Today, Umatilla and Warm Springs tribes together catch only 77,000 pounds annually. Bonneville Dam, completed in 1938, and other habitat destruction curtailed the salmon runs of the mid-Columbia. Three Mile Dam, an irrigation dam on the Umatilla River which flows through the Umatilla Reservation, has curtailed the fishery on this Columbia River tributary. The tribes estimate that the dams in the Columbia Basin, along with other factors, have reduced salmon and steelhead runs by 15.5 million fish annually. The project allows irrigators to use water from the Columbia River rather than the Umatilla River, thereby increasing salmon habitat in the Umatilla.
Success is evident in a growing salmon population.
In 1995, scientists counted 1600 salmon for the entire Snake Basin.