PORTLAND, Ore. - There are signs this summer could be a bad one for the native salmon of the Northwest.

Already, drought has gripped the region, causing low river flows that could be hard for fish to navigate or spawn in. That's bad news for species already teetering on extinction, especially in the Columbia River Basin.

Betsy Emery, advocacy and campaign manager for the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, said a study this year from the Nez Perce Tribe predicted 77% of Snake River Chinook salmon will be nearly extinct in four years if current trends hold.

"Our salmon runs cannot afford one catastrophic event that can really devastate the potential for salmon recovery," she said, "and so far, we're seeing a lot of red flags that indicate we could see a catastrophic event like that this summer."

More than 70% of Oregon is experiencing drought considered "severe" or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said March and April were among the driest since the 1890s, with many streams at 25% of their typical flow for this time of year.

Emery said wildfire is another concern, which can cause poor water stream quality. While wildfires have the potential to improve quality in the long run, Emery said the endangered fish might not have that much time. She noted that humans can't improve habitat for salmon overnight - and have little control over drought or changing ocean patterns because of climate change.

"The only thing that we have immediate action and control over is the function and existence of the lower Snake River dams," she said. "There's significant science that connects those dams to hot water and devastating mortality for the salmon that are swimming through."

She said the dams are especially harmful for the juvenile salmon that pass through them.

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, proposed a plan for the region that included breaching the Snake River dams, but elected leaders in Oregon and Washington have sidelined it. However, Emery said they've kept dam breaching on the table. She added that what's important right now is that leaders identify a clear pathway to salmon recovery.

"The clock is ticking. We do not have time for some sort of lengthy process," she said. "We need an aggressive timeline that provides funding for the bold actions that we need to take."

Funding in Washington state's budget is pushing efforts forward to remove four lower Snake River dams in order to save salmon.

Lawmakers committed more than $7 million to begin the transition planning process for the four dams in southeast Washington. The dams have been a site of contention because of their effects on the dwindling population of salmon.

Tanya Riordan, policy and advocacy director for Save Our Wild Salmon, said past studies and reports have called for dam removal, and the federal government sees the new funding efforts as proof the state is ready to take action.

"Although the decision to remove the dams will be made by the federal government -- they're federal dams -- these measures do ensure that Washington state will be prepared to effectively replace the transportation, energy and irrigation infrastructure," Riordan explained.

Last year, Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., released a report on replacement of the four dams' services, including barging, hydropower and irrigation provided to nearby agriculture. Riordan believes the new funding measure follows through on their promise. Inslee signed the budget this week.

Erin Farris-Olsen, regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, said salmon are resilient and have come back to the Snake River, albeit in smaller numbers. She stressed quick action is necessary to save them.

"We're moving at the pace of our own readiness as humans more so than we're thinking about the ticking of the clock in terms of salmon extinction," Farris-Olsen contended.

Riordan noted more than $26 billion have been spent on mitigation efforts to recover salmon and keep the dams in place, but they have not worked, and she added there are a number of advantages to transitioning away from them.

"We upgrade and modernize our energy system and transportation and irrigation and the state is benefited and communities will be benefited significantly through this process," Riordan asserted. "We'll save salmon, and we will uphold our treaty responsibilities to tribal nations."

Four dams on the lower Snake River have been the sites of contention in the Northwest, and a recent report of an oil spill at one of the dams could be adding fuel to the fire.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported 300 to 600 gallons of oil leaked from the Little Goose Dam between August and October.

Mitch Cutter, salmon and steelhead associate for the Idaho Conservation League, said there have been similar incidences in recent years of leakage from the lower Snake dams.

"We're seeing the results of these dams being old, frankly," Cutter asserted. "They were started to be constructed in the '60s through the '70s, and I think we're seeing the result of infrastructure starting to outlive its useful life."

There has been a growing chorus of calls to breach the dams to allow for greater passage of endangered salmon and steelhead species in the region. However, there are also opponents of the plan. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., recently said there is "no clean-energy future" for the Northwest without these dams.

Cutter is skeptical of Newhouse's analysis, arguing the cost of keeping the dams has become too high to make financial sense anymore.

"They don't provide valuable services to the Northwest system or to the western energy grid," Cutter contended. "They can be easily replaced with other resources that cannot just replace everything these dams do. They would actually improve on the services they provide to the region."

Cutter also stressed it is important to keep iconic species such as salmon and steelhead front and center when discussing this issue.

"There are real solutions for how to replace everything these dams provide, but there's no replacement for wild salmon and steelhead in Idaho or in the Snake River," Cutter added.

An announcement from Washington state leaders on the future of the lower Snake River dams contained both good and bad news for groups defending native salmon.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., have released recommendations that say the state and federal governments should implement plans to make replacing four dams on the lower Snake River possible, but that breaching the dams isn't an option right now. In a news release, Inslee said letting salmon become extinct also is not an option.

Lucy Larkin, a member of the Snake River Savers steering committee, emphasized that point.

"It's exactly not an option, because extinction of salmon and orca, and other iconic species in the Pacific Northwest, is literally unacceptable," she said. "And it's definitely our mission that we're not going to permit the state of Washington to lose its salmon."

Larkin said her group was disheartened that the Washington leaders didn't release a plan for breaching the dams, but believes momentum is on their side.

According to the Nez Perce Tribe, chinook salmon in the Snake River have reached "quasi-extinction."

U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, both R-Wash., said the report proves the dams shouldn't be breached, because there's no plan for replacing the energy the dams provide.

However, the report noted that the benefits from the dams can be replaced. Citing Inslee, Larkin said distilling this conversation into an argument between the two sides will leave us with the status quo.

"We can have both abundant salmon and a reliable energy system," she said. "Arguing for one or the other is kind of like an oversimplified binary choice, and it is definitely one that we don't accept."

Larkin said federal agencies will have to make investments to ensure the replacement of the dams' services.

"That does include advocating for federal dollars coming to the states from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act," she said.

Inslee and Murray's findings estimated that dam breaching and replacement would cost between $10 billion and $31 billion.