Biden memo directs US agencies to restore 'healthy and abundant' salmon runs in the Northwest

abcnews.go.com:

President Joe Biden has directed federal agencies to use all available authorities and resources to restore “healthy and abundant” salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin, a move that conservationists and tribes call a potential breakthrough

WASHINGTON — In a move that conservationists and tribes called a potential breakthrough, President Joe Biden has directed federal agencies to use all available authorities and resources to restore “healthy and abundant” salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin.

Biden's order stops short of calling for removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Lower Snake River in Washington state, an action that tribes and conservation groups have long urged to save threatened fish populations. But it directs a host of federal agencies to do all they can to restore salmon and honor U.S. treaty obligations with Pacific Northwest tribes.

“Wild salmon, steelhead and other native fish populations in the Columbia River Basin are essential to the culture, economy, religion and way of life of tribal nations and indigenous peoples,'' Biden said in the six-page presidential memo released last week.

Actions since 1855, including the federal government’s construction and operation of dams, have changed the basin's ecosystem and “severely depleted fish populations,″ the memo says. While once there were up to 10 million salmon a year returning to the Columbia and Snake rivers, returns now are a small fraction of that, despite billions of dollars spent by federal, tribal and state governments and a wide range of stakeholders, the memo says. Thirteen salmon and steelhead species are listed as threatened or endangered.

“It is time for a sustained national effort to restore healthy and abundant native fish populations