Wednesday May 21, 2025
The Columbian —
The Trump administration has cut tens of millions of dollars from a key Columbia Basin salmon-restoration program run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a move experts say puts the treasured Northwest fish in further jeopardy.
The Columbia River Fish Mitigation program attempts to balance out significant harm inflicted by the Columbia River hydropower dam system on endangered salmon and steelhead runs.
The 46 percent cut to the program’s yearly budget comes amid tens of billions of dollars in cuts to the federal government that have hit scientific and regulatory agencies in Southwest Washington hard. It also follows months of speculation about what President Donald Trump’s Columbia Basin fish policy would be.
“It is outrageous that President Trump is ripping away critical funding to protect our fish populations in the Columbia River, which are so important to our economy, culture and tribes in Washington state,” U.S. Sen. Patty Murray wrote in a statement emailed to The Columbian.
The Corps did not directly respond to The Columbian’s request for comment on the cuts. In a brief statement, a spokesman instead highlighted the importance of the salmon recovery program moving into the future.