SALMON RECOVERY:

We’re at a cross-roads. Salmon recovery and the mission to save our critically endangered orca population are merging in a moment—concerns that overlap at the shoreline of our state’s major rivers, the Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean. These regions where fish-bearing streams enter the open water bear an equal burden in ensuring that work done upstream and at the headwaters to preserve fish passage and habitat is ultimately successful.

The Department of Transportation has begun to accelerate the pace in industrial and urban zones to comply with a recent Supreme Court requiring the removal of barriers to fish passage. King County, for example, has created a special positionto oversee actions such as culvert replacement to restore access to 150 miles of streams. Stormwater runoff abatement projects are also critical to protect salmon from the impacts of elevated water toxicity that occur in these areas where impervious surfaces such as asphalt and concrete dominate the landscape.

Balancing the needs of our growing state population while preventing adverse impacts watersheds is within the mission of the State Fish Barrier Removal Board to develop a flexible and dynamic plan for correcting barriers to fish passage in cities. Additional efforts include maintaining forested buffers around residential streams to preserve habitat conditions in which salmon are more likely to thrive.

Efforts to correct fish passage barriers in rural and agricultural areas predominantly focus on the points where rural county roads intersect with fish-bearing streams. Ensuring that runoff from farming and ranching operations does not hamper upstream efforts to ensure ample cool, clean water salmon need to thrive is an emphasis in these areas.

Washington’s working forests are doing their part in salmon recovery by making significant investments to protect forested streams and remove blockages to fish passage.

State and private forest landowners have invested over $333 million to improve, replace or abandon forested roads to help protect vital fish habitat.

This has resulted in the replacement of more than 8,200 fish-blocking barriers in order to restore nearly 6,200 miles of historic fish habitat.

Half of our state is forested, and most of this land is managed by the federal government. This includes national parks, designated wilderness areas and U.S. Forest Service lands.

Over the last five years, the federal Legacy Roads program has provided over $26 million to improve 2,112 miles of roads and fix 53 fish passage barriers.

There is more work to be done: There are about 22,000 miles of Forest Service roads in Washington State, once paid for by forest management activities. These deteriorating roads cause environmental damage. A lack of public funds makes it difficult to properly improve and maintain these roads.