Haul Road

The conserved Haul Road site along the Klickitat River is the location of one of Columbia Land Trust’s most ambitious and impactful restoration projects to date. In partnership with Yakama Nation Fisheries, we removed eight miles of unused road to reconnect a wild river with its floodplain. 

Prior to restoration, the Haul Road was a privately owned railroad turned two-lane, paved road used to transport timber. It traversed the floodplain of an otherwise undeveloped 12-mile section of the Klickitat River. In 1996 a flood washed out half a mile of the road and rendered it useless. In 2007, Columbia Land Trust purchased the road and began working to restore river processes to enhance fish habitat, in partnership with Yakama Nation Fisheries Program and with funding from the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board. Work occurred over six phases spanning more than ten years.  

The project was completed in 2017 and in total we removed 233,000 tons of fill from the active floodplain of the river, planted more than 50,000 native plants, and recycled all the asphalt from the road. Post-project analysis showed a 33% increase in gravel bars and islands, a 29% increase in side and backwater channels, and 31 acres of floodplain reconnected to the river – which are all critical for fish habitat.