PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Conservationists and the state of Oregon have asked a federal court to approve changes to dam operations on the lower Snake and Columbia Rivers to help restore salmon populations, the latest move in recently revived litigation over federally operated dams' impacts on the fish.
Key requests, among others, include lowering reservoir water levels, which can help fish travel through them faster, and increasing spill, which can help juvenile fish pass over dams instead of through turbines.
The requests covering eight dams were part of a motion for a preliminary injunction filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court by plaintiffs including environmental groups such as the National Wildlife Federation. Defendants include federal agencies such as the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Emails seeking comment that were sent to a federal fisheries spokesperson and several attorneys listed in court records for the federal defendants were met with automatic replies saying they have been furloughed due to the government shutdown.
The decades-long legal battle was revived last month after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement in June. The pact with Washington, Oregon and four Native American tribes, reached in late 2023, was a $1 billion plan to help depleted salmon populations recover in the Pacific Northwest, and it allowed for a pause in the litigation.
The agreement was hailed as historic by the Biden administration, tribes and conservationists, but the current administration has deemed it "radical environmentalism” that could result in the breaching of four dams on the Snake River.
Following the federal withdrawal from the deal, “returning to court is the best tool we have to prevent the collapse of these imperiled fish populations,” Mike Leahy, senior director of wildlife, hunting and fishing policy for the National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement.
The Columbia River Basin, spanning an area roughly the size of Texas, was once the world’s greatest salmon-producing river system, with at least 16 stocks of salmon and steelhead. Today four species are extinct and seven are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Another iconic but endangered Northwest species, a population of killer whales, also depend on the salmon.
The construction of the first dams on the Columbia River, including the Grand Coulee and Bonneville in the 1930s, provided jobs during the Great Depression as well as hydropower and navigation. They made the town of Lewiston, Idaho, the most inland seaport on the West Coast, and many farmers in the region rely on barges to ship their crops.
Opponents of the proposed dam changes include the Inland Ports and Navigation Group, which said in a statement that increasing spill “can disproportionately hurt navigation, resulting in disruptions in the flow of commerce that has a highly destructive impact on our communities and economy.”
However the dams are also viewed as a main culprit behind the decline of salmon, which regional tribes consider part of their cultural and spiritual identity.
“They are the backbone of an entire ecosystem. They are a key economic and cultural resource for the whole region, and they are central to the way of life for so many Native American tribes,” said Amanda Goodin, senior attorney with the nonprofit Earthjustice, which represents conservation, clean energy and fishing groups in the litigation.
“Losing them, I think, means losing part of who we are as a people in the Northwest,” Goodin added.
The dams for which changes are being sought are Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, Lower Granite, Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary.
FILE - Water spills over the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, which runs along the Washington and Oregon state line, June 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File)
A Ukrainian drone attack in southwestern Russia killed two people on Saturday as parts of Ukraine went without power following Russian assaults on energy infrastructure hours before peace talks were to restart in Germany.
Foreign policy advisers from the U.S., Ukraine and Germany, among others, are expected to meet in Berlin on Sunday, according to German news agency dpa. Germany is also set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday, part of efforts by European leaders to steer the negotiations.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump who has been working as an outside adviser, are traveling to Berlin for the talk, according to a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
American officials have tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including the possession of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, mostly occupied by Russia but parts of which remain under Ukrainian control.
The drone attack in Russia's Saratov region damaged a residential building and several windows were also blown out at a kindergarten and clinic, said Gov. Roman Busargin. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shot down 41 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.
In Ukraine, Russia launched overnight drone and missile strikes on five Ukrainian regions, targeting energy and port infrastructure. Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that over a million people were without electricity.
Zelenskyy said Russia had sent over 450 drones and 30 missiles into Ukraine overnight.
An attack on the Black Sea city of Odesa caused grain silos to catch fire at the port, Ukrainian deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. Two people were wounded in attacks on the wider Odesa region, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
On the front lines, Ukrainian forces said Saturday that the northern part of the critical city of Pokrovsk was under Ukrainian control, despite Russia's claims earlier this month that it had taken full control of the city. The Associated Press was not able to independently verify the claims.
The latest attacks came after Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov reaffirmed Friday that Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from parts of the Donetsk region that they still control.
Ukraine has consistently refused to cede the remaining part of the region to Russia.
Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas even if they become a demilitarized zone under the prospective peace plan, a demand likely to be rejected by Ukraine as U.S.-led negotiations drag on.
Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
“We don't know what changes they are making, but clearly they aren't for the better,” Ushakov said, adding: “We will strongly insist on our considerations.”
In other developments, around 480 people were evacuated Saturday from a train traveling between the Polish city of Przemysl and Kyiv after police received a call concerning a threat on the train, Karolina Kowalik, a spokesperson for the Przemysl police, told The Associated Press. Nobody was hurt and she didn't elaborate on the threat.
Polish authorities are on high alert since multiple attempts to disrupt trains on the line linking Warsaw to the Ukrainian border, including the use of explosives in November, with Polish authorities saying they have evidence Russia was behind it.
Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits attend drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits rest after drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits rest after drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits attend drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this grab from a video provided by the Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine on Friday, Dec 12, 2025, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy records a video at the road entering of Kupiansk, Ukraine. (Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine via AP)
