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The Bonneville Power Administration and its partners are actively expanding the reach of Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead by improving dam passage, removing barriers and rehabilitating degraded habitat. The federal program to protect these fish is the largest of its kind in the nation.

The program has increased survival of fish passing mainstem dams, returned fish to stretches of tributaries where they had been absent for decades, managed predation and modernized hatcheries. The success hinges on partnerships between BPA, the Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation and tribes, states, local and non-government organizations. 

The site of former Hemlock Lake, in southwest Washington's Wind River, less than a year after

Hemlock Dam was removed.  Photo courtesy of Bengt Coffin, U.S. Forest Service.

Opening up prime fish habitat 

Since 2008, BPA and its partners have:

•    Opened up over 2,470 miles of 
habitat– more than twice the length
of the entire Columbia River.

•     Restored more than 254,125 acre 
feet of water to streams through 
water and transactions irrigation 
improvements – more than enough 
to serve the annual usage of a city 
the size of Seattle.

•      Restored and protected more than 
4,000 acres of estuary floodplain.

Reviews and monitoring have consistently reported barrier removal or installation of new or improved fish passage as one of the most cost-effective and highest priority habitat improvement measures for salmon and steelhead. Studies have shown that fish rapidly colonize previously blocked or less accessible areas.

   Fish returns are improving

Last year almost a million fall chinook salmon returned to Bonneville Dam, the most since counts began in 1937. Based on 10 years of data, wild chinook populations on average have more than tripled in abundance and wild steelhead on average have more than doubled.

This year’s spawners benefitted from good river flows when they were young and productive ocean conditions as adults. Fishery managers are predicting strong returns of wild and hatchery-raised salmon to the Columbia River in 2014.