{"id":1108,"date":"2025-11-07T03:15:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/fishpassagejointcommittee\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2025-12-03T11:51:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:51:14","slug":"webinar-improving-fish-passage-on-the-white-river-operations-monitoring-modifications-and-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oldunitsstaging.fisheries.org\/fishpassagejointcommittee\/2025\/11\/07\/webinar-improving-fish-passage-on-the-white-river-operations-monitoring-modifications-and-maintenance\/","title":{"rendered":"Webinar: Improving Fish Passage on the White River: Operations, Monitoring, Modifications, and Maintenance"},"content":{"rendered":"

JOINT COMMITTEE ON\u00a0FISHERIES ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

2025 Webinar Series<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Improving Fish Passage on the White River: Operations, Monitoring, Modifications, and Maintenance<\/h2>\n

Forming part of the Puyallup River Basin near Mount Rainier, the White River has long played a critical role in supporting salmon and steelhead populations in western Washington. Yet since the mid-20th century, the river\u2019s natural connectivity has depended on engineered solutions around Mud Mountain Dam (MMD) \u2014 a major flood-control structure operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.<\/p>\n

While the dam has protected the lower White and Puyallup valleys from over $300 million<\/strong> in flood damages and safeguarded roughly 400,000 people<\/strong>, maintaining reliable fish passage with new pioneer species arriving in large numbers has remained an ongoing technical and operational challenge.<\/p>\n

Thanks to recent modernization efforts, that challenge is being met with innovation and persistence. Following NOAA Fisheries\u2019 2014 Biological Opinion, the Corps completed a new, state-of-the-art fish collection facility in 2020, designed to meet modern passage criteria and improve survival for ESA-listed Chinook and steelhead.<\/p>\n

The current system \u2014 including an upstream barrier, trap, and haul operation six miles below the dam \u2014 continues to evolve through active monitoring, adaptive management, and co-management with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and Puyallup Tribe of Indians, ensuring that fish passage performance, facility maintenance, and operational strategies keep pace with biological and hydraulic realities.<\/p>\n

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Event Details<\/h3>\n

Date:<\/strong> Wednesday, December 3
\nTime:<\/strong> 12:00 PM \u2013 1:00 PM Pacific Time<\/p>\n

Join our speakers Casey Butcher<\/strong> and Nathan Malmborg<\/strong> for a presentation on Improving Fish Passage on the White River: Operations, Monitoring, Modifications, and Maintenance<\/em>. They will discuss the Corps\u2019 approach to ongoing system optimization, including:<\/p>\n