Because Washington shares a 427-mile border with Canada, it is not surprising that President Donald Trump’s bizarre feud with our neighbors to the north has a large impact on our state.

Canada is Washington’s No. 1 trade partner. More tourists from Canada visit Washington than from any other foreign nation. And we even have a community (Point Roberts) that is connected by land to Canada but not to the United States.

Trump’s tariffs upon goods from Canada — and Canada’s countertariffs — have drawn much attention. So have his musings about Canada becoming our 51st state. But perhaps his most counterproductive move regarding our neighbors involves the Columbia River Treaty.

The treaty dates to 1961, defining flood mitigation practices throughout the Columbia River basin — an area roughly the size of Texas. Negotiations to modernize the treaty began in 2018, and last year the Biden administration announced a tentative agreement.

Now, however, the Trump administration has paused the continuing negotiations. This comes from a president who has said that tapping into the Columbia River could solve water shortages in California.

“You turn the faucet and it takes one day to turn it, and it’s massive, it’s as big as the wall of that building right there behind you. You turn that, and all of that water aimlessly goes into the Pacific, and if they turned it back, all of that water would come right down here and right into Los Angeles,” Trump claimed last year in a statement that has been mocked by experts.

Managing the Columbia River is essential to the lifestyle and economy of the Northwest. On a daily basis, enough water flows throw the Great River of the West to cover Clark and Multnomah counties to a depth of more than 16 inches, with most of that water passing just outside Vancouver.

As The Columbian has written editorially: “Thanks to effective management throughout the basin, that water remains within its banks. It provides a spectacle for onlookers and fertile grounds for fishing and commerce. There is little concern about developing residences and retail businesses within a stone’s throw of the water.”

Meanwhile, the mainstem of the river and its primary tributary — the Snake River — includes 18 dams that provide 40 percent of the United States’ hydroelectric power. The presence of reliable, inexpensive electricity has powered a strong economy throughout the Northwest.

That river management, however, begins in Canada, where a series of dams and reservoirs dictated by the Columbia River Treaty prevents downstream chaos. In exchange, Canada receives between $120 million and $200 million annually.

For the United States, that is a reasonable price to pay for flood mitigation; it certainly is less than the cost of widespread flooding throughout the basin. But the payment has become engulfed in Trump’s weird obsession with treating a longtime ally as an enemy and his attempts to bully our neighbor. As a professor at the University of Calgary told The Independent: “If everyone acts in their own interests, ecosystems will lose out. As with the ongoing trade war, nothing good will come of a water war.”

Supporters and opponents alike should press Trump to clarify his opposition to the Columbia River Treaty and his long-term goals. Like his trade war, it is unlikely there is a coherent explanation. But unlike the trade war, the treaty has not received the public attention it deserves.