WA State TU’s Barrier Assessment Team (BAT) Program

Background

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that WA State must fund the work necessary to replace all culverts on state land that represent a significant barrier to migrating fish. Although the ruling applied only to state lands, all landowners, including federal, county and private, are now aware that problem barriers must be replaced. Given that there are as many as 40,000 culverts around the state, and not all are equally harmful to fish, there is an immediate need to assess and prioritize culverts regarding potential impacts.

WATU & WDFW Partnership

WA TU State Council has created a unique partnership with WDFW to train and deploy a team of TU volunteers willing and able to conduct these assessments. We’re currently working to finalize the processes and procedures necessary to begin conducting the assessments after it becomes safe to do so – we will always keep the safety of our volunteers at the top of our priorities.

This web page is designed to provide accurate and up-to-date information regarding all-things-BAT-related. It’s new, so there will be on-going changes and improvements over time – suggestions are always welcome.

Welcome to BAT Land!

Header photo credit: Luke Kelly

WA TU logo 178
WDFW logo

BAT Land (a work in progress)

BAT INFO

Please use the informational tabs below to navigate around the BAT SQUAD’s wealth of fish barrier assessment information.

Specifically, you can:

  • Educate yourself on the BAT program
  • Refresh your memory from in-person training
  • Reference WDFW’s manual
  • Reserve a BAT assessment kit
  • Complete required forms to input assessment data

BAT ON-SITE TRAINING

  • Western Washington – N/A
  • Eastern Washington – N/A

BAT RULES & FAQs

  • Due to COVID-19 in-person training is not available at this time
  • You must successfully complete a barrier assessment training session prior to requesting a kit and going out in to the field
  • We have 5 assessment kits of equipment available to volunteers
  • TU has created an ArcGIS portal that allows us to directly link to WDFW’s culvert database to determine where culverts are, show whatever assessment info is available for that culvert, etc (see TU Barrier Viewer below).

TU Fish Passage Barrier Assessment Viewer

BAT Kit Reservations

The booking function is in beta. Please direct any questions to watu@imaginarytrout.com.

Loading...

Before you head out into the field to conduct a barrier assessment you will need to download and print the following forms.

  1. Site Information form
  2. Level A data form
  3. Level B data form
  4. Barrier Flow Chart and Percent Passability Tables form

Please use the button below to open the form in a new browser tab/window. The form is broken up into five sections that correspond with the forms above and the training information provided. Because the form is long there is an option to save and continue later which will provide you with a unique link to come back to the form and complete at a later time.

View & Complete Forms

FISH PASSAGE INVENTORY, ASSESSMENT & PRIORITIZATION MANUAL

WDFW’s website explaining culvert assessment and the fish passage program is here.

WDFW has created a comprehensive manual that provides detailed instructions on how to do culvert assessments. Embedded below is a copy of this PDF. This manual is the basis for all of their training.

You need to know there are two separate types of assessments and related training included in the manual:

  1. Fish barriers (culverts)
  2. Fish habitat.

Both types are discussed in the manual, but for now we need to limit our focus to the fish barrier material.

The forms people will need to access and use are found in Appendix E, pages E1 – E6, and instructions are included for each form. The required forms have been digitized and can be submitted on this page.

There’s also some additional information people may find helpful when completing the forms. That in-depth material can be found in Chapter 3, Section 3.3 “Level A Culvert Assessment”, which starts halfway down on page 3-4 and continues through p. 3-42.

If the embedded manual to the right doesn’t load, refresh the page and come back to this tab.

WDFW logo

WDFW Links

Fish Passage Program Overview

Fish Passage Training

Fish Passage Inventory, Assessment, and Prioritization Manual

WA State Fish Passage Map

Training Slides

Training Video
Barrier Map

TU Fish Passage Barrier Assessment Viewer

Reserve Kits

BAT Kit Reservations

The booking function is in beta. Please direct any questions to watu@imaginarytrout.com.

Loading...
Assessment Forms

Before you head out into the field to conduct a barrier assessment you will need to download and print the following forms.

  1. Site Information form
  2. Level A data form
  3. Level B data form
  4. Barrier Flow Chart and Percent Passability Tables form

Please use the button below to open the form in a new browser tab/window. The form is broken up into five sections that correspond with the forms above and the training information provided. Because the form is long there is an option to save and continue later which will provide you with a unique link to come back to the form and complete at a later time.

View & Complete Forms
WDFW Manual

FISH PASSAGE INVENTORY, ASSESSMENT & PRIORITIZATION MANUAL

WDFW’s website explaining culvert assessment and the fish passage program is here.

WDFW has created a comprehensive manual that provides detailed instructions on how to do culvert assessments. Embedded below is a copy of this PDF. This manual is the basis for all of their training.

You need to know there are two separate types of assessments and related training included in the manual:

  1. Fish barriers (culverts)
  2. Fish habitat.

Both types are discussed in the manual, but for now we need to limit our focus to the fish barrier material.

The forms people will need to access and use are found in Appendix E, pages E1 – E6, and instructions are included for each form. The required forms have been digitized and can be submitted on this page.

There’s also some additional information people may find helpful when completing the forms. That in-depth material can be found in Chapter 3, Section 3.3 “Level A Culvert Assessment”, which starts halfway down on page 3-4 and continues through p. 3-42.

If the embedded manual to the right doesn’t load, refresh the page and come back to this tab.

WDFW Links
WDFW logo

WDFW Links

Fish Passage Program Overview

Fish Passage Training

Fish Passage Inventory, Assessment, and Prioritization Manual

WA State Fish Passage Map