Washington State just proved that sometimes the best climate tech solution is…a salmon Uber?
Puget Sound Energy spent years installing what’s essentially a “fish taxi” at its Baker River hydroelectric dam as part of a 21-year partnership among PSE, state agencies, and the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe. The trap-and-haul system scoops up migrating salmon and drives them upstream past concrete roadblocks. It sounds ridiculous, but it works.
This year, more than 91,000 sockeye salmon returned to the Skagit River system—up from just 99 fish in the 1980s. That’s not a rebound—that’s a species-level comeback.
Tribal nations call it a cultural restoration. Regulators are calling it a co-management success story. PSE is calling it validation that hydropower and habitat don’t have to be enemies. Either way, it’s a very Pacific Northwest fix.