Washington Governor Signs Executive Order to Restore Salmon Habitat in Columbia Basin

Governor Jay Inslee in Seattle, Washington, on Oct. 22, 2021. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed an executive order on Dec. 3 aimed at restoring salmon and steelhead habitats in the Columbia River Basin, which have been declining in number due to dam construction.

The executive order directs state agencies to work with Oregon and regional tribes—Yakama, Umatilla, Nez Perce, and Warm Springs—to implement the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI).

Inslee called on state agencies to advance science-based solutions, restore habitats, and bring together diverse interest groups to preserve the salmon population in the Columbia River Basin.

“Salmon have inhabited Washington for millions of years, but their time is running out. We cannot waver for a moment, now or in the future, in our work to restore these runs,” the governor said in a statement.

The executive order emphasized the federal government’s commitment to restore salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River Basin and Snake River through a December 2023 stay of litigation agreement with the “Six Sovereigns,” comprising Oregon, Washington, and the regional tribes.

The 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement includes federal commitments in support of the CBRI. The White House stated that the agreement will enable “a 10-year break from decades-long litigation” against the federal government’s dam operations in the Pacific Northwest.

The agreement was expected to bring more than $1 billion in new federal investments for wild fish restoration over the next decade and facilitate the development of tribally-sponsored clean energy production, according to a White House fact sheet.

Inslee said the executive order will be reconsidered either at the end of the 10-year litigation stay if a non-federal party withdraws from the agreement, or when the agreement is terminated.

“The duration of this Executive Order is to be guided by its intent to recover salmon habitat statewide and to promote full implementation of the CBRI until salmon and steelhead are restored to healthy and abundant numbers.,” the governor stated in the order.

In announcing the order, Inslee’s office warned that the incoming Trump administration will face “a salvo of litigation for breach of Tribal treaty rights affirmed by precedent” should it retreat from the agreement.

“We need to think of our state and its waters as borrowed rather than inherited,” Inslee said. “We’ve charted a course for salmon recovery, and this order holds us to it.”

Inslee has served three consecutive terms since first being elected in 2012. The governor announced in May last year that he would not seek reelection after his term ends in January.

Fourteen population groups of steelhead trout and Chinook, coho, chum, and sockeye salmon in Washington are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, according to the State of Salmon in Watersheds.

Abby Tinsley, vice president for conservation policy at the National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement that the federation welcomes the governor’s executive order.

“With this executive order, Washington state joins the state of Oregon in a critical step that builds the momentum needed to save the region’s renowned salmon runs from extinction, and—of paramount importance—make good on commitments to Northwest Tribes,” Tinsley said in a Dec 4. statement.