Cd’A tribe reaches 10-year salmon run deal with feds

The Coeur d’Alene Tribe and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) inked a 10-year agreement Thursday aimed at mitigating them for the destruction of salmon runs following the construction of Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee Dams.

Tribes from the lower Columbia River, including the Nez Perce Tribe, are set to sign a similar but larger agreement today.

According to a news release from the Coeur d’Alene tribe, their agreement will help the tribe construct two fish hatcheries and implement projects designed to protect fish and wildlife habitat and also sustain traditional hunting, fishing and gathering activities.

“(The agreement) marks a significant moment in our relationship with BPA and recognizes the federal government’s responsibility to ensure that our traditional way of life is protected and restored,” said tribe chairperson Chief James Allan in the news release.

Tribal spokesperson Tyrel Stevenson said under the agreement the tribe will receive about $10.5 million per year as well as $45 million to pay for infrastructure and capital projects.

The two giant dams were built by the federal government without fish passage and completely blocked salmon and steelhead from migrating to and from the upper Columbia River. The runs that the Coeur d’Alene and other tribes in both the United States and Canada depended on were wiped out.

In September, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Spokane Tribe of Indians reached a 20-year, $200 million agreement to use hatcheries to reintroduce salmon upstream of the two dams. It was the first substantive agreement to emerge from mediated talks between the Biden administration and a coalition of Columbia River tribes and fishing and conservation groups that filed lawsuits over the harm the system of federal dams on the Columbia and lower Snake rivers cause to salmon.

In December, lower Columbia River tribes, including the Nez Perce, reached an agreement with the administration. According to its terms, the federal government will spend $300 million on salmon and steelhead habitat projects and hatchery upgrades and provide technical assistance to the tribes as they develop a tribal energy program with the goal of producing 1,000 to 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy sources. If the four dams on the lower Snake River are breached in the future, the tribal power would be counted as replacement for electricity generated at the dams.

The agreement also dictates the amount and timing of water spills at the dams designed to help juvenile fish during their downstream migration.

In exchange, the tribes have agreed to pause the lawsuit challenging the operation of the hydropower system for at least five years. Representatives from the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Yakama and Warm Springs tribes, along with the governors of Oregon and Washington, will be at the White House today to sign a memorandum of agreement associated with the deal.

Both critics of the deal and those who support it have called it a precursor to eventual breaching of the four lower Snake River dams. It includes studies that will look at the best way to replace the transportation and irrigation services provided by the dams.

However, breaching the dams would require an act of Congress. No legislation has been introduced to breach the dams, but some members of Congress from Idaho, Washington and Oregon have written legislation that would block breaching.