NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently reversed a 2019 preliminary determination that allowed habitat restoration in lieu of fish passage at dams on Washington’s Lewis River. The reversed decision now requires PacifiCorp and the Cowlitz Public Utility District, joint owners of the dams, to provide both juvenile and adult passage at all the dams in the hopes that the actions will restore salmon, steelhead and bull trout in the river and its tributaries upstream.
