Habitat Loss Is Eroding Tribal Sovereignty

Spanning seven U.S. states and one Canadian province, the Columbia River Basin was once the largest salmon-producing river system in the world. Yet, with four of the 16 salmon and steelhead trout species now extinct and another seven endangered or threatened, its future remains imperilled.

Though a federal judge recently ordered water levels be reduced at dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers to aid salmon migration upstream, he described a “disappointing history of government avoidance and manipulation instead of sincere efforts at solving the problem” in his February ruling.

Such federal and state failures to protect salmon habitats are rendering Indigenous fishing rights in western Washington meaningless, warned a report released in February by the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC). While tribal fishers have reduced their Chinook salmon harvest by at least 60 percent since the 1980s, salmon stocks continue to drop as habitats are destroyed faster than they can be restored. 

“Our current situation is not good; our waters, our lands, our resources are all suffering,” said Ed Johnstone, a Quinault Tribal member and chair of the NWIFC, who highlighted that none of the region’s salmon stocks have recovered since they were included on the Endangered Species Act in 1999. “This report’s findings remain grim.”

The report examines the health of waterways in the treaty-reserved fishing grounds of 20 tribes that lie between the Columbia River Basin and the Pacific Ocean. From the Canadian border down to the Chehalis River, protecting such habitats is crucial to reversing the decline of salmon populations.

From water shortages to logging, the report highlights the many forms that habitat degradation takes, chief of which are passage barriers preventing salmon returning up river to spawning grounds. 

There are more than 15,500 private or government-owned culverts—channels that redirect water under roads or railways—restricting movement across the tribes’ fisheries, according to the report.

Melting glaciers, sea level rise and extreme weather patterns have also changed the quantity and annual timing of waterflow, collectively hindering salmon and steelhead trout navigating from coastal inlets to the upper basin.

“Without the fish, we don’t exist,” said Johnstone, highlighting the spiritual, communal and economic vitality tribes derive from healthy watersheds. Indian songs, prayers and native language are all tied to the wellbeing of nature, especially the First Salmon Ceremony that honors the species’ annual return.

“To lose salmon would set in motion the unraveling of our very cultural and ceremonial lifeways, threatening not only our cultural continuity, but our very existence,” said Johnstone.

Central to the problem is the pressure of increasing regional population, said Justin Parker of the Makah tribe. The state’s population has more than doubled in 50 years, adding three new congressional districts. With that comes impervious infrastructure—paved roads or concrete buildings—that result in stormwater runoff disrupting highly sensitive stream ecosystems.

Pre-spawn mortality rates as high as 40 percent have been recorded in high-traffic areas of the Puget Sound, for example, where tire fragments containing 6PPD—a chemical preservative fatal to salmon—have seeped into streams and rivers. 

“You’re not going to stop that net increase, but you’ve got to manage things in a proper way,” said Parker, noting that Washington’s population grows by more than 100,000 people each year. “We need to make sure that we’re allowing the next generation to have that opportunity to harvest like we have in our lifetime.”

Despite the known risks, state and local regulators approved over 200 projects for “gray” shoreline armor—human engineered seawalls more environmentally harmful than “green” solutions like wetlands or dunes—in the last five years along this stretch of the Pacific Coast. This infrastructure further interrupts the movement of sediment and robs beaches of appropriate salmon spawning grounds. 

The arrival of invasive Japanese knotweed and European green crab has similarly negatively impacted the eelgrass beds that act as nurseries and foraging grounds for juvenile salmon.

The industrial logging of riverside habitats—such as the 1,900 acres felled in the lowlands of the Snohomish River Basin between 2011 and 2021—has led to increasing water temperatures. Without the natural shade of trees, at least half of the region’s waters have experienced warming harmful to salmon species—like Chinook and sockeye—that are vulnerable to temperature variation, according to the report. 

While the NWIFC acts as habitat co-manager and works alongside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and state legislators, there has been a lack of adequate and sustained funding. Most of the boots-on-the-ground work has been left to tribal members to perform, said Johnstone, reaffirming the court’s verdict that a lack of political will and a preferential treatment of industry has come at the expense of natural resources. 

“What the tribes are contributing with this accounting of their wealth—the habitat—is that they’re holding an anchor to what is true,” said NWIFC’s director of environmental protections Fran Wilshusen, emphasizing the importance of the report in future policy-making. “Harvest management doesn’t make fish. Habitat and hatcheries do that, and this report shows us where we need to work.”

However, leaders of the NWIFC are optimistic. “I remain hopeful because I believe in our tribes and the good work that we are doing together,” said Johnstone, adding that they have no option other than hope.

Indeed, ongoing clean-up efforts along the Skokomish watershed have shown vegetation and salmon returns, while improving water quality has seen shellfish growth in Portage Bay. Additionally, a new relationship with the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway—America’s largest freight railroad network—appears to be offering hope for collaborative, private-sector restoration along the Puget Sound shoreline.

While February’s hydropower dam ruling was a victory in a decades-long campaign, its scale remains nonetheless small. “We must acknowledge that our salmon continue to decline because we are continuing to allow loss of their habitat faster than we are investing in restoring it,” said Johnstone, reiterating that tribal rights are place-based and have nowhere else to go. 

“We must reverse that trend. We must protect what sustains them. We must protect what sustains us,” he said.