Broken Promises
Salmon Disappear From the Pacific Northwest
Before building dams on the Columbia River, the U.S. guaranteed the tribes of the Pacific Northwest salmon forever. But the system it created to prevent the extinction of salmon has failed, and a way of life is ending.
The Federal Government Is Finally Increasing Funding for Salmon Hatcheries. Tribes Say It’s Not Enough.
Columbia River salmon hatcheries need billions of dollars’ worth of upgrades to withstand climate change. They’re getting $50 million.
The Fight of the Salmon People
Randy Settler’s family has spent generations fighting for their right to harvest salmon. But the federal government squandered its chance to recover the endangered fish before the onset of climate change. Now, Settler sees it all slipping away again.
Salmon People: A Native Fishing Family’s Fight to Preserve a Way of Life
This documentary film features the plight of the salmon of the Columbia River and the Native people whose lives revolve around them.
Toxic Salmon Reporting “Deeply Troubling,” Lawmaker Says, Demanding Changes to Protect Pacific Northwest Tribal Health
Citing a ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting investigation into toxic contamination in salmon, state and federal lawmakers across the Pacific Northwest are calling for policy changes and more funding but are lacking details on next steps.
The U.S. Promised Tribes They Would Always Have Fish, but the Fish They Have Pose Toxic Risks
For decades, the U.S. government has failed to test for chemicals and metals in fish. So, we did. What we found was alarming for tribes.
The Racism, and Resilience, Behind Today’s Salmon Crisis
Salmon have been endangered my entire life. Here’s what I didn’t realize until I started reporting.
How a Federal Agency Is Contributing to Salmon’s Decline in the Northwest
Damming the powerful waters of the Columbia River was a boon for cheap, clean electricity. But the fish that swam those waters are dying out. And the agency in charge isn’t stopping that.
Yes, We Fact-Checked These Watercolors
For a project about salmon hatcheries, ProPublica data reporter Irena Hwang wanted to exercise a different part of her brain. She learned that there are many ways of looking at a fish.
How Not to Count Salmon
Data reporter Irena Hwang thought counting fish to evaluate the hatchery system in the Pacific Northwest sounded like a fun project. That was before she started asking biologists about what the publicly available data could really tell us.
The U.S. Has Spent More Than $2 Billion on a Plan to Save Salmon. The Fish Are Vanishing Anyway.
The U.S. government promised Native tribes in the Pacific Northwest that they could keep fishing as they’d always done. But instead of preserving wild salmon, it propped up a failing system of hatcheries. Now, that system is falling apart.
Help Us Understand Pacific Northwest Salmon and Treaty Rights
Dozens of people have told us about the decline of wild fish in the Columbia River and the U.S. government’s failure to uphold treaty rights. Now, we’re interested in hearing from you.
