The columbia is a spawning ground, but it is spawning less than 10% what it used to. During the heat dome many salmon were getting burns on their body. The water level is too shallow to keep the water temps down. This is due to damming, irrigation, and water usage. Yakima is home to thousands of green lawns in the middle of the desert thanks to water rates where you can water an acre of lawn for hours a day, every day for super cheap.

Meanwhile, the entirety of the Puget sound, the water body right next to seattle has a bunch of salmon (seattle is a port town), rather than the columbia river that is 200 miles away.