Special Visit to the Haul Road Project

Columbia Land Trust had a surprise visitor on the Klickitat River yesterday afternoon.  Eileen Sobeck, Assistant Administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was in the area touring salmon recovery projects with her regional staff and the Yakama Nation Fisheries Program when they decided to drop in on Columbia Land Trust’s Haul Road project.  Joined by Yakama Nation Tribal Councilman, Gerald Lewis, and Columbia Land Trust staff, the group walked recently restored portions of the Klickitat River.  The day was dreary, but sentiments were not.  Dale Bambrick, Supervisory Fish Biologist for NOAA’s Columbia Basin Branch, said, “We really should be focused on larger-scale, process-based projects like this if we want to have a meaningful impact on fish recovery.” As if to underscore his point, the fish were rolling in the restored pools where just weeks before the road used to be.