By Mark Kirchmeier
It happens every spring.
Fishing boats appear on the gray-blue waters of the Willamette River from the Fremont Bridge to Kelly Point Park and anglers chase silver shadows of salmon beneath the waves.
Many have fished the spring runs for decades just as centuries of Native Americans did before them. The tradition is treasured – but in danger of disappearing.
Top Oregon fishery experts say that new Trump administration actions could ruin salmon runs beyond repair. Jim Martin, former chief fish biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) has been on the front lines of salmon policy battles for 40 years and is alarmed by what he sees.
“It used to be that while Republican presidential administrations didn’t always agree with Democrats on all details, they worked together to protect salmon,” he said.
Trump has now blown that up, said Martin, adding that the president “isn’t interested in serious governance, he’s an anarchist creating as much disruption as possible, in order to bring all attention and power to him.”
Martin cited evidence including Trump’s decision in June 2025 to pull the U.S. out of an existing multi-partisan agreement with Oregon, Washington, four American tribes and salmon fishing groups to restore Columbia River region salmon and boost tribal clean energy development.
The White House defended killing the deal – named the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA) – saying it “placed concerns about climate change above the nation’s interests in reliable energy sources.”
The plan provided funding for Native American tribes, including several in Oregon, to develop green energy sources and become less dependent on hydroelectric dams. Hydro power is free of carbon emissions, but the dams destroy the salmons’ ability to migrate for reproduction.
The agreement largely resolved decades of litigation over damage that federal dams had done to fish. Martin said ending the agreement will bring several years of waste and chaos to efforts to manage salmon recovery, hydro power and farm irrigation needs.
Martin warns that massive fish kills could happen this summer because light Cascade Range snow pack levels will cause many rivers to run low on water, greatly endangering the fish.
“But there’s no longer a federal plan to allow emergency dam water releases to save fish,” he said.
Salmon and steelhead recreational fishing groups are alarmed by the Trump administration’s Elon Musk-led DOGE gutting of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services staff at its Portland region headquarters.
Cuts to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service offices in Oregon
The Trump administration is also thwarting federal grants that the 2023 federal Inflation Reduction Act awarded to ODFW but the department never received.
Trump also killed the two-state RCBA agreement that would have invested $200 million for the Columbia Basin hatchery and habitat. That will reduce opportunities for ODFW to get federal grants, said department spokesperson Davia Palmeri. One ODFW fish biologist told the North Peninsula Review that salmon production at key hatcheries is already declining.
The administration last year slashed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery annual funding from $65 million to zero. That outraged Pacific Northwest Republican congressional members who then teamed with Democrats to restore full funding. But that victory seems short-lived. The administration has not proposed any funding for NOAA fisheries for the coming year.
“Another historic disaster in the making,” said Michael Mason of Northeast Portland, a lobbyist for the Warm Springs Tribe whose federal fishing agreements Trump has ignored.
Steelhead anglers are alarmed
“The Trump regime is doing destructive natural resource cuts,” said Bob Oleson, a Northwest Steelhead Association board member.
One longtime state fisheries leader said, “Preserving salmon runs is essential to the economic health of rural Oregon, but, oh my God, Trump is punishing Oregon for being a blue state, yet mostly hurting rural counties [such as Columbia County] that voted for him.”
Fish supporters see some modest hope with the 2026 Oregon Legislature approving a motel/hotel lodging tax expected to raise $78 million for wildlife and fisheries. State Rep. Ed Diehl of Scio, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, is threatening a ballot measure campaign to stop the tax.
The big question on sports and commercial salmon fishing advocates’ minds is whether Willamette and Columbia River salmon runs will suffer irreparable damage.
Martin likens what Trump is doing to stretching a rubber band. “If you stretch and stretch a rubber band – you’ll eventually break it – and it becomes worthless,” said Martin, who fears attacks on salmon are reaching a breaking point.
The anxiety has affected him personally. He described himself as having been a lifelong Republican, but no longer. “It took a lot for me to leave the Republican Party, but I’m disgusted with Trump. A sensible person doesn’t have any other choice,” Martin said.