Trout unlimited is working with an irrigation district, private landowner, and other partners to improve streamflows in swauk creek to increase habitat and passage for swauk creek fish while…

Trout Unlimited, Inc. received a $1.32 million Cooperative Agreement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 1 under the National Fish Passage Program (CFDA 15.685) awarded June 2, 2025, with completion targeted for June 1, 2030. The award funds a collaborative project in Swauk Creek, Washington, designed to improve aquatic ecosystem connectivity and fish passage while enhancing water reliability for private landowners. The primary deliverable involves replacing an existing irrigation pipeline with a larger capacity pipeline that will deliver up to 2 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water to the landowner for irrigation and emergency fire protection, while simultaneously delivering up to 15 cfs of supplemental streamflow to Swauk Creek.

The project will generate ecological restoration benefits across approximately one mile of improved streamflow conditions, enabling fish passage to over 20 miles of habitat in Swauk Creek and its tributaries. Funded activities include project management and administration, pipeline design, permitting, and full implementation. This initiative exemplifies the National Fish Passage Program's dual mandate to restore native fish populations and aquatic ecosystem connectivity while providing co-benefits to human communities, accomplished through partnership coordination among Trout Unlimited, the irrigation district, private landowners, and other stakeholder organizations.

Trout unlimited is working with an irrigation district, private landowner, and other partners to improve streamflows in swauk creek to increase habitat and passage for swauk creek fish while simultaneously improving landowner water reliability (irrigation and emergency fire protection). The project will replace an existing water delivery pipeline used for irrigation delivery with a larger pipeline that will deliver water to the landowner (up to two cubic-feet-per-second) and up to fifteen cubic-feet-per-second of supplemental streamflow to swauk creek. Supplemental water will improve streamflow in up to one mile that will help improve passage to over twenty miles of habitat in swauk creek and its tributaries, and water delivered to the landowner will allow for greater irrigation efficiency and fire protection. Requested funds will support project management and administration, and pipeline design, permitting, and implementation.