Learn about how you can help ensure a prosperous future for the Chehalis Basin
State of the Chehalis
The last 150 years of human development have not been kind to the Chehalis Basin. Destructive logging practices, farming operations, and flood control measures have severely altered the natural operations of this dynamic ecosystem, which has dramatically diminished the basin’s ability to mitigate major flood events and maintain vibrant salmon populations.
As a result, once prolific salmon and steelhead populations that for millennia were the lifeblood of the ecosystem and a pivotal food source for the people of the Chehalis Basin have been reduced to a fraction of their historic abundance. Additionally, the basin has become increasingly vulnerable to severe flooding - five of the largest floods in the basin’s history have occurred in the last thirty years - and also more prone to drought and water shortages in drier summer months.
Unfortunately, the negative impacts of development practices within the basin are now being exacerbated by climate change, which is intensifying the severity of the storms the Chehalis experiences and raising water temperatures to a dangerous level for the basin’s vulnerable salmon and steelhead.
The Future of the Chehalis
People have been floating proposals to address flooding and habitat degradation in the Chehalis for decades. However, these conversation picked up steam following the catastrophic flood of 2007, which inundated the cities of Chehalis and Centralia and submerged I-5 in twelve feet of water forcing a five-day closure of the highway.
In 2014 Washington state launched the Chehalis Basin Strategy, a comprehensive initiative with a two-pronged mission to reduce flood damage and restore salmon habitat throughout the entire Chehalis Basin. This ambitious, basin-wide undertaking is comprised of numerous near-term and long-term actions as well as a mix of smaller and bigger projects. However, the primary two components of the strategy are the Aquatic Species Restoration Plan and a proposed flood control dam coupled with a series of levee improvements.
In the spring of 2020, the public had the opportunity to comment on the draft environmental impact statement for the proposed dam. Following this comment period, in which substantial concerns were raised by tribal communities and the public about the dam, Governor Inslee directed the Chehalis Basin Board, Washington Department of Ecology, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to cease planning efforts for the proposed Chehalis River dam and instead develop a basin-wide, non-dam alternative to flood reduction. While this announcement does not mean the dam proposal is off the table, this decision was lauded by the Chehalis River Alliance as an important step forward in the longstanding effort to effectively mitigate flood damage and recover struggling wild fish populations in the Chehalis Basin.
Flood Control Dam
The Chehalis River Basin Flood Control Zone District is proposing to construct a new flood retention facility and temporary reservoir near the town of Pe Ell, WA as well as conduct levee improvements around the Chehalis-Centralia Airport in Chehalis, WA.
The proposed dam would only store floodwater during major floods and then slowly release water over a period of up to about one month once the storm has passed. The temporary reservoir created by the dam, however, would back up and submerge more than six miles of the river corridor above the dam site. Even if it works as planned, the dam would not eliminate all flooding but aims to reduce the peak flood elevation in the cities of Centralia and Chehalis during a major flood.
The potential impacts of the dam to the Chehalis River system are likely to be many and varied and a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) being prepared by the WA Dept. of Ecology is intended to detail and analyze those impacts.
Aquatic Species Restoration Plan
The Aquatic Species Restoration Plan (ASRP) is an ambitious proposal to restore the Chehalis Basin’s invaluable habitat and protect critical aquatic ecosystems from the existential threats of climate change. A key component of the Chehalis Basin Strategy, the ASRP is our best chance to combat the Chehalis’ declining salmonid populations and to prevent spring-run Chinook, a critical food source for Southern Resident orcas, from going extinct by the end of this century. The ASRP could also help restore habitat that is critical for the Olympic mudminnow, a state sensitive species endemic to Western Washington, and the Oregon spotted frog, which is listed as “threatened” by the Endangered Species Act.
The ASRP provides a detailed, science-based roadmap for restoring habitat and protecting intact ecosystems of aquatic species along the rivers and streams of the Chehalis Basin. It is a complex and comprehensive analysis of necessary actions across the ten ecological regions that comprise the Chehalis Basin, Washington’s second largest watershed. And if implemented, the ASRP would be one of the largest watershed-scale restoration project ever completed in Washington.
We Determine the Future
Continuing with the status quo in the Chehalis Basin is no longer an option. Without major intervention, the trajectory for steelhead and salmon populations in the Chehalis is bleak. In fact, if no action is taken all salmon and steelhead species will experience substantial declines and spring Chinook will go extinct by the end of the century. Other critical species such as the Oregon spotted frog, fishers, and Roosevelt elk will also suffer as the habitat further degrades from development and harmful land-use changes. Moreover, the economic and social costs of flooding will keep mounting as climate change and further deterioration of the Chehalis Basin make this region increasingly vulnerable to destructive floods.
Fortunately, we have the ability to stem this tide of destruction and restore the Chehalis river and its once mighty salmon and steelhead populations. The Chehalis Basin Strategy is a public process and the Chehalis Basin Alliance is working tirelessly to ensure this process finds smart solutions that will help manage the Chehalis River system for both wild fish and flood reduction. However, to accomplish that, we need your help and your voice in this public input process. So please sign up today and help us send a loud and clear message to the Chehalis Basin Board about the future of this special watershed.