A Lasting Solution for SALMON & ORCA
The Salmon Orca Project, led by the Nez Perce Tribe, is a conservation effort to restore salmon and orca populations in the Pacific Northwest through habitat protection and sustainable, community-driven solutions.
ACT NOW: SAVE OUR SALMON
It’s time to act. Replacing the lower Snake River dams is essential to protect our sacred landscapes and sustain all who rely on the Snake River in the Pacific Northwest. Use the arrows to discover the four pillars of salmon restoration.
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To ensure a future for salmon, the orcas that depend on them, the region's ecosystem, and the tribes whose treaties secure their rights and relationships with these fish, the four lower Snake River dams must be removed and their habitat restored.
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Significant investments should be made in Fish & Wildlife Services, implemented by Tribes and States as co-managers. Placing Tribes as equal co-managers with the state will ensure prioritized conservation and give the tribes the responsibility of co-maintaining these lands.
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Reintroduction of these populations back into the Upper Columbia and Upper Snake Basins is an essential step for revitalizing the region's ecosystem, ensuring the fish’s long-term survival and population growth to counter decades of prolonged species loss.
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Simultaneous to the habitat revitalization, population reintroduction, and tribal oversight, funding must be implemented to mitigate decades of underinvestment in items like addressing the hatchery infrastructure backlog, aiding lamprey passage, and increasing sturgeon protection.
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Chairman Shannon Wheeler, Nez Perce Tribe
“[The Columbia Basin Initiative ]is an opportunity for multiple regional interests to align with a better future for the Northwest, including river restoration and salmon recovery, local and regional economic investment, infrastructure improvement, and long-term legal resolution and certainty.”
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Chairman Delano Saluskin, Yakima Nation Tribal Coucil
“Yakama Nation was on the front lines of the historic Treaty fishing wars that established tribal fishing rights through litigation.
Today – in the face of aging energy infrastructure, depressed local economies, climate change, and ever-declining fish runs -- we must do something different to preserve our way of life in the Pacific Northwest.”
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Chairwoman Shelly Fyant, Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes
“The Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes (“CSKT”) holds the water of our region as sacred lifeblood of our people. Water sustains us and the resources that we rely on for survival. As we utilize the water the creator provided for us all, we must do it from these perspectives.
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Chairman Rodney Cawston, Colville Business Council, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
"It is imperative that we all work together to look for different ways for all operations on the Columbia River and its tributaries that address everyone’s needs.”
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Chair Kat Brigham, Board of Trustees, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation
“Representative Simpson’s proposal is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to set aside past differences and chart a new course for the survival of the Columbia River Basin - including salmon, farmers, and many others.”