wildsalmon.org

What is Save Our Wild Salmon?

Save Our Wild Salmon is a coalition of conservation, fishing, and business groups working to restore wild salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest. Its focus spans rivers, streams, and marine waters, with the stated goal of benefiting the region's ecology, economy, and culture. It describes itself as a non-governmental 501(c) non-profit, so it operates as an advocacy and education organization rather than a regulator or a direct service provider.

What it does

• Advocacy and coalition building: It brings together a nationwide network of partners to push for policies that support salmon recovery.
• River restoration campaigns: A current priority is restoring the Lower Snake River, where the coalition argues that dam removal must be central to any Columbia Basin salmon plan.
• Climate and habitat work: It links salmon recovery to a healthy climate and resilient habitats.
• Species and ecosystem connections: One project focuses on protecting orcas by restoring salmon, reflecting the food-web link between the two.
• Treaty and policy engagement: It works on modernizing the Columbia River Treaty.
• Public information: The site offers factsheets, reports, news, opinion pieces, a blog, press releases, newsletters, and videos.

Who it is for

The organization is most useful to people who want to follow or influence salmon policy in the Pacific Northwest: conservation advocates, commercial and recreational fishers, tribal and community groups, students researching the issue, and residents who want to volunteer, attend events, or donate. It is also a practical starting point for journalists or teachers looking for background reports and position statements.

How to get involved

The site organizes participation around taking action, volunteering, events, and staying connected. It also offers online donations, other giving options, planned giving, and a shop.

If you are deciding whether to engage, start with the project pages that match your interest. For example, if your main concern is orcas, read the orca-and-salmon project; if your focus is energy and river policy, read the Lower Snake River and Columbia River Treaty material. That will show you whether the coalition's priorities align with your own before you volunteer or donate. You can also compare its positions with those of a broader conservation group such as American Rivers or a regional salmon advocacy organization to see where the coalition fits in the wider debate.

How does removing the Lower Snake River dams help wild salmon?

Removing the four Lower Snake River dams would reopen more than 140 miles of the river's mainstem and its tributaries in southeastern Washington to cold, free-flowing water. That matters because the dams turn the river into a series of slow, warm reservoirs where young salmon are exposed to higher water temperatures, more predators, and longer travel times on their way to the ocean. The case for removal, as Save Our Wild Salmon frames it, is that dam removal should be the cornerstone of any Columbia Basin salmon plan.

In practical terms, the benefits come from a few linked changes:

• Cooler water. Reservoirs behind the dams warm up in summer; a free-flowing river stays closer to the temperatures salmon and steelhead need.
• Faster, safer downstream migration. Juvenile fish that would otherwise linger in reservoirs reach the ocean sooner, which generally improves their survival.
• Less predator habitat. Slack water favours non-native fish and birds that prey on smolts, so a faster river reduces that pressure.
• Access to historic habitat. Reopening the river lets returning adults reach spawning grounds that have been blocked or degraded.

The trade-offs are real and worth understanding before you take a position. The dams also generate electricity, support barge shipping of grain, and supply irrigation water, so removal involves replacement power, transport alternatives, and cost. That is why the debate is as much about regional economics and infrastructure as it is about fish.

A useful next step: read the coalition's Lower Snake River project page and the linked factsheets and reports to see how they connect dam removal to orca recovery and climate resilience. If you want to weigh both sides, compare those materials with what dam and river operators publish about power, navigation, and irrigation, then decide which trade-offs you consider acceptable.

What is the connection between restoring salmon and protecting orcas?

Restoring wild salmon is one of the most direct ways to help the Southern Resident orcas, because these whales depend heavily on salmon—especially Chinook—for food. When salmon runs decline, the orcas face malnutrition, lower birth rates and higher mortality. Improving salmon passage and habitat therefore isn't only a fish issue; it's a whale-conservation strategy.

Save Our Wild Salmon frames this link as a core part of its work: one of its listed projects is “Protecting Orca by Restoring Salmon,” alongside efforts such as restoring the Lower Snake River and tackling climate challenges. The coalition's stated mission is to restore wild salmon and steelhead across Pacific Northwest rivers, streams and marine waters for the region's ecology, economy and culture. That broad framing matters because salmon recovery and orca protection share the same underlying needs: abundant prey, clean and cool water, connected rivers, and a stable climate.

For a concrete example, consider a reader in the Pacific Northwest who cares about orcas but isn't sure how to help. The practical lever is usually salmon policy and habitat: supporting dam-removal and river-restoration proposals, commenting on salmon plans, or volunteering with groups that work on those issues. The site's “Take Action,” “Volunteer With Us” and “Events” sections are the natural next step; its “Restoring the Lower Snake River” and “Protecting Orca by Restoring Salmon” project pages explain the specific campaigns.

A useful decision criterion when choosing where to focus: prefer actions that increase the number and size of adult Chinook salmon returning to rivers the orcas actually use, rather than one-off gestures. That is why the salmon–orca connection is best understood as a food-supply and ecosystem problem, not a separate animal-welfare cause.

For additional context, see Save Our Wild Salmon and compare with Orca Conservancy or Center for Whale Research.

What can volunteers do to help restore wild salmon?

Volunteers can support wild salmon recovery through direct action, advocacy and public outreach. Save Our Wild Salmon is a nationwide coalition focused on restoring wild salmon and steelhead to Pacific Northwest rivers and marine waters, and its volunteer pathways reflect that mix.

Save Our Wild Salmon

Practical volunteer roles

• Take action on campaigns: The coalition's current work includes restoring the Lower Snake River, tackling climate challenges, protecting orcas and modernizing the Columbia River Treaty. Volunteers can join letter-writing, petition or public-comment efforts tied to these goals.
• Attend or help run events: The site lists an events section alongside volunteer sign-up, so you can support local gatherings or outreach tables.
• Get out the vote: The coalition runs a Get Out the Vote campaign, which lets volunteers encourage civic participation on issues affecting salmon, orcas and watershed health.
• Join webinars and learning sessions: The 2026 RENEWAL webinar series is an example of how volunteers can build knowledge before taking on advocacy or outreach roles.
• Spread the word: Sharing coalition news, reports and fact sheets helps extend public pressure for dam removal and habitat restoration.

A good next step

If you are new, start with the coalition's "Take Action" or "Volunteer With Us" pages, then choose one campaign that matches your time and skills. For example, a student might help with social media or event logistics, while a retired fisheries biologist might review reports and submit technical comments. The main trade-off is between one-off actions, such as signing a petition, and ongoing roles, such as organizing local events; ongoing roles usually have more influence but require more commitment.

How does climate change threaten wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest?

Climate change threatens Pacific Northwest wild salmon mainly by warming and altering the freshwater and marine habitats they depend on at every life stage. Save Our Wild Salmon frames this as one of its core current projects, "Tackling the Climate Challenge," arguing that salmon need a healthy climate and resilient habitats.

The main pressures

• Warmer rivers and streams. Salmon and steelhead are cold-water fish. Higher water temperatures stress adults migrating upstream, can block migration if temperatures exceed tolerance thresholds, and increase susceptibility to disease.
• Lower and earlier snowpack. Much of the region's summer streamflow comes from mountain snowmelt. Reduced snowpack means lower, warmer flows in late summer and early autumn — exactly when many salmon runs are migrating and spawning.
• More extreme floods and droughts. Heavy winter rain and rain-on-snow events scour redds (nests) and push young fish downstream; summer droughts strand juveniles in disconnected pools.
• Ocean changes. Warmer sea-surface conditions and shifting currents affect the food web, reducing the quantity and quality of prey during the years salmon spend at sea.
• Cumulative stress with other impacts. Dams, habitat loss, hatcheries and harvest already reduce salmon numbers. Climate change narrows the margin for error, so the same dams and degraded habitats become more damaging.

Why the Columbia Basin matters here

The coalition's work centres on the Columbia River system, including restoring the Lower Snake River. Its position is that dam removal must be the cornerstone of any Columbia Basin salmon plan — the reasoning being that a free-flowing river with cooler, more natural flow and temperature conditions gives salmon a better chance of surviving climate stress. That is a contested policy question, not a settled scientific one, so treat it as the coalition's advocacy position rather than a neutral finding.

A practical way to judge projects

When you read about salmon recovery, ask three things: does it address temperature and flow, does it reconnect habitat so fish can move to cooler refuges, and does it reduce other pressures at the same time? Measures that only do one of these tend to be overwhelmed as the climate shifts.

Next step

If you want to follow the issue or get involved, start with the coalition's factsheets and reports, then look at its current projects on the Lower Snake River and climate. Save Our Wild Salmon also lists events, volunteering and a "Get Out the Vote" campaign, which is where the climate and salmon arguments connect to policy decisions.

What is the Columbia River Treaty and why does it need modernizing?

The Columbia River Treaty is a 1961 agreement between the United States and Canada that governs how the Columbia River is managed across the border, primarily for flood control and hydropower generation. It is not a salmon-recovery agreement, which is why the coalition behind Save Our Wild Salmon treats its modernization as an opportunity to add ecosystem health to the treaty's priorities.

For readers coming to this topic, the practical issue is that the treaty was built around two benefits — preventing floods and producing electricity — and the river's ecological needs were not part of the original bargain. Modernizing it means renegotiating those terms so that fish passage, water flow timing and habitat conditions are considered alongside power and flood risk.

Why the coalition links it to salmon

• The Columbia Basin is the core range for wild salmon and steelhead that the coalition works to restore.
• Treaty operations influence when and how much water moves through the system, which affects migrating fish.
• The coalition frames climate resilience and salmon recovery as connected goals, not separate campaigns.

Where this fits alongside other efforts

The treaty is one piece of a larger set of decisions. The coalition's other listed projects — restoring the Lower Snake River, protecting orcas and addressing climate impacts — overlap with the same river system and the same set of trade-offs between energy, agriculture, navigation and fish.

A useful next step

If you want to follow the modernization debate, start with the coalition's factsheets and reports, which are aimed at explaining the technical and policy background in plain terms. From there, you can compare how different interests — utilities, tribes, farmers and conservation groups — weigh the same trade-offs.