Governor Kotek is out here playing the savior of the salmon again. After BPA announced in June it would end its share of funding for the Select Area Fisheries Enhancement (SAFE) program effective September 30, 2026 creating a $2.4 million gap and putting more than 7 million hatchery salmon already in production at risk she held a couple of meetings with BPA Administrator Travis Kavulla and extracted a one year extension. That’s the entire “pushback.” One more fiscal year of ratepayer dollars, then the cutoff is set for September 2027. Cue the victory lap for Buoy 10 and the coastal communities. BPA’s stated reason was not some mysterious federal attack on fishing. It was that SAFE’s primary function is to augment recreational and commercial harvest opportunities below Bonneville Dam (Youngs Bay, Blind Slough, Tongue Point net pens). The agency concluded the program has not demonstrated clear benefits for weak or ESA listed stocks in the mainstem Columbia and does not align with its statutory mitigation responsibilities for the impacts of the Federal Columbia River Power System. In other words, this is largely a put and take fishery subsidy, not core dam mitigation work aimed at rebuilding runs above the dam. ODFW and the usual Democratic senators representatives howled that 7 million fish could be culled and that the program supplies nearly 99% of non treaty commercial spring Chinook plus about 35% of the recreational spring Chinook/coho catch. All true as harvest numbers. That does not change BPA’s assessment of its own mandate. SAFE has run for more than 30 years and produces roughly 9 million salmon annually. Columbia Basin returns remain a fraction of historic levels (historically 10–15 million, now around 2 million). Hatchery fish dominate the very harvest statistics Kotek is celebrating. Fine if Oregon, Washington, and Clatsop County want to fund their preferred terminal fishery. Not fine if BPA ratepayers are expected to keep bankrolling a program the agency itself says fails the mitigation test. Wild Fish Conservancy openly supported the original cutoff for exactly that reason. So spare the “I saved the coast” framing. You delayed the inevitable for twelve months while the underlying mismatch between SAFE’s harvest focus and BPA’s legal obligations remains unresolved. The fish in the river still don’t care about the press release. 🇺🇸 🐺