Project Partnership to Restore Passage and Refuge for Struggling Salmon Populations
By Susan Woodward | January 14, 2026
After more than 10 years of planning, the deconstruction of a human-made causeway that blocks an entire section of the lower Yakima River in Central Washington is underway.
American Rivers has long advocated for the causeway’s removal at Bateman Island. Freeing the river here will allow salmon and steelhead to migrate unimpeded for the first time in decades, maximizing significant habitat restoration investments in one of Washington’s largest watersheds and marking an important step towards healing the Yakima River Delta.
Salmon are essential to the culture and sustenance of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, who are working tirelessly to replenish fisheries on the river, a major tributary of the Northwest’s great Columbia River.
Read more at: https://www.americanrivers.org/2026/01/project-partnership-to-restore-passage-and-refuge-for-struggling-salmon-populations/