Administration Puts Eel River Dams Removal Process on Ice
After departing in 2024, I’m back temporarily as editor of The Osprey to get the next couple of issues out as the search for my replacement continues. The wild fish conservation landscape, and especially the science that supports it, has changed considerably since I last alighted on this “perch.”
From a policy aspect, in June of last year, the Trump Administration pulled out of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement made by the Biden Administration in 2023 with the Columbia River treaty tribes and the states of Washington and Oregon. That agreement would have invested $1 billion over the course of a decade that included funding clean energy development that would have eventually made the removal of the four lower Snake River dams more feasible. That withdrawal has a double wammy effect that includes making the extinction of wild runs of Columbia River salmon and steelhead more likely while reducing America’s portfolio of energy sources.
Even smaller efforts to help wild fish don’t fly under the radar, as our cover story on the campaign to remove two dams on the Eel River, and the Trump Administration’s move to derail a plan agreed on by all parties, makes plain.
Rejecting the reality of climate change, its focus on increasing fossil fuel use, and kneecapping clean energy development has obvious potential dire effects for wild fish, along with ecosystems through the world. The recent decision to repeal the landmark 2009 legal ruling that allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to consider climate change in its development and enforcement of regulations, if it survives legal challenges, will be a serious blow to many environmental initiatives.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
• Interior Fraser Steelhead Face Oblivion
• Alameda Creek Fish Passage Restored
• The Portage Creek Cooperative Angler Project
• World’s Most Beautiful Fish
The aggressive defunding of scientific grants is hobbling conservation efforts, especially since scientific research produces so much of the knowledge that informs wild fish conservation planning and management.
I’m happy to say there is some good news. Aggressive legal challenges to the Adminstration’s science funding cuts from universities and states have prevailed in a surprising number of cases. Congress has even kept some funding intact by including them in various legislation, maintaining much scientific funding levels flat with last year rather than the intended steep cuts. And more lawsuits continue to make their way through the courts. Many of the Administration’s environmental policies will continue to be challenged as well.
I don’t know any more than you where all this is going to take us. One thing I do know is that there are so many continuous and varied threats to wild fish that the day will never come when their advocates can sit back and say, “Finally, we’re done!”