Upper Columbia spring chinook salmon are among the 13 runs of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. Photo courtesy Michael Humling, US Fish & Wildlife Service
For fifty years, the Endangered Species Act has recognized the reality that a species can just as be threatened with extinction by losing their habitat as they are by directly killing them.
Despite this precedent, as well as the fact that habitat loss is the number one driver of species decline worldwide, the Trump Administration wants erase habitat destruction as what is considered a harm under the Endangered Species Act.
Since the 1970s, this landmark law has protected critical habitat – the rivers and streams where salmon spawn, the Pacific Northwest forests where spotted owls nest, the wetlands where countless species thrive including the western pond turtle. Protecting a species by protecting its home isn’t just an acknowledgement of the tribal teaching that everything is connected in the web of life, it’s common sense. This wisdom is also contained in Wy-kan-ush-mi Wa-kish-wit (Spirit of the Salmon), the tribes’ comprehensive salmon restoration plan that recognizes that the effort to restore Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead runs involves not only putting fish back in the rivers, but also protecting the watersheds where fish live.
CRITFC Commissioner Wilbur Slockish, representing the Yakama Nation, releasing a threatened western pond turtle in a wetland along the Columbia Gorge. The turtle had been raised by the Oregon Zoo to help rebuild the species numbers.
There are currently thirteen runs of Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act, including spring, summer, and fall Snake River chinook. The loss of these fish would be disastrous to both the ecosystem as well as the tribal cultures that are defined by this sacred First Food.
“The ESA’s protections are essential to safeguarding tribal treaty rights,” said Aja DeCoteau, CRITFC executive director. “In treaties with the United States, all four of our member tribes reserved the right to fish at usual and accustomed places. These rights are meaningless if there are no fish to catch, and there will be no fish without habitat.”
If the Administration weakens habitat protections, it doesn’t just threaten endangered species; it undermines decades of restoration work, billions in conservation investments, and sacred obligations to tribes whose cultures, economies, and identities are connected to these species.
“The ESA’s purpose is to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems on which they depend,” said DeCoteau. “The federal government has a responsibility to carry out this law, as well as a duty to do so in a manner consistent with treaty obligations, tribal sovereignty, and co-stewardship.”
The ESA isn’t perfect, but its core understanding that species and their habitats are inseparable represents the best of American conservation values. In an era of accelerating biodiversity loss, now is the time to strengthen these protections, not diminish them.
CRITFC strongly opposes the Administration’s proposed rule change. Read our full letter opposing it that was sent to Interior Secretary Burgum and Commerce Secretary Lutnick here.