The Okanagan Nation Alliance Restores Salmon Access to Okanagan Lake.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) reports that the new Okanagan Dam Fish Passage is operational. The nature-like channel runs from the Okanagan River into Okanagan Lake and bypasses the Okanagan Lake Outlet Dam. According to the ONA, salmon now have uninterrupted access to their historical spawning habitat in the lake for the first time in nearly 100 years.

The ONA traces the blockage to the early 1900s. After extensive flooding, the river was straightened, narrowed and diked, and a dam was built to regulate flow out of the lake. The riverbed shifted from gravel suited to salmon nests to larger cobbles and sand. The river lost 50% of its length and 90% of its riparian habitat. McIntyre and Skaha Dams further limited upstream migration. By the late 1990s, the organization says, Indigenous salmon populations were either gone or at very low levels.

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The ONA began advocacy work in 1996. Over more than 20 years it completed a 12-year sockeye reintroduction program into Skaha Lake and about 50 habitat restoration and fish passage projects. These included building spawning beds, reconnecting oxbows and side channels, and modifying McIntyre and Skaha Dams. It also built a sockeye conservation hatchery. All of this falls under an initiative called kł cp̓əlk̓ stim̓, which means "cause to come back."

The fishway was designed to provide steady water velocities and depths for all Indigenous salmonids, to work during drought and lake level changes, and to meet the province's dam operating needs. It also includes a monitoring station and an adjustable barrier meant to deter invasive species. The ONA says it does not increase flood risk to infrastructure or public safety.

A Riverwatcher monitoring device identified the first salmon in the fishway on September 15. A thermal barrier delayed migration, but kokanee, sockeye and other Indigenous fish are now using the passage, the ONA says. Carp, bass and perch already live above and below the dam, and the ONA notes that carp and bass can still get past the deterrent jump.

The project was funded by habitat committees tied to Chelan, Douglas and Grant public utility districts. Partners included the Penticton Indian Band, the City of Penticton, the provincial water and land ministry, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The ONA describes salmon, or ntytyix, as sacred relatives to the Syilx people and the project as a cultural reconnection.