Key Takeaways
The long-term decline in most species seems to have stopped, and improvements have been seen for fall Chinook, coho, and chum salmon and winter and summer steelhead.
About 35 percent of salmon and steelhead populations are doing better since being listed as threatened with extinction. Coho and steelhead are showing the most improvement.
Even though some trends are looking good, 64 percent of all populations still are at low or very low viability.
View Key Recovery Indicators
About the Region
The Columbia River basin, which stretches across six states, is the biggest salmon-producing river in the lower forty-eight states. Right now, about two million salmon return to the river each year, but it used to be sixteen million. Today, almost two-thirds of these returning fish come from hatcheries, based on the Columbia Basin Partnership second phase report.
This region covers the bottom 155 miles of the basin, from where the Columbia River meets the ocean to the Little White Salmon River in the Columbia River Gorge. This area is home to seventy-two populations of salmon and steelhead trout that are listed under the Endangered Species Act. The federally adopted recovery plan aims to bring these populations to healthy levels so they can be fished for sport, commercial, and Tribal purposes.
