Salmon litigation: a refresher on what this agreement does
Chinook salmon are on the brink of extinction. The Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative or CBRI, as well as U.S. government funding commitments, will bring a new approach to salmon and steelhead recovery in the Basin. Photo credit: Ryan Hagerty USFW On February 8th,...
Salmon Recovery Update: Litigation Still on Hold As Parties Chart New Course for Region
IRU, alongside co-plaintiffs, agreed to a further pause in the long-running salmon litigation with the federal government at the end of last month. This stay will last until December 15th, giving parties time to review and consider a package of proposed federal...
Presidential Memorandum directs federal agencies to restore healthy and abundant salmon populations across the Columbia River Basin
Today, the Biden Administration released a Presidential Memorandum directing federal agencies to use all of their authority to restore healthy and abundant wild salmon, steelhead and other native fish populations across the Columbia River Basin and to review and...
Salmon campaign update, summer 2023
Where we are As summer fades away, the wild spring and summer-run Chinook and sockeye that have returned to Snake River Basin headwaters are finding mates and digging redds in the gravels of their birth in order to spawn – while steelhead are settling into deep river...
New EPA Rule Greatly Reduces Clean Water Act Protections
Earlier this week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new federal rule that eliminates protection for a majority of our nation’s wetlands and estimated totals of well over a million miles of streams. The rule aligns the law with a recent Supreme Court Case that limited the kinds of wetlands and streams that can be covered by the Clean Water Act, known as Waters of the United States, or WOTUS. American Whitewater joined an amicus brief in that pivotal court case, advocating for the science-based protection of these streams and wetlands, but the Supreme Court ruled against us.