The Columbia River Basin Fish Program is part of the Northwestern Division of the US Army Corps of Engineers, located in Portland, Ore., and provides improved coordination and communication among the Corps and state and federal agencies, tribes, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, organizations, interest groups and the general public, on actions to improve salmon passage at Corps facilities. The program staff also provides planning and policy development, and internal coordination for the Corps fish program.

Most salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin encounter one or more hydropower dams as they migrate to and from the ocean. Juvenile fish pass dams by many routes: through turbines, through juvenile bypass systems, through spillways, or by collection and transport in barges or trucks downstream. Over the past decade, juvenile fish survival past the dams has increased due to extensive dam modifications and more effective and efficient spill operations using surface passage.

Some of those actions at the federal dams include juvenile and adult dam passage modifications, operational improvements for spill and transport, water management to improve water-quality, and activities to improve juvenile and adult passage. The Northwestern Division also operates two upstream storage dams--Libby Dam in Montana and Dworshak Dam in Washington--used in flow augmentation during migration seasons.