Pacific salmon are the paramount cultural and spiritual symbol of the Pacific Northwest. Since the beginning of human habitation, salmon have been central to subsistence, trade, and even religion. The natives of the region considered salmon so crucial to their way of life that they bargained in 1850s treaties to continue to harvest a share of the salmon runs in return for ceding to the United States the lands that now forms the states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. A century and a half later, because of their environmental sensitivity, Pacific salmon runs from California to Alaska function as barometers of the health of the watersheds they inhabit. Their decline throughout the twentieth century is a reflection of the deterioration of Pacific Northwest watersheds.In this book, Professor Michael Blumm explains the role of the law in the decline of what were once the largest of the Pacific salmon runs, those of the Columbia Basin. The Columbia Basin is home to the largest interconnected hydroelectric power system in the world, considerable irrigation withdrawals, and extensive timber harvesting, grazing, and mining. All of these activities, along with substantial harvests in the ocean and the river, have adversely affected Columbia Basin salmon runs. As a result, the salmon runs, especially wild salmon, are now only a fraction of what they once were.Professor Blumm examines several unsuccessful promises to protect or restore the salmon runs, beginning with the Indian treaties...