Wednesday June 11, 2025
The Columbian —
A Southwest Washington salmon habitat restoration nonprofit broke ground Thursday on a large restoration project on and around the South Fork Toutle River. The two-year project aims to address the continuing effects of Mount St. Helens’ 1980 eruption.
The effort is being led by Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group and located about 10 miles from the mountain in Cowlitz County.
It will help federal endangered chinook, coho and steelhead runs by restoring 215 acres of floodplain habitat around the South Fork Toutle River’s headwaters, as well as 4.1 miles of the river itself, the project’s proposal states. The goal is to get the environment closer to its pre-eruption landscape.
The work is funded with $10.7 million from the Washington State Department of Ecology and the state’s Salmon Recovery Funding Board.