Fish Passage Improvements

The City of Bellingham encompasses eight watersheds and their associated streams (See Figure 1 below). Most of the City’s stream reaches are fish-bearing and support populations of both anadromous and resident salmon and trout. When streams cross roadways and other infrastructure, they often pass through a culvert or other structure.

Fish Passage Barriers

Some structures allow water to pass downstream, but are too narrow, too long, too steep, or installed too high above the water surface for salmon to be able to travel upstream. A single structure can block fish from utilizing miles of stream habitat. These same fish-blocking structures often present maintenance, erosion, and flooding concerns because of their inability to transport flood water, sediment and other suspended debris downstream. Improving these structures is an important way to increase habitat for fish and improve overall stream function.

Map showing watersheds in Bellingham, including Silver Creek, Squalicum Creek, Little Squalicum Creek, Bellingham Bay, Whatcom Creek, Lake Whatcom, Padden Creek, and Chuckanut Creek. — Click on the map above to open a larger PDF version.

Prioritizing Fish Passage Improvements

As documented in the City’s Comprehensive Plan, the City is committed to stewarding fish and wildlife habitat, including fish-bearing streams. As part of this commitment, in 2003 the City of Bellingham formally began a fish passage improvement program. The program identifies high priority barrier improvement projects for planning and implementation. This program helps meet the goals and policies of the Bellingham Comprehensive Plan as well as the goals and objectives of the City of Bellingham Comprehensive Stormwater Plan (PDF).

In 2003, barriers were assessed and prioritized for improvement using a local decision matrix. The City updated this approach to incorporate additional information and maintain consistency with local, State, and Federal guidance. The City continues to update the City-wide prioritization on a regular basis. In 2022, the City voluntarily entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Nooksack Indian Tribe, Lummi Nation, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to formalize their shared goals of improving fish passage. The agreement builds on the City’s substantial work by outlining a framework and next steps to towards inventorying culverts and developing a prioritization strategy and schedule to fix or replace City-owned barriers to fish passage.

Map showing Bellingham watersheds, including Squalicum Creek, Little Squalicum Creek, Whatcom Creek, Padden Creek, Chuckanut Creek, and Bellingham Bay. There are fish icons throughout the creeks to indicate where fish passage improvements are completed or proposed. — Click on the map above to open a larger PDF version.

Fish Passage Projects

We have many fish passage projects proposed for construction in the next several years, including:

Once project details are confirmed, we create project webpages where you can learn more about the project and follow construction status. Webpages for all City projects can be found by visiting cob.org/projects.

So far, we have replaced or retrofitted over 20 structures to improve fish passage. Please see our Habitat Restoration Projects webpage for descriptions of many of these projects.

The photos below show the removal of a fish barrier in Padden Creek as part of the Padden Creek Daylighting project. The first photo shows salmon gathered at the Padden tunnel outlet before the project, unable to easily move through the tunnel. The second photo shows the same general area after the project replaced the fish barrier with a new daylighted channel.