Thursday July 30, 2026
WDFW —
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), in coordination with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, U.S. Forest Service, and conservation partners, have reintroduced spring Chinook salmon into the upper North Fork Toutle River watershed within the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument for the first time since the 1980 volcanic eruption.
In June, WDFW and project partners released 30 hatchery-origin adult spring Chinook salmon into South Fork Coldwater Creek, a tributary of the North Fork Toutle River. The release marks a major milestone in the North Fork Toutle River Fish Passage and Reintroduction Plan, a strategy developed by WDFW and the Wild Salmon Center to expand salmon and steelhead access to historic spawning and rearing habitat in the upper watershed.
“This project represents one of the largest salmon recovery opportunities in the lower Columbia River basin,” said Thomas Buehrens, a WDFW research scientist. “After more than four decades of natural recovery and restoration work, areas of the upper Toutle River watershed now provide the habitat conditions needed to reintroduce Chinook salmon to their historic range.”
The eruption of Mount St. Helens dramatically altered the upper Toutle River watershed, which historically supported abundant populations of spring and fall Chinook, coho salmon, and winter steelhead. Volcanic debris and sediment buried stream and floodplain habitat, reducing or eliminating naturally returning salmon and steelhead populations in the area.