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Largest Columbia River Estuary Restoration Project Completed by KC Mehaffey NW Fishletter, May 2, 2022

Helping fish regain access to nearly 1,000 acres of feeding and rearing habitat.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reopened the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge on May 1 after several partners completed a two-year project to reconnect 965 acres of Columbia River floodplain to its estuary.

"The Steigerwald Reconnection Project is the largest BPA-funded estuary restoration project to date, and we are excited to be part of the stakeholder team helping fish regain access to nearly 1,000 acres of feeding and rearing habitat," Scott Armentrout, BPA"s executive VP of environment, fish and wildlife, said in a news release.

BPA was the largest sponsor, providing $24 million of the $31 million in project costs. The work to remove 2.2 miles of levees to reconnect a flood plain that has been blocked to fish for more than 50 years is expected to benefit juvenile salmon and steelhead. The restoration increased the Columbia River"s floodplain habitat between Bonneville Dam and the Willamette River by 19 percent.

The project also restored a natural channel and removed a fish ladder to improve fish passage at Gibbons Creek. It created more than 100 acres of wetland, reforested 250 acres of riparian habitat, and revegetated other areas with more than 500,000 trees and shrubs and 14,000 pounds of native seeds.

It is the largest restoration project in the Columbia River estuary. Steigerwald is one of the few estuary habitats for migrating fish between the Columbia Gorge and the lower river.

The project was orchestrated by the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership, and other major sponsors included the Washington Department of Ecology, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Friends of the Columbia Gorge.

Crews broke ground in 2019. The refuge has been closed for the past two years while workers raised a portion of State Route 14, moved the wildlife refuge parking lot, took out the old levees, and put in new setback levees to protect the Port of Camas-Washougal Industrial Park, a wastewater treatment plant and private homes.

Project sponsors will host a reopening ceremony on May 7 if levels of the COVID-19 pandemic allow.