North Coast Groups Are Suing Over a Rule Change That Could Undo the Klamath River’s Comeback

The wild salmon swimming freely up the undammed Klamath River have become Exhibit A in a looming federal lawsuit. A coalition of North Coast conservation groups intends to sue the Trump administration over its new reading of the Endangered Species Act, which holds that destroying a species’ habitat no longer counts as harm.

The Western Environmental Law Center, the Environmental Protection Information Center, the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Cascadia Wildlands plan to file in federal court in San Francisco. An Oregon fishing guide joined as a plaintiff because his business depends on the cold, clean water that keeps salmon runs alive.

The groups argue the change reverses 50 years of bipartisan agreement and contradicts the Supreme Court’s 1995 Babbitt v. Sweet Home decision, which confirmed habitat destruction falls squarely within the law’s definition of harm. Habitat loss drives more extinctions than any other single factor.

The Klamath connection is direct. The four dam removals completed in 2024, the largest project of its kind in American history, are letting salmon reach hundreds of miles of historic habitat for the first time in decades. The coalition contends that milestone was only possible under the longstanding interpretation now being scrapped.

North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman blasted the rule change as corrupt, illegal and untethered from scientific reality, arguing it lets industry destroy the food, water and shelter a species needs with zero accountability.

The groups will ask the court to set the rule aside. The salmon will keep swimming while the lawyers argue.

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