Court Orders Emergency Actions to Protect Imperiled Salmon

What happened: A federal court in Oregon has mandated emergency actions to protect endangered Northwest salmon.

To reduce harm to imperiled salmon and steelhead, the court ordered federal agencies that operate the hydropower system to increase spill over eight dams on the lower Columbia and Snake Rivers. This will allow juvenile fish to pass over the dams instead of through lethal turbines.

Why it matters: Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead persist at dangerously low abundance, and many continue to decline toward extinction. By far the largest threat to their freshwater life stage is the harm caused by federal dams.

This is a critical victory for conservation, fishing, and clean energy groups represented by Earthjustice, which filed a request for the injunction in October after the Trump administration ended the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement over the summer.

For three decades, Earthjustice has fought in court to protect the Columbia river basin’s native fish as part of our larger work to defend our nation’s biodiversity.

Northwest salmon are in trouble.

• The problem with the dams: Dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers kill and injure fish when they pass through the powerhouse. These dams also create slow-moving reservoirs that delay salmon migration and can become lethally hot to the fish while fostering conditions favorable for non-native fish and birds that prey on salmon.
• Decades of devastation: Dam construction began along the lower Snake River in the 1950s, degrading a major migration route that linked millions of acres of pristine salmon spawning habitat in central Idaho to the Columbia River and out to the Pacific Ocean.
• Species on the brink: Today, 13 of the basin’s salmon and steelhead populations are listed as threatened or endangered, while four others have gone extinct. Only about 2 million salmon and steelhead now return to the Columbia Basin annually, less than 10% of historical runs, with two thirds of those fish consisting of hatchery fish. If we don’t act now, many of the remaining salmon populations in the Snake River face extinction.

The Recent Court Fight

• December 2023 – The Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement: This historic agreement, committed federal agencies to begin implementing a long-term plan to restore imperiled native fisheries to healthy abundance while investing $1 billion over a decade in the region. Part of this agreement was  planning for the eventual removal of dams on the lower Snake River.
• June 2025 – Withdrawal: President Trump signs a Presidential Memorandum that abruptly directs federal agencies to withdraw from the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement.
• September 2025 – Our response: Conservation, fishing, and clean energy groups represented by Earthjustice file a motion requesting the U.S. District Court in Oregon end the multi-year pause on the groups’ long-running litigation to protect endangered Columbia Basin wild salmon and steelhead from federal dams. The court lifts the pause that same day.
• October 2025 – Seeking emergency measures: Earthjustice plaintiffs file a preliminary injunction request with the court seeking emergency measures to protect endangered salmon and steelhead from harms caused by lower Snake and Columbia River dam operations.

What do the new emergency actions do?

• The ruling: The court ordered federal agencies that operate the hydropower system to increase spill over eight dams on the lower Columbia and Snake Rivers. This will allow juvenile fish to pass over the dams instead of through lethal turbines.
• The court-ordered spill includes additional water flow over the dams in the spring and summer, when increased spill is critical to aid in the recovery of wild Chinook salmon.
• What dams are impacted? The changes affect the following lower Snake and lower Columbia River dams: Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, Lower Granite, Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day, and McNary.

Earthjustice has fought for more than 30 years to protect threatened and endangered salmon in the Columbia River Basin.

• We are representing conservation, fishing, and renewable energy groups, who have fought alongside the Nez Perce Tribe, the Yakama Nation, the State of Oregon, and the state of Washington.
• Who is in the fight: The groups represented by Earthjustice are the National Wildlife Federation, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Sierra Club, Idaho Rivers United, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, NW Energy Coalition, Columbia Riverkeeper, Idaho Conservation League and Fly Fishers International, Inc.