work toward implementing that agreement and a tribal-state blueprint for salmon recovery, the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI).  

A comment period is now open allowing the public to weigh in. Tell the federal government that extinction is not an option. We need the government to develop a new federal plan in alignment with the CBRI that will recover healthy and abundant salmon across the Columbia Basin.  

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Earthjustice, on behalf of the conservation, fishing and renewable energy groups we represent, has fought in court for more than 30 years to protect threatened and endangered salmon in the Columbia Basin. During that time, three different federal district court judges declared six different federal dam management plans to be illegal. Each time those decisions were appealed, we won too. And throughout it all, Earthjustice advocates like you have reached out to agencies and your elected officials to protect salmon in the Columbia Basin. We won’t stop now.   

The law repeatedly has landed squarely on the side of these fish and the communities that depend on a thriving salmon run. And now it’s time to fix the federal plan that can help save and restore them instead of dooming them to extinction. We need a plan that follows the CBRI and recovers salmon before it’s too late. Send a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation today.  

A sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in Little Redfish Lake Creek, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho.
A sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in Little Redfish Lake Creek, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho. (Neil Ever Osborne / Save Our Wild Salmon / iLCP)

99 Days Remain

Delivery to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.