Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program:
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Across Western Washington, thousands of poorly-designed culverts at road crossings prevent migratory salmon from accessing potential habitat, hampering recovery efforts for declining populations. In 2013, a federal court found that barrier culverts in Washington violate tribal treaty rights and issued an injunction requiring their replacement. While the injunction only applies to state-owned culverts, thousands of additional barrier culverts are owned by local governments and private landowners, often within the same watersheds, generate inter-dependencies between barrier correction activities. The project is a collaboration of researchers from the University of Washington and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Our project will develop a consistent, data-driven framework for prioritizing fish passage barriers over multiple objectives, drawing from a rich literature on fish passage restoration plans that maximize return on investment. The decision support tool we develop will serve a coordinating function between barrier owners and managers by allowing the consistent comparison of alternative barrier correction, complementing ongoing efforts to restore fish passage in the state of Washington.