Restore the Snake River

What's At Stake

Three decades after our first lawsuit, there’s finally a real plan for Snake River salmon – one that sets us on a path to restoring the Snake River. Help us make it happen.

The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Spring Reservation, the Nez Perce Tribe and the states of Oregon and Washington recently presented the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI) – a roadmap for the long-term recovery of salmon and steelhead within the Columbia River Basin. 

Based on the solutions outlined in the CBRI, the Biden administration announced a package of U.S. government actions and commitments to provide initial funding, resources, and steps to begin implementation of the Initiative.  

This plan and federal commitments were secured through more than two years of mediation stemming from Earthjustice’s litigation that brought parties involved in the litigation together to work through solutions. Thanks to the the Biden administration, the four Lower Columbia River Treaty Tribes, the states of Oregon and Washington, the clients we represent in the Snake River litigation, and the advocacy of people like you, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. We are now on a path to replace the services of the four Lower Snake River dams and to begin to rebuild salmon populations to healthy and harvestable levels. 

With a visionary plan from Tribes and States and a good-faith commitment from the Biden administration to take steps to support it, it’s time for Congress to act. Thank the Biden administration for its work and tell your representative and senators to restore a free-flowing Snake River and protect salmon and steelhead. 

The CBRI is not just a plan for salmon and steelhead – it includes a suite of recommendations to replace the services provided by the four Lower Snake River dams. The plan will move us toward a future that includes healthy salmon and steelhead, affordable clean energy, improvements to regional agriculture and transportation to support a robust economy, and healthy ecosystems and to meet the many resilience needs of stakeholders across the region necessitated by our changing climate. 

The path forward is not without hurdles, but today’s announcement brings us closer to a free-flowing Snake River than we’ve ever been since the dams were built. Decades of persistence brought us to this moment, and we’re going to need your help to maintain the momentum you have helped build until the river is restored. 

Join us in thanking the administration for its efforts and telling your members of Congress to act.

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)

Delivery to U.S. Congress

Important Notice

Your message is delivered to a public agency, and all information submitted may be placed in the public record. Do not submit confidential information.

By taking action, you will receive emails from Earthjustice. Change your mailing preferences or opt-out at any time. Learn more in our Privacy Policy. This Earthjustice action is hosted on EveryAction. Learn about the EveryAction Privacy Policy.

Trouble Viewing This Action?

If the action form is not loading above, please add earthjustice.org as a trusted website in your ad blocker or pause any ad blockers, and refresh this webpage. (Details.) If the action form still does not display, please report the problem to us at action@earthjustice.org. Thank you!

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.