In my third year of study at Quest University Canada, my academic mentor, Dr. Richard Wildman, asked me to do a research project with him on the renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty. I said yes, and we applied successfully for a fellowship grant. I then spent three months studying the topic full-time and we continued the research part-time afterwards. Nearly two years later, in September 2018, an article based on our research was published in the academic journal, Water International. The article — Institutional factors affecting fish passage in the Columbia River Treaty renegotiation — characterizes the relevant context of the CRT renegotiation and identifies institutional factors which will affect the outcome as it pertains to the potential restoration of salmon to the upper watershed.
After publishing our research, in October 2018, I wrote an op-ed article with the Evidence Network on the exclusion of Indigenous nations from the CRT renegotiation and what it might mean for salmon restoration. It has been published in English and French in more than 30 news outlets across Canada including The Hill Times of Ottawa, Policy Options (The Institute for Research and Public Policy), and Vancouver's The Province, as well as nearly every local newspaper in the Canadian portion of the Basin.
In April 2019, the Canadian government reversed its prior decision and granted official observer status to the Syilx Okanagan, Secwepemc, and Ktunaxa Nations in the CRT renegotiation. Following this news, I wrote an op-ed arguing that the U.S. has an ethical responsibility to follow Canada’s lead and do the same for Indigenous Nations on the south side of the watershed. That op-ed was first published in the Seattle Times on May 20th and has since been republished by nearly 30 other news outlets in the U.S. and Canada.
Consistent with the argument made in my October 2018 op-ed, in July 2019 the governments of Canada, British Columbia, and the Ktunaxa, Secwepemc, and Syilx Okanagan Nations announced a historic agreement to work together in exploring the potential restoration of salmon to the upper reaches of the Columbia River.
In November 2019, I published an exclusive op-ed in Maclean’s Magazine highlighting the inconsistency between British Columbia’s recent move to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and their ongoing legal fight in the R. v. Desautel case against recognition of the Sinixt people’s rights in their traditional territory.
That same year, I was invited by the regionally-renowned photographer Peter Marbach to contribute to his new book Healing the Big River: Salmon Dreams and the Columbia River Treaty as one of twelve feature essayists. The book compiles a variety of perspectives on the ecological, social, cultural, and spiritual benefits of salmon restoration alongside unique photos of the river and its watershed from source-to-sea.
In response to misleading narratives about the nature of Columbia River Treaty negotiations, in January 2020 I published an op-ed in several news outlets along the Columbia River from Astoria, Oregon to Spokane, Washington titled “Americans should moderate expectations and broaden perspective on modernized Columbia River Treaty.” Additionally, in April 2020, I co-authored an article with historian and writer Eileen Delehanty Pearkes calling for the region to think broadly and see the Columbia River Treaty first-and-foremost as a relationship between people in different parts of the watershed and with the river itself.
On July 2nd, 2020 I published a feature story for Columbia Insight on challenges with the ongoing renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty and the recent proposal to create a transboundary ‘International River Basin Organization’ that would help address issues not ultimately satisfied by a modernized treaty.
Essays written for Wildsight on similar topics include:
In celebration of World Rivers Day let’s ask, “What are our values?” (September 2019)
Bringing the salmon home (June 2021)
What if teenagers renegotiate the Columbia River Treaty? (July 2022)
Academic article abstract:
The USA and Canada have begun renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty, which is an international model for transboundary water governance. This article identifies six Institutional Factors that will affect negotiations pertaining to fish passage during the renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty: geographic advantage, issue linkage, a basin commission, the duration of agreements, negotiating autonomy, and side payments. These factors and the methods used to determine them can be applied to other transboundary river basins where basin states have a history of transboundary resource governance. This analysis also serves as a policy-relevant resource for Columbia River Treaty negotiators and stakeholders.
To find the web link for this article: Click here.
To download a full text copy of this article (12 pages long): Click here.
To download a short document containing key excerpts: Click here.
To cite this article:
Graeme A. Lee Rowlands & Richard A. Wildman (2018): Institutional factors affecting fish passage in the Columbia River Treaty renegotiation, Water International, DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2018.1511200
Top photo by Pat Morrow.