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Fish and Wildlife highlights how low flows and warming harm salmon and options for restoration
Summary
Megan Kernan of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife told the committee low streamflows, warmer temperatures and groundwater declines are stressing salmon across life stages; she recommended process‑based restoration, targeted flow releases, managed recharge and monitoring of restoration effectiveness.
Megan Kernan, acting deputy director of the Habitat Program at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, briefed the committee on how streamflow, temperature and groundwater connectivity affect salmon. Kernan summarized the salmon life cycle and noted that low flows and elevated temperatures can create population bottlenecks at multiple life stages and increase disease, pre‑spawn mortality and predation risk.
Kernan said Washington hosts five Pacific salmon species and steelhead and that the governor’s State of the Salmon report shows many protected population groups remain far from recovery targets. She explained how instream functions — habitat connectivity, availability of off‑channel refuge, sediment transport and temperature buffering — are tied to flow and groundwater contributions.
The WDFW official cited Ecology‑sourced mapping showing groundwater declines across eastern aquifers and noted that groundwater supports summer baseflows and cold‑water refugia crucial for fish survival. She called for targeted research into groundwater–surface‑water interactions, improved monitoring and adaptive management of projects to determine which restoration approaches are most effective.
Kernan described several restoration and management options: process‑based restoration (including beaver dam analogs), municipal and agricultural conservation, reclaimed wastewater reuse where appropriate, managed recharge to augment baseflows, pulse/functional flows timed to support smolt outmigration or adult migration, and retiring active rights in priority reaches. She highlighted a 2022 WDFW science synthesis on instream water, climate change and salmon as a resource for planning.
Kernan recommended that the state prioritize strategic, evidence‑based restoration that targets reaches where flow restoration will provide the largest biological benefit and urged further research on aquifer trends and refugia mapping.
