Upper Columbia Tribes receive over $3 million from state to reintroduce salmon

A coalition of tribes has secured over $3 million in funding in the Washington State supplemental budget for salmon reintroduction in the upper Columbia River.

The money will go to three member tribes (Colville, Spokane, and Coeur d’Alene) to invest in efforts they are leading to restore salmon, revitalize tribal culture, and strengthen the region’s economy by implementing salmon reintroduction activities in the Spokane and Columbia rivers and their tributaries, the Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT) said in a statement Tuesday.

The majority of the funds will be provided through the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, according to the supplemental budget signed by Gov. Jay Inslee March 31.

“The understanding that our old ones had when they put their pride aside and settled on our respective Reservations was that we would always be who we always were,” said Hemene James, secretary-treasurer of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and UCUT chairman. “At the center of that was the gift that the returning fish had always provided for us. We, the Nations of the Upper Columbia River System, have never forgot that most basic idea.”

Salmon have been blocked from their historic habitat in the upper Columbia due to the development of five hydropower dams without fish passage facilities in the upper Columbia Basin, including Grand Coulee.

Since 2015, the tribes in the upper Columbia have been leading an effort with state and federal partners to develop a phased approach to reintroduce anadromous fish to areas upstream of Chief Joseph, Grand Coulee, and Spokane River dams.

After completing initial feasibility studies in 2019 as part of UCUT’s Phase 1 activities, they developed the Phase 2 Implementation Plan (P2IP), a “stepwise and scientifically adaptive approach to test the feasibility of restoring salmon to the upper Columbia River Basin,” UCUT says.

The approach is focused on collaboration, cost effectiveness, and benefits to the entire region. The first several years of the 20-year implementation plan focus on fisheries research, developing local rearing facilities, and expanding fish transport capacity to support current and future reintroduction activities. The funds provided by the state of Washington will enable the tribes to purchase needed research and transport equipment that will be used throughout the lifetime of Phase 2 implementation, they say.

Last month, UCUT and its member tribes, with the help of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, kicked off the second phase of reintroduction, starting a pilot study that involves releasing thousands of juvenile Chinook salmon throughout the upper Columbia blocked area so tribal scientists can learn how these fish move through the Columbia River’s dam system during their migration to the ocean.

“The Upper Columbia Tribes and our partners are committed to leading this effort with sound science,” said Colville Business Councilmember Jarred-Michael Erickson, the vice chair of UCUT and the Colvilles’ Natural Resource and Fisheries Committees chairman. “Our approach to Phase 2 studies will ensure that we obtain the scientific information necessary for future decisions about restoring salmon populations in the Upper Columbia. The state’s generous investment is a big step in accomplishing that goal of reestablishing them and bringing them home.”

“We applaud the state of Washington for accepting their role in this most righteous of endeavors,” James said. “We as the original inhabitants of this great country of ours look forward to the joint efforts going forward with not only Washington but all those that want to experience all that this beautiful land of ours can be!”

Readers can learn more at UCUT’s site at https://ucut.org/water/fish-passage-and-reintroduction-phase-1-report/