Major win

 

It's hard to believe, but salmon, Native Americans, and the environment recently scored a major win (over the evil in the White House) in the Pacific Northwest.

Judge sides with salmon against Trump administration in hydropower ruling 

Federal judge in Oregon rejects bid to overturn Biden-era agreement to protect endangered fish populations

"In the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, a landmark salmon recovery plan brokered in late 2023, the federal government committed more than $1bn over a decade to support depleted salmon runs and new investments into clean energy projects in the area to replace the hydropower generated by the dams. The plan, however, would be short-lived.

Months after returning to office, Trump withdrew from the agreement, calling it “radical environmentalism”, and the parties quickly returned to court.

But in a strongly worded ruling, issued late on Wednesday [Feb 25], the Oregon US district court judge Michael Simon rebuked [I love that word] the administration’s position and the “disappointing history of government avoidance and manipulation instead of sincere efforts at solving the problem”, and the evidence presented, which he said was created for the lawsuit and contradicted the scientific record.

In a report issued under Biden in 2024 and removed from public access by the Trump administration, the Department of the Interior acknowledged that the dams inflicted harm on the river and the Native American tribes that depend on it. Construction of the dams at the turn of the 20th century transformed riparian ecosystems and devastated salmon runs, flooded villages and burial grounds, and pushed tribal members from their lands, traditions, culture and food sources."

It's a battle, but it's worth it. Let's keep salmon swimming in Pacific Northwest rivers.