Do you have a project in mind? This section will help. Salmon habitat projects and activities must employ one or more of the strategies listed in the Chehalis Basin Salmon Habitat Restoration and Preservation Strategy for consideration by the Salmon Recovery Funding Board.

If you don’t know if your project aligns with this Strategy, check:

• The Chehalis Basin Salmon Habitat Restoration and Preservation Strategy.

If you have a project in mind and you want to become a project sponsor:

• Read the Chehalis Basin’s grant program overview guidance document to learn about the specifics of the Chehalis Basin’s program. The document includes project ranking criteria to see how your project will be evaluated.
• If you’re really ready to apply, download Manual 18, the official state guidance on the Salmon Recovery Grants program. This Manual is updated annually, so even if you are familiar with it, check for the latest version to make sure you are following all the appropriate steps.

Things to consider in developing your project:

• If you plan to correct a passage barrier: What other barriers are there upstream? How much habitat is there upstream?
• What species of salmonids are present in the sub-basin?
• What is the land use in the sub-basin?
• What is the future land use of this sub-basin? What other regulations might affect the future of this sub-basin?
• What is the water quality in this basin?
• What are the salmonid life-stage uses of this basin?
• What are the stream dynamics upstream that will affect this project over the long term?
• How do I develop a stream habitat restoration strategy?

Resources to help answer those questions:

•   D0099_Stream Habitat Restoration Guidelines.pdf The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife’s aquatic habitat restoration guidelines manual.
• Salmon Stock Inventory: Washington State’s Salmonid Stock Inventory, by Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.
• Statewide Washington Integrated Fish Distribution | Washington State Geospatial Open Data Portal (SWIFD) Find information with an interactive map of the watershed- shows which salmon species are in which streams, and much more. You can also use this tool to create print maps that show how fish use the streams in relation to your project.
• WADOT Fish Passage Fish passage | WSDOT This site shows all recorded culverts and other fish passage structures in the state. Gives information for planning and coordinating barrier removal.
• Family Forest Fish Passage Program. Information about how to fund barrier correction on lands managed for small forestry operations.
• Road Maintenance and Abandonment Plans. Information about barriers on large industrial timber lands.
• Chehalis Basin Fish Passage Barrier Ranking. Everyone interested in correcting a fish passage barrier in the Chehalis should look at this resource to learn what a barrier’s priority is for correction, and learn important information about the site.
• Barrier Inventory WRIA 22&23 Ranking and coordinates. 
• EPA Water Quality Data: To access water quality data collected by the Chehalis Tribe for the Chehalis River, look for organization code CHEHALIS_WQX.
• Department of Ecology’s Total Maximum Daily Load webpage for the Chehalis Basin. (TMDL) Describes TMDL plans that cover all of the upper watershed in WRIA 23 and address 303(d) listings for dissolved oxygen (DO), fecal coliform bacteria, and temperature (T) impairments.
• Washington State of Ecology Freshwater DataStream Site has data on current and historic water quality for a variety of locations throughout the Chehalis

Once you are ready to apply:

There are several steps to applying for a SRFB grant in the Chehalis Basin process. Chehalis Basin SRFB grant proposals must be submitted through the Chehalis Basin Collaborative for Salmon Habitat and must meet recovery goals as outlined in the Chehalis Basin Salmon Habitat Restoration and Preservation Strategy for WRIA 22 and 23. A full description of the local process is outlined in Section 9 of this plan.

Steps for application:

• Fill out a Conceptual Project Form
• Submit your form to the Watershed Coordinator, Kirsten Harma contact .pdf
• You will then get a PRISM number, which will allow you to interact directly with the State’s grant managers.
• Once you have a PRISM number, you can start filling out more forms, available on the State’s website.
• Prepare a presentation for the committee of the Chehalis Basin Collaborative for Salmon Habitat. A template for project presentations is downloadable here.

Application Timeline

Every year, different components of the Salmon Recovery Funding cycle take place at approximately the same time. See the (Need new link to calendar) Calendar for the dates of this year’s grant round. The current year’s schedule can be found here: 2026 Grant Round timeline_CBLE_draft