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Washington committee hears plan to prioritize removal of fish‑passage barriers, with culverts front and center
Summary
Tom Jamieson of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife briefed the Capital Budget Committee on a statewide fish‑passage prioritization strategy that will use optimization models and watershed‑level scoring to rank barriers (primarily culverts); staff have begun correcting stream mapping and the board expects optimized project lists by the 2029–31 biennium.
Tom Jamieson, Fish Passage and Screening Division Manager at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and chair of the Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board, told the Capital Budget Committee the state will use a watershed‑level prioritization strategy and an optimization model to target the most beneficial fish‑passage removals.
Jamieson said culverts are the most numerous fish‑passage structures and account for about 84% of barriers in the state database. He told lawmakers the state assesses culverts against three technical criteria: an excessive downstream drop (he said anything over 9 inches is treated as a barrier), water velocity that exceeds about 2 feet per second, or insufficient depth (less than about 6 inches) for larger salmon to pass.
The prioritization work responds to a 2020 legislative direction that asked Fish and Wildlife, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Fish Barrier Removal Board to develop a statewide strategy so…
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