Washington Law Mandates that Science Guide Forestry Practices

Washington State’s 2001 Forests & Fish Law, is Washington’s legislative response to the federal listings of endangered salmon runs in forested streams. The law actually mandates the forest landowners learn and then adapt their forestry practices through science with a process called adaptive management. For example, we learned that some culverts needed to be replaced and/or enlarged to allow for salmon to be able to pass through in their migration upstream to spawn.

Before and After: This culvert has been replaced and updated to allow for fish passage.