Climate & Indigenous Fisheries in the Pacific Northwest
Salmon have provided sustenance and played an important role in the cultural identities of Pacific Northwest tribes for millennia.
Originating in Canada, the Columbia River flows north before bending southwards and entering Washington State. Its largest tributary, the Snake River, flows west through Idaho, and joins the Columbia near Kennewick, Washington, before winding towards the Pacific.
These rivers serve as key habitat for Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye salmon, as well as steelhead. These fish spend most of their lives at sea, but return to freshwater rivers to spawn.
Photo: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
An age-old legacy of traditional, sustainable harvest
Pacific Northwest Tribes including the Spokane, Colville, and Coeur d’Alene tribes, along with other regional tribes of the Columbia River Basin, have been fishing along the Columbia River and its tributaries for thousands of years, often returning to traditional fishing sites each season (Baldwin et al., 2022; Yu, 2015).
Image: LL Map
Given their cultural and ecological importance, salmon were celebrated by Pacific Northwest Tribes with traditions including prayer, canoe landings, and music to summon the return of salmon (Baldwin et al., 2022). Traditionally, tribal men would entrap salmon using woven baskets or nets staked into the riverbed. The women would then oversee the filleting and drying of the harvest (Yu, 2015).
The fisheries that these peoples have long relied on have been nearly destroyed by anthropogenic activities. Columbia River salmon populations have been struggling due to commercial overfishing and implementation of hydroelectric dams. The Chief Joseph Dam (CJD) constructed in 1955, and Grand Coulee Dam (GCD) constructed in 1941, effectively block salmon runs from reaching their traditional spawning grounds upriver. Prior to dam construction, the federal government only accounted for commercial salmon fisheries by establishing downriver salmon hatcheries but opted not to include infrastructure allowing salmon pass through the dams, thereby discounting communities living upriver (Baldwin et al. 2022).
Image: Dittmer, 2013
A changing climate
Now, climate change threatens to further imperil these fragile fisheries. Global warming is predicted to shift weather patterns in the Pacific Northwest to become warmer and dryer, exacerbating the impacts salmon populations are already facing from human activity (Baldwin et al., 2022). Warmer conditions are correlated with increased salmon mortality, and has resulted in shifts in salmon migration timing (Jacob et al., 2009). Chinook salmon populations could see a decline of 20% by 2050 due to warmer water and changes in river flow disrupting the life cycle (Dittmer, 2013).
Image: NOAA
Tribal communities have already begun to experience the impacts of climate change on salmon fisheries. North of the Columbia, in the Fraser River Basin in British Columbia, the St’át’imc people have historically relied on sockeye salmon runs as a key source of protein and have developed a rich culture surrounding salmon harvest, but declines in salmon abundance and health, attributed in part to climate change, have significantly impacted food availability in local communities (Jacob et al. 2010). Additionally, alterations in weather resulting from climate change mean that tribal members are no longer able to use traditional methods (through drying) to preserve what salmon they are able to catch (Jacob et al. 2010).
Image: Jacob et al. 2010
In 2015, the Pacific marine heat wave, low river flows, and record high water temperatures in the Columbia River Basin contributed to a near-complete failure of the adult migration of endangered Snake River sockeye salmon (Crozier et al. 2020).
As climate change continues to worsen, impacts on salmon populations and tribal communities will continue to worsen. This complex socio-ecological system sits at the intersection of a variety of questions. Renewable energy generation from hydropower prevents spawning. A diverse group of Native people harvest salmon in the same ways they have for generations, but environmental change places the sustainability of these traditional fisheries into question. Can salmon reintroduction efforts, in tandem with ecological restoration, improve population size and resiliency to climate change of salmon in the Columbia River Basin? What will be the fate of Indigenous communities reliant on traditional harvest?
Image: flickr
Climate stressors further endanger salmon stocks
Most predictions for anthropogenic disturbances to Pacific Northwest rivers include heightened thermal stress that will fatally increase throughout the 21st century. Higher temperatures and lower river flows in Washington rivers, specifically exacerbated in the 2015 heatwave, have halted migration of adult Salmon in the Snake River and are the greatest risk to their survival (Crozier et al., 2020).
In the past 15 years, climate change’s effects have caused salmon migration to shift more than 2 weeks before its traditional timing just to maintain the salmon population's survival (Crozier et al., 2020; Mantua et al., 2009). Also, despite declining survival rate of salmon in temperatures over 15 ̊C, many migrating salmon are about to face temperatures of 19-23 ̊C in Washington, making their lengthy and steep migration even more lethal than before (Crozier et al., 2020).
From reducing reproductive success, limiting cold-water refugia, and breeding and migration inhibition, sockeye salmon survival has decreased to 55-83% and Chinook survival has decreased to 80-97% (Crozier et al., 2020; Mantua et al., 2009). With water conditions affecting every stage of the salmon life cycle, the increased warming ranging from 1-3 ̊C and reductions in flow ranging 0-30%, Pacific Northwest Salmon are facing a deadly fate.
Even when salmon are able to make it to past dams, there's no guarantee that they'll reproduce. Tribal and state biologists are noticing that during warmer summers, many salmon are reaching spawning areas but are perishing before they have the chance to lay eggs (Hsu, 2019).
Photo: Howard Hsu/Popular Science
Salmon ecology
Already under threat
In recent decades, Columbia River salmon populations have been struggling due to commercial overfishing and implementation of hydroelectric dams. The Chief Joseph Dam (CJD) constructed in 1955, and Grand Coulee Dam (GCD) constructed in 1941, effectively block salmon runs from reaching their traditional spawning grounds upriver. Prior to dam construction, the federal government only accounted for commercial salmon fisheries by establishing downriver salmon hatcheries but opted not to include infrastructure allowing salmon pass through the dams, thereby discounting communities living upriver. Because salmon are important for nutrient transport, the ecosystems upriver from these dams have suffered. Indigenous tribes in the upper Columbia River Basin have also suffered from diminished salmon populations and an unhealthy watershed (Baldwin et al., 2022).
Chinook range extent within the Columbia River Basin.
The journey of a salmon in a human-dominated landscape
In response to the threats to their traditional fisheries, Indigenous groups are fighting to ensure the survival of the salmon.
'Bringing the fish back to their native homes': 150 Chinook salmon released into the Spokane River
Traditional lands and reservations of the Yakama, Umatila, Nez Perce, and Warm Springs tribal nations. Source: Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
Several indigenous tribes of the Columbia River Basin have collectively established a multi-phase approach for improving salmon population health and yield upriver of the two dams. Consisting of the Yakama, Umatila, Nez Perce, and Warm Springs tribal nations, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission aims to protect watersheds and fish populations in the Columbia River basin.
Efforts are now underway among tribal stakeholders to reintroduce salmon upriver from the dams. However, this will likely take years to accomplish given the scale of the project and relative lack of funding from state and federal agencies. As a result, tribal communities have begun to implement “cultural and education releases” of salmon into the upper basin. These small-scale releases have returned salmon to waters where they have been absent for over fifty years, and reconnected tribes with their histories.
Some fish are tagged prior to each release and have demonstrated that salmon reintroduced upstream may be able to spawn. However, more funding is needed to scale salmon reintroduction efforts in the upper Columbia River Basin and evaluate the overall viability of these salmon in these environments blocked by dams (Baldwin et al., 2022).
The role of restoration
The restoration of salmon habitat is also a major component of salmon conservation. Though it's not possible for small-scale restoration projects to reverse anthropogenic climate change, such programs are able to mitigate some impacts of climate change (for example, elevated water temperatures), and may also address other stressors impacting salmon, allowing populations to cope better with climate change.
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An emerging technique in salmon-focused restoration efforts is the construction of beaver dam analogs and the reintroduction of beavers to areas where they have been extirpated. Beaver dams and their analogs slow the flow of water in streams, forcing water to spread outwards and seep into the soil, promoting riparian vegetation growth which shades streams and reduces stream water temperature (Orr et al., 2020). Many of the streams in western North America are fed by snowpacks--as warming temperatures mean that these stores of water melt more quickly, the flow of streams is more flashy, with higher discharge earlier in the season and a lack of water later during the summer months. By slowing the flow of water and storing it in the landscape, beaver dams and their analogs are able to contribute to a more stable flow of water throughout the season (Norman et al. 2022).
Though restoration may serve a key role in improving the resilience of salmon populations, it's important to note some damage from climate change has permanently destroyed these habitats and maximum efforts should be placed into decreasing the anthropogenic causes of global warming.
References
Baldwin, C., Giorgi, C., & Biladeau, T. (2022). Cultural and educational releases of salmon in areas blocked by major hydroelectric projects on the Columbia River. Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 25(1), 16-26. https://doi.org/10.14321/aehm.025.01.16
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. (n.d.). Celilo Falls.
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. (n.d.). Home. https://critfc.org/ .
Crozier, L. G., J. E. Siegel, L. E. Wiesebron, E. M. Trujillo, B. J. Burke, B. P. Sandford, and D. L. Widener. 2020. Snake River sockeye and Chinook salmon in a changing climate: Implications for upstream migration survival during recent extreme and future climates. PLOS ONE 15:e0238886.
Dittmer, K. (2013). Changing streamflow on Columbia basin tribal lands—climate change and salmon. Climatic Change, 120, 627–641. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0745-
Helfield, J. M., and R. J. Naiman. 2001. EFFECTS OF SALMON-DERIVED NITROGEN ON RIPARIAN FOREST GROWTH AND IMPLICATIONS FOR STREAM PRODUCTIVITY. Ecology 82:2403–2409.
Hsu, H. 2019, February 9. Climate change is cooking salmon in the Pacific Northwest.
Idaho Fish and Game. 2016, March 18. Sockeye Salmon. https://idfg.idaho.gov/conservation/sockeye/ .
Jacob, C., T. McDaniels, and S. Hinch. 2010. Indigenous culture and adaptation to climate change: sockeye salmon and the St’át’imc people. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 15:859–876.
Jordan, N. 2020, November 17. Beaver Dam Analogs in Potato Creek – Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board.
Mantua, N.J., Tohver, I., Hamlet, A.F. 2009. Chapter 6 in The Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment: Evaluating Washington’s Future in a Changing Climate, Climate Impacts Group, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. https://doi.org/10.7915/CIG6QZ23J
Norman, L. M., R. Lal, E. Wohl, E. Fairfax, A. C. Gellis, and M. M. Pollock. 2022. Natural infrastructure in dryland streams (NIDS) can establish regenerative wetland sinks that reverse desertification and strengthen climate resilience. Science of The Total Environment 849:157738.
Orr, M. R., N. P. Weber, W. N. Noone, M. G. Mooney, T. M. Oakes, and H. M. Broughton. 2020. Short-Term Stream and Riparian Responses to Beaver Dam Analogs on a Low-Gradient Channel Lacking Woody Riparian Vegetation. Northwest Science 93:171.
Yu, P.-L. (2015). Scale and Organization in Traditional Salmon Fishing. In Rivers, fish, and the people: Tradition, science, and historical ecology of fisheries in the American West (pp. 70–95). essay, The University of Utah Press.
