Council approves 2026 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program

On June 16, the Council voted unanimously to adopt the final 2026 Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.

The 2026 Fish and Wildlife Program is the culmination of a rigorous planning and public engagement process that began in January 2025. This 18-month-long process entailed receiving and studying hundreds of recommendations, thousands of public comments, and holding deliberations that took place during a series of Council meetings in 2025-26. The Council voted to release a draft proposal in December 2025.

In early 2026, the Council hosted nine hearings on the draft proposal in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Montana as well as online. All of these efforts highlight the dedication of state and federal agencies, tribes, utilities, ratepayers, environmental groups, industry groups, the public, and others in creating better outcomes for fish and wildlife and the communities that depend on them in the Columbia River Basin.

Here's a detailed look at some of the 2026 Program's major priorities and themes:

Hydrosystem operations, including elevated spring spill and limited daily ramping, to keep water moving for migrating juvenile and adult fish at critical times while still meeting regional energy needs. The Council's proposal seeks to bring longer-term continuity to operations, which have varied in recent years, so that their biological benefits can be better studied and understood. Key components include prioritizing spill to 125% gas cap, 24 hours/day, from April to the middle of June. Another key component is minimizing ramp rates and daily flow fluctuations on the Columbia and Lower Snake during the spring and summer migration periods. Ramping and flow fluctuation between projects in these stretches could increase significantly at certain times of year, primarily due to the flexibility of the hydrosystem being operated to integrate generation from renewable energy resources in the Northwest. This ramping and flow fluctuation can negatively impact fish in the spring and summer.

Continue habitat restoration throughout the basin, from the headwaters to the estuary, including tributaries and historically blocked areas, for salmon and steelhead as well as resident native fish and other freshwater species. To date, the Program has protected over 300,000 acres of habitat through purchase or easement and restored over 760,000 acres. The Council's program restores, protects, or improves an average of 59,000 sq acres per year, which is more than the area of Seattle.

Protect infrastructure investment to ensure continued benefits for fish and wildlife. Over the last 40 years, the Program has invested in over 1,800 fish screens, 16 hatcheries and two dozen related facilities, fish passage structures, land acquisitions, and more that must be maintained and upgraded. The Council has worked with Bonneville and regional partners to develop and implement asset management plans. Important progress has been made, but additional support is needed to address long-term, ongoing, and non-recurring maintenance needs, as well as inflation concerns.

Predator management, focusing on assessing and managing areas in the basin most likely to increase salmon and steelhead survival and improve overall outcomes for the Fish and Wildlife Program. The final Program plans to continue and possibly expand existing predator management efforts for walleye, bass, sea lions, birds, northern pike, and northern pikeminnow.

Program performance, beginning with a new structure for the Program that emphasizes restoring ecosystem function through investing in a core set of strategies based on the best available science, and more clearly linking and evaluating actions taken as part of the Program and the changes expected as a result. Council staff have presented extensively on Program performance to date, and will continue to share information with the region through the Program Tracker and other channels. This includes measuring progress towards the Council's goal and objectives, including the long-standing goal of 5 million salmon and steelhead returning to the basin.

Additional important and timely topics, including sturgeon, Pacific lamprey, resident fish, invasive species, Snake River population declines, ocean conditions, predation, expanded habitat restoration, and invasive species. The Council has included extensive measures in the new Fish and Wildlife Program to address regional concerns.

The Council, in collaboration with federal and state fish and wildlife agencies and tribes, and other regional partners, anticipates a role in facilitating a series of work groups recommended by the region on these and other priority topics. The Council also recognizes that fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin, especially salmon and steelhead, face challenges from many different directions, and encourages a whole-of-government approach in which funding, research, and monitoring are coordinated amongst entities including Bonneville, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and others to achieve the best possible outcomes while minimizing the burden to ratepayers.