PACIFIC NORTHWEST, Wash. —
Often built near dams, fish passages help regulate the natural migration of fish in rivers across the US.
The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association (NOAA) provided tribes and under-served communities with nearly $105 in grants for Fish Passage Projects.
The goal of the project is to help better the habitat of fish species and population sizes across the country, as well as endangered Salmon in the West Coast.
I spoke with Jennifer Steger, Habitat Conservation and Restoration with NOAA, about how these grants can help local communities.
She tells me 36 passages will be removed. Of those, 15 were located on tribal lands, Yakama Nation and Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation being two of those.
Yakama Nation received additional funding for a database.
“We’re providing funding for the Yakama Nation to develop a database so that they can manage their own passage.” says Jennifer Steger.
She adds that fish passages are the main focus of the projects but NOAA also considers economic boosts, seafood safety and making communities more resilient.
She says the fish passages projects show that after they are removed.
“What you will see is nature based solutions on shorelines that make them more accessible to more people.” says Jennifer. “You’ll probably see more recreational activities for fishing.”
However, ecological impacts are also taken into consideration.
Matt Burks, West Coast Public Affairs with NOAA, says other effects are also taken into consideration.
“In the broad sense, oftentimes when a passage is removed, it may increase the water flow but that restoration that’s needed in terms of something to do with the riparian era is built into the project parameters.” says Matt.
Jennifer and Matt tell me Washington has been one of the most successful states when awarding grants because of the push towards habitat prioritization.
The money has come from two grant opportunities which include from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which includes significant funding for tribes. Tribal listening sessions were held nationwide to determine which tribes would get funding.
With the success of current grant approvals, Jennifer says another round of applications can be expected during the summer.
