Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups (RFEG)

1995-2008 Outcomes and Accomplishments
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64 Million Fish Released
Since 1995, the 14 Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups, in cooperation with the co-managers, have released over 64 million chinook, coho, chum, and steelhead into the rivers and streams of Washington State. Returns are still increasing and evaluation data is being accumulated.

637 Fish Passage Projects Completed
700 miles of spawning and rearing habitat have been opened. These projects are directly associated with fish-passage repair and/or replacement by the Regional Enhancement Groups. These projects have been in cooperation and collaboration with land owners, businesses, community organizations, foundations, tribes, and local, state, and federal agencies.

700 Miles of Streams Opened
Washington State Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups have removed, replaced or repaired culverts, bridges, and other barriers to salmon passage for access into spawning and rearing habitat.

Volunteers have contributed over 950,000 hours working toward salmon restoration across Washington State.

This extraordinary effort translates to over $14.2 million dollars donated to salmon restoration and is the equivalent of 356 full time positions over 13 years.

Over 425 miles of river and stream restoration have been completed, including planting, revegetation, rechanneling and reconstruction.

725,000 Carcasses Distributed
Over 725,000 chinook, coho and chum carcasses have been placed back into rivers and streams to supplement nutrients to the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. These critical nutrients have been lacking due to declining salmon populations returning to the rivers.

2800 Salmon Projects Completed
In addition to the fish passage projects completed by Washington State Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups, these groups have also collectively completed over 2,800 other salmon projects including revegetation, surveys, assessments, estuary restorations, research, monitoring, evaluation, nutrification evaluation, stewardship and education programs.

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$98,800,000 of Funding Leveraged
Since 1995, the Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups of Washington State have leveraged $16,369,470 of state and federal funding into an additional $98,800,000 through partnerships and collaborations with individuals, groups, corporations, agencies, tribes, and foundations.

This is a total investment in salmon restoration of $115,169,470.