PNW Tribes Receive $240M for Hatcheries from Cantwell-Authored Federal Program

Funding will help boost salmon populations Cantwell negotiated the inclusion of the Tribal Hatchery. Program in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, announced that Tribes in the Pacific Northwest will receive $240 million to support hatchery infrastructure projects to boost Pacific salmon and steelhead production in the Pacific Northwest. The funding comes from the Tribal Hatchery Program, which was part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Resilience Funding that Sen. Cantwell authored and championed in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

"I authored this program because salmon are central to our culture and our identify in the Pacific Northwest, and this new program will give Tribes the resources they need to boost salmon production to support our fisheries as well as our cherished orcas," Sen. Cantwell said.

The Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce, which are spearheading the implementation of the Tribal Hatchery Program, will grant an initial $54 million for hatchery maintenance and modernization across 27 tribes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. The funds will help Tribes restore aging hatcheries and assist with a backlog of deferred maintenance projects, ultimately helping to restore the population of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin. It will also support capacity building, planning, and other support needed for hatchery infrastructure improvements.

Fish hatcheries in the Pacific Northwest support essential subsistence, ceremonial and economic benefits for tribal communities, as well as supporting treaty fisheries. The Commerce Department's NOAA will partner with the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs to deliver this funding to regional Tribes.

As Commerce chair, Sen. Cantwell authored the NOAA Coastal Resilience legislation which ultimately funded and established the new Tribal Hatchery Program. Sen. Cantwell was the primary negotiator, and worked with NOAA to invest in tribal priorities, including hatcheries and salmon recovery and habitat restoration projects. Sen. Cantwell is a steadfast champion of policies to restore salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest; in addition to her work in the IRA, she secured a historic $2.85 billion investment in salmon eligible and ecosystem restoration programs in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), including $400 million of a new community-based restoration program focused on removing fish passage barriers. Sen. Cantwell's National Culvert Removal, Replacement, and Restoration Grant Program builds on the additional $2 billion to support fish passage included in the BIL and specifically helps communities remove and repair culverts found under roads.

Just yesterday, she celebrated the grand opening of the new IRA-funded Juvenile Fish Passage Facility at the Cle Elum Dam, which will make it easier for fish to pass through the dam and restore salmon steelhead populations in the Cle Elum River -- once one of the largest sockeye salmon runs in the lower 48 states.