Most of us probably cross small streams every day without even noticing. A road, a driveway, or a bridge sits on top of it, and the water flows through a pipe below. For a fish, however, that pipe is like a locked door. One such door once stood at the mouth of West Beach Creek on Orcas Island, Washington.

According to Puget Sound Partnership, the Washington state agency that leads efforts to protect Puget Sound, the Northwest Straits Foundation removed a small dam built to make a pond on private shoreline property facing President's Channel. The work was completed in 2014. Replacing it with a larger culvert ended up opening 1,584 feet of stream to salmon.A pond, a driveway, and two little pipesWest Beach Creek is one of the few streams in the San Juan Islands that are not obstructed by a natural barrier.

So, it’s been historically accessible to salmon. A small dam changed all that. Two 24-inch culverts ran under the driveway that also served as a dam. The agency’s project summary notes that these pipes kept fish from reaching upstream habitat. They also limited creek flow and allowed sediment to build in the channel all the way to the culvert at West Beach Road.

The project opened 1,584 feet, about 0.3 miles, of that stream. The culverts and dam were replaced by a 16-foot-diameter culvert. The new passage was built with high tides and future sea level in mind. The project’s goal was to reestablish access for young and adult cutthroat trout and young Chinook, chum, pink, and coho salmon.

Salmon showed up within a yearThe results came fast. Salmon were seen upstream of the project site just one year after the dam was removed. Sediment started moving out of the stream, and the natural sediment flow was restored within a year. The stream followed its natural course and gathered a good deal of wood from upstream. The project has restored one acre of estuary habitat for young salmon to grow and rest before entering the ocean.

The report doesn't say how many salmon or what species, but this is an early sign. West Beach Creek is just one site, so wider research might help. A 2020 study in Fisheries Management and Ecology by Clark, Roni, Keeton, and Pess surveyed 32 sites in the interior Columbia River Basin where barriers had been removed or replaced. The authors concluded that removing barriers on small streams provided adequate fish passage.

It also appeared to add habitat and increase the number of young fish just upstream of old barriers. The study took place in inland streams, not tidal streams like West Beach Creek, so it cannot prove the same result for Orcas Island. It does show that removing small barriers can restore fish passage elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. The team behind the projectFriends of San Juans coordinated the planting along the creek, enlisted volunteers, and ensured that the new plants were watered.

Labor was added by the Washington Department of Natural Resources Puget Sound Corps. The native plants will cool the water and provide insects for salmon to eat, says the agency. Funding sources include the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Alcoa Foundation. The agency also notes that the family that owned the property saw the project as a work of legacy, and working with volunteers and groups created a sense of ownership.

West Beach Creek shows how, by working with people and agencies, a stream was reopened, providing a good resting spot for the fish with a long journey ahead of them.