Restore Wild Salmon & Steelhead in the White Salmon River

With the removal of Condit Dam in 2012, anadromous fish such as steelhead, Chinook salmon, coho salmon, and Pacific lamprey have access to habitat that was inaccessible for about 100 years.

Since the dam was removed, no hatchery fish have been released in the White Salmon watershed. To date, fisheries managers allowed anadromous fish to find their way into the White Salmon River and naturally recolonize the available habitat. (Read our Q&A for more information.)

Both wild and hatchery fish are allowed into the watershed to spawn and potentially contribute to natural production of young fish. It remains highly feasible that the current management will lead to diverse, unique, and sustainable populations of anadromous fish in the White Salmon River.

Since no hatchery fish have been introduced, the White Salmon River is a rarity and thus invaluable to our knowledge about resilience and health of anadromous fish in the Columbia River Basin.

Providing hatchery fish to a system can be expensive and problematic, so the extent to which fish can repopulate on their own is a very important experiment in the making. The Friends of the White Salmon River would like to see this natural colonization experiment continue for the foreseeable future.

Without intensive surveying, however, the magnitude, breadth and success of the recolonization is unknown. This has made it impossible to assess whether the level of anadromous fish production reflects habitat capacity or meeting societal (or management) expectations. 

For more information, see our Q&A session.

Additional Resources: Rewilding the White Salmon River (The Osprey)