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GOAL 2: RESTORE, CONSERVE AND CONNECT FORESTS AND RIPARIAN HABITAT Watershed resilience requires a focus on both aquatic and terrestrial habitat. Forest cover, including the extent and quality of riparian ecosystems, are important limiting factors for salmon and other wildlife as well as for people and communities. In particular, the forest headwaters are critical for salmon as they are where salmon hatch and where they must return to spawn. As such, the connectivity of this habitat and the removal of fish passage barriers are all core considerations.
ACTION 4: Remove or Repair Fish Passage Barriers on Fish-bearing Streams Blocking culverts and other obstructions impede the migration pathways of anadromous fish moving from their rivers of origin to Puget Sound as well as return journeys to spawning habitats. It is necessary to implement fish passage projects that remove blockages and allow migratory fish to return to upstream spawning and rearing habitat and allow resident fish to move freely throughout the watershed. Fish passage projects can also improve the quality of surrounding habitat by reducing river fragmentation, moving wood and gravels, increasing migratory pathways and habitat function for other aquatic species and potentially improving water quality. In 2018, Washington State Tribes succeeded in the US Supreme Court in Washington v United States,9 requiring the state of Washington to redesign and rebuild culverts to allow fish passage. DNR has focused on meeting our resulting requirements as quickly as possible. To date, DNR has brought 171 (99%) of its court-ordered culverts into compliance and has plans in place to correct the only remaining barrier in WRIA 7 (Soderman Creek) by 2022.
9. 584 U.S. ___ (more) 138 S. Ct. 1832; 201 L. Ed. 2d 200
Outcomes Outcome 7: Inventory 36 miles of stream on small forest landowner parcels, and develop new funding strategy for expediting repair of small forest landowner barriers, by 2023. Outcome 8: Expand fish passage barrier programs across all land ownership types and jurisdictions in the watershed, and develop a full prioritized inventory, by 2026. Outcome 9: Remove 100% of priority barriers—as identified through a watershed barrier inventory—throughout the Snohomish Watershed by 2031.
Challenge The Snohomish Watershed covers approximately 1,856 square miles, with more than 2,718 miles of mapped rivers and streams. Survey records have identified more than 1,200 blocking culverts in the basin, with more than 400 miles of anadromous fish habitat currently inaccessible (NWIFC 2020). Efforts are underway from many actors to remove barriers and restore fish passage. DNR has been removing barriers on state lands rapidly and successfully for many decades through implementing the Road Maintenance and Abandonment Plan (RMAP). This includes barrier correction as well as abandoning disused roads, which also reduces excess sediment in streams. DNR has removed
