Guest commentary: BPA must do more to protect local economies

Getting your

For more than 100 years, salmon were absent from the Umatilla River. Generations of our tribal people grew up without the opportunity to fish, practice our traditions, or put salmon on their families’s tables. The return of salmon has meant more than restoring fish to a river. It has helped restore our culture, our treaty rights, and an important part of our local economy. I’ve spent much of my life working to restore salmon and protect the natural resources that sustain our communities. One thing I’ve learned is that real progress happens when tribes, farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and government agencies work together.

The Umatilla River is proof. Over the past 40 years, we’ve restored water flows, improved irrigation, rebuilt habitat, and brought back three species of salmon. Farmers continue to irrigate their fields, salmon are returning, and our communities benefit. That’s what successful collaboration looks like. But collaboration alone isn’t enough. The federal government must uphold its legal responsibilities.

Salmon populations throughout the Columbia River Basin remain in serious trouble. The Bo...