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Thousands of Culverts Block Pacific Northwest Fish OLYMPIA, Washington, March 26, 2002 (ENS) - Steven Penn, Hoh tribal fisherman, is enjoying a day of fishing despite a couple of things that might have caused other fishermen to call it a day. The 60 something Penn has no truck at the moment - it's in the shop, and his boat motor isn't working either. So he takes his car over the water filled craters that lead to where his fishing net is set on the Hoh River. He uses a pole to propel his boat out to check the net. The steelhead numbers are few this week, but Penn smiles anyway. "I have been fishing my whole life," Penn said. "I used to fish for money, now I fish because I like being outside." The small Hoh tribe, located near the mouth of the Hoh River on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, has always depended on fishing. Steelhead, an ocean-going trout, are important to Penn and his tribe because they return from the ocean to spawn over a four month period and at a time when there are no other species of fish to catch. The bright steelhead bring only a slightly better price than their coho salmon cousins, but the fish are important for cultural ceremonies. They provide food for a tribe that faces more than 50 percent unemployment rate in winter.
Endangered salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest are not getting upstream to spawn so their numbers continue to decrease, partly because of dams and in part because of the more than 10,000 culverts blocking their way. Culverts are pipes or arches made of concrete or metal that allow water to flow from one side of the road to the other. Fish experts have put fish ladders in place to help the salmon and steelhead negotiate dams, but until now little attention has been given to the obstacles that culverts present. Passage through culverts is particularly important to anadromous fish, such as coho and chinook salmon, and steelhead, some populations of which are threatened or endangered in Washington and Oregon. Anadromous fish are spawned in freshwater streams, but must travel to the ocean to mature. They then travel back to the very streams where they were spawned to spawn in their turn. Many of the streams that pass through these culverts are essential habitat for fish and other aquatic species. When culvert openings are too high above the streams for fish to jump into or culverts are positioned at a grade too steep for fish to ascend, they pose barriers to fish attempting to access their natural rearing and spawning habitat upstream. Federal agencies estimate that efforts to restore fish passage through culverts may ultimately cost over $375 million and take decades to accomplish. The assessment of this threat to fish in Washington and Oregon was prepared by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress at the request of Congressman Norm Dicks, a Washington Democrat who serves as ranking minority member on the House Subcommittee on Interior. Over 10,000 culverts exist on fish-bearing streams in Oregon and Washington according to Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service estimates, but neither agency knows the total number that impede fish passage. Ongoing agency inventory and assessment efforts have already identified nearly 2,600 barrier culverts, but agency officials estimate that more than twice that number may exist. The Bureau of Land Management, within the Department of the Interior, and the Forest Service, within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, manage over 41 million acres of federal lands in Oregon and Washington, including 122,000 miles of roads that use culverts.
In his report, GAO's Director of Natural Resources Barry Hill says the two agencies are concerned about the condition of the culverts on fish bearing streams on their Oregon and Washington lands because many, either because of deterioration or design, do not provide passage for all life stages of fish from juvenile to adult, as required by current standards. The Forest Service was supposed to complete its assessment of culverts by the end of 2001, but have not yet issued their report. The Bureau of Land Management has not set a specific completion date for assessing all culverts, but intends to continue the assessment as part of its ongoing land management planning efforts. Both agencies intend to use the assessments to assist them in planning and setting priorities for eliminating barrier culverts. The fish swimming upstream face bureaucratic barriers to their passage along with the physical barriers of the culverts themselves. In allocating road maintenance funds, the agencies assign a relatively low priority to such fish passage projects because road safety is a higher priority than resource protection. As a result, the agencies allocate most maintenance funding to address their large road maintenance backlogs rather than to undertake culvert projects. In addition, said Hill, the often lengthy process of obtaining federal and state environmental clearances and permits to perform culvert work, as well as the short seasonal "window of opportunity" to do the work, affects the agencies' ability to restore fish passages quickly. The shortage of experienced engineering staff and the fact that it can take up to two years to finish a barrier removal project limits the number of projects that the agencies can design and complete. The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management completed 141 culvert projects from fiscal year 1998 through August 1, 2001, to remove barriers to anadromous fish and to open an estimated 171 miles of fish habitat. Still, neither agency knows the extent to which culvert projects ultimately result in improved fish passage because neither agency requires systematic post-project monitoring to measure the outcomes of their efforts. Hill said the agencies agreed with the GAO's recommendation for systematic monitoring in the future. Penn monitors the health of the salmon and steelhead on the Hoh River. He has helped clear logging debris from miles of clogged streams in past summers to provide more spawning and rearing habitat. "We need to keep doing that program so fish have a place to go," Penn said. "If you have more fish returning, but no place for them to spawn, you can't improve the populations," he said. Related Links: A Sampling of Salmon Recovery Viewpoints: http://www.orednet.org/salmon/ Pacific Salmon and the Endangered Species Act: http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/1salmon/salmesa/index.htm Oregon Coastal Salmon Restoration Initiative: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/SalmonInit/SalmonInit.html Washington Salmon Recovery Homepage: http://www.governor.wa.gov/esa/ Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved. |
Salmon spawn in a Pacific Northwest stream (Photo courtesy NOAA)
Thousands of culverts like this one keep salmon and steelhead from reaching their spawning streams. (Photo courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)