‘High priority’ Bellingham culvert project gets a boost from state grant
State officials have awarded Bellingham a grant of nearly $1.6 million to continue the city’s efforts to make Padden Creek more habitable for migrating fish, especially endangered salmon.
Funds come from the Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board through the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, which offered $30 million in grants to open salmon migration routes that were announced July 15.
Bellingham plans to use the money to finish designing replacements for two culverts near the mouth of Padden Creek, where it meets Harris Avenue and the McKenzie Trail south of downtown Fairhaven.
“Restoring fish passage here would improve habitat for chum, coho, coastal cutthroat trout, kokanee and (endangered) steelhead and Chinook by restoring access to approximately 7 miles of potential upstream habitat, assuming all upstream barriers along Padden Creek and Connelly Creek are also eventually addressed. This project would also include restoration work that has the potential to create additional salt marsh habitat for fish and wildlife,” Public Works Department spokeswoman Stefanie Cilinceon told The Herald.
City officials have made Padden Creek a “high priority” in recent years with several projects, including work to “daylight” the creek in 2015 where it been in enclosed culvert near Old Fairhaven Parkway for a century, and restoration of the estuary where Padden Creek runs into Bellingham Bay.
Currently, work is underway to remove an aging fish ladder and fix a culvert on Padden Creek along the Interurban Trail south of Fairhaven.
“This project is part of a broader city effort to improve fish passage in Bellingham streams. The city formally began implementing a culvert improvement program in 2003,” Cilinceon said in an email. In 2022, the city signed a memorandum of agreement between Lummi Nation, Nooksack Indian Tribe, tand Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, she said.
