By Jan Peterson, for the Pacific Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
When engineers in the 1940s designed a rail line to connect vital military installations in northwest Washington, the overriding concern was supporting military efforts in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
The 48.5-mile Shelton-Bangor-Bremerton (SBB) Railroad is part of the larger Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad and connects Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor with the city of Shelton and Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton. The rail line was used in large part to move locally manufactured munitions to the bases. The primary objective back then was to get it done and get it done fast. The entire project was completed in 1945, just one year after the project started. However, acceptable industry design and construction methods during this era often did not account for impacts to the surrounding environment.
Today, 80 years later, the railroad remains a vital connection between bases. But the intervening years have been hard on the railroad鈥檚 infrastructure, and understanding about hydrodynamics and environmental impact have grown exponentially.
Nick Weatherly, a natural resource manager for the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Northwest, says a 2015 study of the railroad鈥檚 structural integrity revealed crumbling culverts and pipes at stream crossings. It also looked at the opportunity to improve fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.
Learn more about fish passage while ensuring the railroad didn鈥檛 fail.
These streams this railroad crosses historically have been home to Endangered Species Act-listed species such as Puget Sound Chinook salmon, Hood Canal summer-run chum salmon and Puget Sound steelhead, says Keala Pelekai, a fish biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service鈥檚 Western Washington Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office in the Pacific Region鈥檚 Fish and Aquatic Conservation program. Pelekai says she suspects there also may be other species of interest inhabiting these streams. They include Pacific lamprey, Western brook and river lamprey, Western ridged mussels, Western pearlshell mussels and floater mussels.
Paul Rudell, a marine biologist for NAVFAC Northwest, says the study helped them generate a priority index ranking the culverts in order of need for replacement. Phase one included two crossings that are complete, while four are in final design and due to be completed in 2026 or 2027.
Rudell and Weatherly discovered an important part of the story was missing from the original 2015 study.
鈥淲hat we found was during this assessment, species information was unavailable for smaller systems,鈥� Rudell says.
In the years since the railroad was built, a variety of laws鈥攕uch as the Sikes Act鈥攈ave been enacted to ensure the Navy and other federal agencies use their authority where feasible to carry out programs for the conservation of endangered and threatened species.
鈥淚t is important to the Navy to manage natural resources on our properties that improve the resources for species to thrive,鈥� Rudell says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really big deal for salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest.鈥�
In order to protect ESA-listed species as they replace culverts, Weatherly and Rudell needed to know where they live.
The two reached out to state and Tribal partners to gauge interest in evaluating the streams to determine which aquatic species live there. Ultimately, they decided to approach Pelekai and the Service, with whom they already enjoyed a history of successful partnerships.
Pelekai was happy to sign on.
鈥淚 proposed a two-part project,鈥� she explains. 鈥淔or the first part, I dug up all the data I could on the 67 culverts found by the geoengineers. It鈥檚 a lot and some are in deep wilderness areas. Sixty-seven is a lot of locations to get to.鈥�
Pelekai used this data to develop a priority ranking for stream crossings. The presence of ESA-listed species put many culverts at the top of the list. Medium-priority culverts were associated with the possibility of the presence of those species. Low-priority included streams that were primarily seasonal streams or simply stormwater runoff unlikely to support aquatic species.
After that, she designed surveys, which she began conducting in spring 2025. Pelekai selected two methods to determine the presence of various species: electrofishing, a technique that has been around since 1863; and taking Environmental DNA samples, a newer technology that has improved dramatically since its invention in the late 1980s.
With electrofishing, fish are temporarily stunned so they can be measured. Stunning and handling the fish can be stressful. But eDNA samples the stream itself to find fish DNA in the water from skin cells, scales or even poop. This allows biologists to discover what species may have just been passing through鈥攏o stunning or handling necessary.
Pelekai is now preparing her first report. The first memorandum is scheduled for the end of the year. It will be followed by two more years of field surveys then a final report will summarize the findings.
Pelekai said initial findings offered a few surprises, including finding brook lamprey in one stream and a Pacific lamprey in another. No one knew they were there. She hopes to have the remaining data soon.
She says replacing these culverts鈥攕ome of which are 100% blocked鈥攚ill open acres and acres of the cold, clean habitat these species need to thrive.
These projects will ensure the railroad and the streambeds are both safely navigated for the next 50 years.
鈥淭he possibilities of each one of these projects is huge,鈥� Rudell says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 vital for us to solve an environmental problem and come up with a long-term solution for Navy infrastructure.鈥�
Something temporarily or permanently constructed, built, or placed; and constructed of natural or manufactured parts including, but not limited to, a building, shed, cabin, porch, bridge, walkway, stair steps, sign, landing, platform, dock, rack, fence, telecommunication device, antennae, fish cleaning table, satellite dish/mount, or well head.
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