Infrastructure bill critical to protect salmon and a way of life

The world is out of balance. Every week it seems we hear something described as “record.” Record low steelhead returns in the Columbia River. Record temperatures putting our vulnerable elders at risk. Record population declines in our sacred orca and salmon populations threatened by extinction.

We in the Lummi Nation have been on this land and these waters since time immemorial. We are the survivors of the Great Flood that nearly destroyed our people. We’ve lived through imbalance before and survived to tell our children.

But we survived, not because we sat by and waited to see whether the Flood would take our families. We survived because we took action. We moved quickly to move our children to canoes before floodwaters took over our villages.

Today, we need our federal government to tackle the climate crisis, while there’s still time.

Lummi are salmon people, and our entire way of life is at risk.

Climate change is warming the rivers the fish rely on. Salmon are cooking in the waters that should sustain them. In the Nooksack River, a home to Lummi since time immemorial, drought conditions and the resulting low river flows create lethal temperatures making the returning salmon’s arduous journey nearly impossible.

Lummi has taken increased production at our two salmon hatcheries to help feed our communities, the ecosystems and the wildlife that depend on salmon, including the Southern Resident Killer Whales. But hatchery fish, along with our wild salmon, need a functioning habitat so we must restore habitat and contend with the climate crisis.

Across the Northwest and the Salish Sea, we’re headed for environmental devastation we’ve never seen before — and Congress must not hesitate to act.

We are grateful for the actions of Sen. Maria Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray who helped create an infrastructure bill that moves us towards taking on one of the greatest challenges of our generation.

The package includes $1 billion for culvert removal, replacement, and restoration to support salmon passage in Northwest streams; $572 million to fix and remove obstacles to fish migration, improve salmon habitat, and open up areas where salmon transition from fresh to saltwater and back; $492 million in grants for coastal improvements to mitigate climate change; and nearly $1 billion in other habitat investments.

Tribes played important roles in shaping this package. We’ve stewarded these lands and waters for millennia. The dangers that confront us now, we’ve long seen coming.

Washington tribes who rely on salmon need this funding. Climate change is wreaking havoc on our region. Warm waters are not only killing salmon, but starving orcas, and decimating our shellfish. And as salmon disappear, the impacts ripple across all the other plant and animal species they touch. Our commercial fishing operations are struggling.

This crisis impacts every one of us across the Northwest. We are all connected.

The infrastructure package now awaits a vote in the House. We call on every Washington representative to vote in favor of this bill. These investments are critical for the Lummi Nation, Washington tribes, and all who rely on Washington’s resources.

Passing the infrastructure bill is the immediate next step we must take. But we have to do more, including providing additional funding for salmon habitat recovery and salmon hatcheries in the upcoming budget reconciliation package.

Mitigating disasters is necessary, but not sufficient. We must do more to address the overwhelming crisis of climate change. Just as before, we can’t sit by and watch the tides rise without doing something to protect our future. Leadership in Congress, the Biden administration, the states, and Tribes, must come together to create a future that is sustainable, that heals the earth, and keeps it healthy for generations to come

We live in record-shattering times. We cannot hesitate to protect our salmon, our Shelangen, our way of life.

We must pass the infrastructure bill. And then we must continue taking action. We must plan, invest and act with a vision for generations ahead, with the urgency this crisis demands. To do nothing risks our families, our livelihoods, our culture. To do nothing risks everything.