Our Role In Washington’s Salmon Recovery
History
When Washington’s salmon populations were listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act in the 1990s, state leaders decided they did not want the federal government telling them how to recover and protect these iconic Pacific Coast species. Instead, they proposed a bottom-up approach that empowered local communities to write their own restoration plans. In each major watershed across the state, communities have written restoration plans, which are now being implemented by local groups known as “Lead Entities”. In the Chehalis Basin, a group of citizens and local technical experts wrote this region’s salmon restoration and preservation plan in 2004 and updated it in 2011. The plan is called “The Chehalis Basin Salmon Habitat Restoration and Preservation Strategy for WRIA 22 and 23.”
Today, the Chehalis Basin Collaborative for Salmon Habitat is the Lead Entity for the Chehalis Basin and coordinates the work of hundreds of professionals and volunteers to find ways to restore rivers for our salmon. Our strategy guides us through outlining seven ways responds to the major threats to salmon: The 7 Priority Approaches for Recovery Salmon. Our work to date has been to reduce the impacts of those threats, with a focus on restoring full fish passage to cool, headwater streams and protecting intact river habitat that provides refuge for multiple salmon and steelhead species.
Mission
Our mission is to identify and then collaboratively evaluate voluntary restoration and protection actions that create healthy habitat for salmonids.
The primary function of the Chehalis Basin Collaborative for Salmon Habitat’s role as a “Lead Entity” is to identify on the ground restoration and protection projects that help meet the goals of it’s strategy. They play a key role in getting funding for projects from the state’s Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB).
Since 2016, we have increased the pace and scale of these efforts through participating in the Office of the Chehalis Basin’s Aquatic Species Restoration Program (ASRP) . We hold a seat on the ASRP Steering Committee, increasing local knowledge, involvement and connection to this larger basin-wide restoration program.
Accomplishments
Together, habitat restoration and protection practitioners, community members, volunteers, technical experts and funding agencies have achieved the following results for our watershed through Salmon Recovery Funding Board grants and sponsor match (1999-2025):
70 Fish passage barriers corrected
222 Stream Miles made accessible
100 Miles of Riparian area treated
267 Wood structures placed in streams
123 Acres off-channel habitat reconnected
2,453 Acres of estuary, riparian area, and uplands conserved*
See Coast Salmon Partnership annual report for a summary of successes through the multiple funding sources that support this work in the Chehalis Basin.
*multiple funding sources brought to these protection projects
From 1999 to 2025, we put $33,516,000 of Salmon Recovery Funding Board and matching funds into the Chehalis Basin through our work.
View all of these actions via the state’s Salmon Recovery Portal.
Learn more about our successful projects on the Project Showcase.
