Salmon will soon have access once again to Okanagan Lake thanks to a partnership between First Nations, the provincial government and the City of Penticton.

The snpink鈥檛n (Penticton) Indian Band announced that after almost 100 years of access restriction for fish due to multiple dams, a new fishway will allow access back to Okanagan Lake.

The fishway is the latest in a long-running effort to restore the salmon population to the Columbia River system on both sides of the border, including the establishment of the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) hatchery on snpink鈥檛n band land. 

鈥淥ur collective success has been a series of processes all coming together, like keeping the water flowing in the river, restoring the habitat that we had available and then adding more habitat over time,鈥� Chief Greg Gabriel said. 鈥淓veryone in our Nation has been supportive of this important work and many have worked directly with the ONA Fisheries department to get the work done."

Efforts at restoring the salmon have borne fruit, or rather eggs, in recent years with 2024 seeing one of the biggest salmon returns since the ONA began its broodstock and repopulation programs. 

Last year in Osoyoos Lake, the number of returning salmon was 50 times what it was in the mid- to late 1990s. 

Together with project partners such as the Habitat Conservation Plan, TD Friends of the Environment and the Habitat Subcommittee of the Priest Rapids Coordinating Committee, a new, naturalized fishway will be built to bypass the Okanagan Lake dam at Penticton. 

Once the project is complete, it will reopen access to more than 350 square kilometres of habitat for the keystone species. 

Elder Richard Armstrong (caylx) has been responsible for conducting ceremonies to support the return of the salmon for years and he celebrated the announcement.

"Together we have brought the salmon back, our hard work, our prayers and our ceremonies," caylx said. 鈥淚 will be happy to see my relative salmon swimming around the dam and up into the waters and lands that their great ancestors had access to, a proud moment for us all."

The fishway will allow the dam to remain operational, provide an adjustable invasive species migration barrier and do so without any increased flood risk to infrastructure or public safety, stated officials.

An exact timeline for when construction would begin or be completed was not immediately available.