Salmon Return To The Yakima Basin

Historically, the Yakima River was home to an estimated 800,000 salmon and steelhead. Today, the fish runs estimate at only less than 5% of the original population. A primary reason for such a drastic decline in fish population is the reduction of available river habitat due to water use for irrigation. The Black Rock project would create a water surplus that would restore water levels in area rivers and streams that have been inaccessible for many years, and restore initial salmon populations to historical levels.

• The Black Rock Reservoir would create a surplus of 600,000 acre/feet of water to our current aging reservoir system.
• The new water surplus would stabilize the water levels in the five existing reservoirs, therefore allowing the redevelopment of miles of habitat in the upper Cle Elum, Wapatus, Cooper, and other rivers and streams. Sockeye Salmon runs could be reestablished in Lake Cle Elum.
• The availability of excess water in the Yakima River would allow the Yakama Nation, the State and Federal Departments of Fisheries, and the Bureau of Reclamation to manage the increasing habitat along the river.
• The restoration of fish ladders could make the Yakama Nation's restoration efforts of the Sockeye and Coho runs in the Yakima Basin a successful reality.
• Additional fish returning would produce values of at least $100 million for fishery use and eliminate the current $2.6 billion in fishery nonuse

Dr. Jack Stanford; an expert in Limnology (River Ecology) has been an advocate of transferring water from the Columbia River to the Yakima Basin for fish restoration."There is no better place in the lower 48 states than Yakima to restore 1,000,000 salmon and Steelhead."