After poor runs for Chinook and sockeye salmon in 2019, both populations have seen a very nice rebound.

Data from fish passage at the Snake River dams show that the Spring Chinook run at Lower Granite Dam – which is the farthest upstream – was about 30 percent higher than 2019. The Fall run is expected to begin in the next couple weeks.

The news for sockeye is even better. The run is more than double the size of the runs in 2017 and 2018, and more than eight times as large as 2019.

Last year, when salmon runs were poor, those who want to destroy the four Lower Snake River dams pointed to the poor runs as evidence that the dams were killing salmon. What that ignored, however, is that the salmon runs work in cycles, based on ocean conditions and other factors. Hatchery production has also helped improve the runs.

Efforts to reduce the number of hungry sea lions at the mouth of the Columbia River have just begun, so they are likely to help but are probably not the main driver of the rebound.

There are many things we can do to help continue salmon recovery in the Columbia and Snake rivers. Reducing predation by sea lions, improving hatchery management, and habitat restoration are all important and are ongoing. Destroying the dams, however, would be a costly mistake, wasting resources that can better be used elsewhere.