Committed to creating a brighter and better future for the Chehalis River Basin
The Chehalis River Alliance is a coalition of concerned citizens, sovereign tribes, and local organizations invested in protecting the Chehalis River Basin.
Our mission is to ensure a bright future for the Chehalis River Basin’s invaluable natural resources and the people who call this region home.
The Chehalis River
Draining more than 2,660 square miles across southwest Washington, the 115-mile long Chehalis River is the lifeblood of the second largest river basin in Washington state. This basin, which is the ancestral homeland of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis, is now a thriving agricultural region and also supports vital salmon and steelhead populations.
The Chehalis Problem
The Chehalis has always been a flood-prone basin, but in recent years the flooding has gotten much worse due to a combination of climate change and 150 years of human development that has dramatically impaired the basin’s ability to handle major flood events. Unfortunately, this combination of development and climate change also poses a grave risk to the Chehalis River’s wild salmon and steelhead populations, which are a fraction of their historic abundance and continue to slide ever closer to extinction.
Searching for a Solution
In 2014, Washington state created the Chehalis Basin Strategy, an initiative tasked with a two-pronged mission to both reduce flood damage and restore salmon habitat throughout the entire Chehalis Basin.
The Strategy has proposed two potential solutions:
A flood retention dam, which is designed to reduce flood damage from Pe Ell to Centralia when periodic flooding is triggered by rainfall in the Wilapa Hills.
The Aquatic Species Restoration Plan, a science-based plan designed to help restore aquatic species habitat and enhance local economies
Interested in helping us find smart solutions for managing the Chehalis River system for fish and flood damage reduction?
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