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Habitat
Quality habitat is important salmon and steelhead survival, providing food, refuge from predators, and the right conditions for spawning and rearing. Adult fish need access to preferred spawning areas and safe places to lay their eggs. In the estuary, shallow water habitats are important for juvenile salmon as they migrate and make their transition from fresh water to salt water.
To help improve Columbia Basin fish habitat, the federal caucus is increasing the volume of water in streams, installing or retrofitting fish screens at water diversions to keep fish safely out of irrigation canals, removing barriers that prevent fish from reaching their spawning and rearing habitat and reconstructing streams with floodplains and side channels. We are acquiring easements or other protective interests in land, treating and fencing riparian areas along tributaries and stabilizing stream banks.
Many of these projects are carried out through the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.
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