Wild Salmon Center’s Oregon policy team is tracking key opportunities for wild fish, water, and forest protections.

Oregon’s 2025 legislative session kicked off on Tuesday, January 21. With more than 2,000 bills already on the docket, Wild Salmon Center is hitting the ground running with hearings and legislative meetings.

As the session welcomes 11 new representatives and eight new senators to the Capitol building, Wild Salmon Center’s Oregon policy team is working to build support for our work to protect habitat, safeguard stream flows, and restore wild fish populations across the state.

Here are our 2025 legislative priorities at a glance:

• We aim to close a loophole that allows water right transfers to bypass modern environmental review standards, and safeguard stream flows for clean water, fish, and wildlife (SB 427). 

• We’re advocating for full funding in the 2025-2027 Budget of the precedent-setting Private Forest Accord—funding necessary to secure a federally approved Habitat Conservation Plan by 2027.

• We’ll defend against efforts to weaken protections for state forests, while collaborating on solutions to diversify revenue sources for the Oregon Department of Forestry and counties receiving state forest timber revenue.

• We’ll look for more ways to protect and restore wild salmon populations that can support commercial and recreational fisheries in Oregon salmon strongholds.

Conservation opportunities: the 2025-2027 State Budget

Governor Kotek’s Recommended Budget includes measured support for natural resource agencies and programs that support a climate-resilient Oregon. Yet significant gaps remain in core programs. During this legislative session, Wild Salmon Center will advocate for the following priorities:

• Full funding for the Private Forest Accord Grant Program, small forestland owner SFISH grant program, and Adaptive Management Program at the Oregon Department of Forestry and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Unless these programs are fully funded, Oregon lacks a clear path to a federally approved Private Forest Accord Habitat Conservation Plan.

• Prioritized funding to protect stream flows, increase drought resilience, support smart water management, and alleviate data gaps. Climate extremes are bearing down on Oregon, and streams that sustain fish, families, and farms need swift and decisive action to stay vibrant in an era of drought, flood, and fire.

• Adequate funding to support finalization of the Western Oregon State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan and solutions to diversify state forest revenue. 

• Prioritized funding at ODFW to support monitoring of wild fish populations. 

Water opportunities

Priorities:

• Wild Salmon Center is a proud member of Oregon Water Partnership, which has introduced SB 427 to safeguard streamflow when old water rights are changed to meet new water demands. These changes currently receive NO environmental review: an archaic loophole that can lead to dewatering of fish-bearing streams. Learn more here.

What we’re watching:

• Along with passing budgets to fund the dozen state agencies that manage water, legislators will tackle a long list of policy ideas—some of which could further stress our overtapped water resources. In particular, we’re working with legislators to ensure that a House water package helps improve the outlook for our hardworking rivers.
• Just last year, Oregon enacted long overdue rules to prevent overallocation of groundwater—groundwater that keeps our rivers flowing cool during sweltering summer months. Wild Salmon Center is ready to defend against bills that would backslide from these conservation gains.

Forest opportunities

Priorities:

• We’re advocating for full funding in the 2025-2027 Budget of the precedent-setting Private Forest Accord to secure a federally approved Habitat Conservation Plan by 2027.
• We stand ready to defend against efforts to weaken protections for state forests.
• With our partners, we’re collaborating on solutions to diversify revenue sources for the Oregon Department of Forestry and counties that receive state forest timber revenue.

What we’re watching: With the resignation of State Forester Cal Mukumoto, the challenge will be to find the next state forester who can shepherd ODF into a new chapter and address some of the monumental challenges facing Oregon’s forests. There’s a lot on the horizon for Oregon’s forests—including implementation of the new Private Forest Accord to protect an additional one million acres of streamside forests, a new Forest Management Plan and Habitat Conservation Plan for state forests, and an increasingly urgent need to meet the challenges of wildfires exacerbated by climate change. 

Wild fish opportunities

Priorities:

• We’re advocating for investments in monitoring wild fish populations to ensure the resilience of salmon and steelhead through the changing climate.
• We’re working to ensure minimum impacts to wild fish from any proposed hatchery investments. 

What we’re watching: Wild Salmon Center has engaged in the ODFW Hatchery Blueprint Process as one of 10 groups to advise on a plan for the future of Oregon’s hatcheries. ODFW is anticipated to bring recommendations from this process to the legislature during session to inform future investment in hatchery infrastructure.