Op-Ed: Removing fish barriers to improve salmon habitat and transportation for generations to come

Crews work to install a buried, concrete box-like structure that will allow Skagit River fish better access under SR 20 between Concrete and Rockport. Photo courtesy WSDOT

By Roger Millar, Washington State Secretary of Transportation

Perfect is the enemy of good. This feels remarkably applicable to the Washington State Department of Transportation's work improving fish habitat. A 2013 federal court order directed WSDOT to correct hundreds of outdated fish barriers and open hundreds of miles of habitat. We're doing just that: working to remove 400 fish passage barriers and restore 90% of habitat blocked by state highways in little more than a decade once the Legislature ramped up funding.

The federal court order requires this work and sets the parameters (prioritizing projects by potential habitat gain) – and that's how we're going about it. As of June 2024, we have corrected 146 injunction barriers, opening 571 miles of potential fish habitat – 50 percent of the total blocked habitat of injunction culverts. We currently have 160 additional sites under construction contract. Once those additional 160 barriers are corrected, WSDOT will have restored access to 70% of blocked potential habitat. With existing funds, we expect to restore access to 75% of blocked potential habitat. The remaining work to get to 90% requires additional funding estimated at $4 billion.

One of two new box culverts shown here now helps tributaries to Patterson Creek flow freely underneath SR 203 near Fall City, opening up a potential 11 miles of habitat for salmon and other native fish. Photo courtesy WSDOT

In the past year, the Seattle Times has questioned the value of the projects we've addressed, confused our court mandated approach with other state agency fish passage efforts and asserted the presence of other fish barriers up- or downstream of our projects renders our work little more than "stranded investments." 

Here are the realities. The legal fight to arrive at these court-ordered requirements started in 2001 and lasted 17 years. Is the project list perfect? Does it immediately resolve every other barrier in every waterway we've worked on? No. But contrary to the assertion that we're building "stranded investments," we're simply the first owner out of the gate.

State law requires every barrier owner to fix their barriers and we just happen to be the only barrier owner also required to do the work by the court. Our work is the linchpin. When we correct our barriers, it creates or continues momentum as WSDOT barriers are often the largest and most expensive. 

Other owners in that same watershed may have less expensive barriers that likely will score higher for grant funding opportunities to correct them after our work is complete. Subsequent actions taken by other barrier owners makes every WSDOT investment valuable. As with anything difficult, if there's not motivation to do the work, no one will get it done. Salmon can't wait decades and again, perfect is the enemy of good. And our share of the effort would only become more expensive if we were to wait the years or decades for all partners to be ready to go at the same time.

Workers dig under a new bridge to restore a stream under US 12 in Grays Harbor County
Photo courtesy WSDOT

I call this work a moonshot – a monumental, aspirational effort – because that's exactly what we are delivering. No other state department of transportation or organization anywhere in the nation has been tasked with fixing generations of significant environmental harm in such little time. Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife field surveys confirm fish are already returning to many of the restored waterways.

We've faced many challenges not directly within our control, including funding, supply chain, workforce and construction industry shortages, right-of-way acquisition, utility relocation and the presence of up- or downstream barriers. We've gotten better and more efficient with the work, including new contracting methods and bundling projects to save time, money and impacts to the traveling public.

SR 108: A worker holds a small cutthroat trout gently removed from a fish passage construction site in Mason County before work begins to improve access along SR 108. All fish are removed, counted and then released into another part of the waterway as part of the preparation process. This fish passage work improves access for salmon as well as many other types of fish. Photo courtesy WSDOT

While a federal court requires this work, correcting fish barriers benefits every single Washingtonian present and future. From a purely transportation perspective, removing fish barriers allows us to design and build structures to better withstand earthquakes and extreme storms and flooding. The new structures' natural stream conditions restore runs and open habitat to salmon and many other types of wildlife. 

More importantly, improving salmon habitat is one crucial step we can take to repair the fragile ecosystem of the beautiful state we call home. WSDOT remains committed to continuing this hard, rewarding work in partnership with Washington's tribes.

Bottom line – the court injunction lays out roles and responsibilities for culverts under state-owned roads. Local governments, landowners and tribes have roles to play in broader watershed and stream restoration efforts. While WSDOT culvert projects may not bring back salmon solely on their own, they are a critical piece of the puzzle – OUR piece of the puzzle.