West Coast Fish Passage Guidelines
NOAA Fisheries developed this guidance to communicate the importance of considering climate, hydrologic, geomorphic and biologic processes before designing fish passage facilities.
Guidelines Documents (WA,OR,ID &CA)
- Guidance to Improve the Resilience of Fish Passage Facilities to Climate Change
- Anadromous Salmonid Design Manual
- Guidelines for Stream Crossings and Grade Control: Conserving Physical and Biological Processes at Instream Infrastructure
California Guidelines
About the Guidelines
Prior to designing a fish passage facility, NOAA Fisheries recommends the project proponent familiarize themselves with the NOAA Fisheries WCR Guidance to Improve the Resilience of Fish Passage Facilities to Climate Change (Improving Resilience) guidance document. The Improving Resilience document outlines how to incorporate projected future flows the facility may experience over the life of the project and should be the starting point for the design Process.
In 2013, the Northwest and Southwest regions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries merged to form the West Coast Region. Following this integration, we have been working to unify our guidance documents to provide consistent, science-based standards across the region.
Anadromous Salmonid Passage Design Manual
The 2022 NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region Anadromous Salmonid Passage Design Manual was the first step in integrating fish passage design criteria and guidelines of the two former regions into one document and it supersedes the following documents:
- Northwest Region’s Anadromous Salmonid Passage Facility Design, dated July 2011
- Southwest Region’s Fish Screening Criteria for Anadromous Salmonids, dated January 1997
- Southwest Region’s Experimental Fish Guidance Position Statement, dated January 1994
- Southwest Region’s Water Drafting Specifications, dated August 2001
Stream Crossings and Grade Control Guidelines
In 2022, the North and South Environmental Services Branches combined to become the WCR Engineering & Physical Sciences Branch. To support this, we unified our stream crossing guidance to resolve any confusion created by having separate regional documents. The new document replaces outdated standards, some of which had not been fully updated since 1997 and 2011, with current, science-based criteria. The resulting consolidated document, Guidelines for Stream Crossings and Grade Control: Conserving Physical and Biological Processes at Instream Infrastructure, provides consistent guidance across the region and supersedes the following documents: