The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service manage most of the nation's 655 million acres of federal land. BLM is responsible for about 264 million acres of public lands, managed by 12 state offices that are responsible for supervising the operations of 175 field offices nationwide. The Forest Service is responsible for about 192 million acres of public lands, managed by 9 regional offices that are responsible for supervising the operations of 155 national forests. BLM and the Forest Service manage about 93 percent of the 44 million acres of federally owned land in Oregon and Washington. BLM's Oregon State Office manages about 17 million acres of land in the two states, including over 28,000 miles of roads. The state office directs the operations of 10 district offices—9 in Oregon and 1 in Washington—-each responsible for managing BLM's public land resources within its geographic jurisdiction. Six of the Oregon districts contain Oregon and California Grant Lands, distributed in a checkerboard pattern within each district, and interspersed within and around the federal lands is state and private lands. The Forest Service's Region 6 manages about 25 million acres of land in the two states, including nearly 94,000 miles of roads. Region 6 directs the operations of 19 national forests—13 in Oregon and 6 in Washington. BLM's district offices and the Forest Service's national forest offices perform similar land management functions, including restoration of fish and wildlife habitat and designing, constructing, and maintaining roads. BLM and Forest Service land management activities regarding fish habitat in Oregon and Washington are governed by three regional agreements: the Northwest Forest Plan, signed in 1994 for activities on the west side of the Cascade mountain range, and PACFISH and INFISH, signed in 1995, for activities on the east side of the range. Both agencies are required to direct their land management activities toward achieving the objectives of the three agreements. The Northwest Forest Plan's Aquatic Conservation Strategy includes the objective of maintaining and restoring "connectivity within and between watersheds," which must provide "unobstructed routes to areas critical for fulfilling the life history requirements" of aquatic species. In addition, the Northwest Forest Plan's road management guidelines state that the agencies shall "provide and maintain fish passage at all road crossings of existing and potential fish-bearing streams." PACFISH includes the objective of achieving "a high level of habitat diversity and complexity…to meet the life-history requirements of the anadromous fish community inhabiting a watershed." The PACFISH road management guidelines duplicate the Northwest Forest Plan guidance. INFISH provides similar management objectives and guidance for resident native fish outside of anadromous fish habitat. Maintaining fish passage and habitat is particularly important for anadromous fish, which as juveniles migrate up and down stream channels seasonally, then travel from their freshwater spawning grounds to the ocean where they mature, and finally return to their spawning grounds to complete their life cycle. Under the authority of the Endangered Species Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service currently lists four species of salmon—including Coho, Chinook, Chum, and Sockeye—as well as steelhead and sea-run trout as either threatened or endangered anadromous fish in the northwest region. According to agency officials, BLM and Forest Service lands in Oregon and Washington include watersheds that represent some of the best remaining habitat for salmon and other aquatic life, often serving as refuge areas for the recovery of listed species. As such, unobstructed passage into and within these watersheds is critical. Culverts—-generally pipes or arches made of concrete or metal—-are commonly used by BLM and the Forest Service to permit water to flow beneath roads where they cross streams, thereby preventing road erosion and allowing the water to follow its natural course. Culverts come in a variety of shapes and sizes, designed to fit the circumstances at each stream crossing, such as the width of the stream or the slope of the terrain. Historically, agency engineers designed culverts for water drainage and passage of adult fish. However, as a culvert ages, the pipe itself and conditions at the inlet and outlet can degrade such that even strong swimming adult fish cannot pass through the culvert. The agencies remove, repair, or replace culverts to restore fish passage, as shown in figure 1. To meet the objectives of the Northwest Forest Plan and PACFISH, as well as Oregon and Washington state standards, current culvert repair or replacement efforts must result in a culvert that allows the passage of all life stages of fish, from juvenile to adult. As of August 1, 2001, the agencies' fish passage assessments identified almost 2,600 barrier culverts—over 400 on BLM lands and nearly 2,200 on Forest Service lands—-and agency officials estimate that, in total, up to 5,500 fish barrier culverts may exist. BLM's 10 district offices are collecting culvert information as part of their ongoing watershed analysis activities and have not established a date for completing all culvert assessments. The Forest Service, using a regionwide fish passage assessment protocol, plans to complete data collection for all of its 19 forests by the end of calendar year 2001. The culvert information the agencies are collecting will help them coordinate and prioritize culvert repair, replacement, and removal efforts. Based on their current knowledge of culvert conditions, the agencies project that to restore fish passage at all barrier culverts could cost over $375 million and take decades to finish. BLM's district offices are assessing fish passage through culverts as part of the ongoing land management activity of a watershed analysis. A watershed analysis—-a systematic procedure to characterize the aquatic (in-stream), riparian (near stream) and terrestrial (remaining land area) features within a watershed—- is a requirement of the Northwest Forest Plan and provides the foundation for implementing stream and river enhancement projects, timber sales, and road building and decommissioning projects. According to an agency official, the extent to which a watershed analysis has been completed varies by district. The five western Oregon districts entirely within the Northwest Forest Plan's jurisdiction, which contain 98 percent of BLM's culverts on fish-bearing streams, have completed watershed analyses for 87 to 100 percent of their lands. The range for the remaining five districts is 0 to 18 percent. Each BLM district office maintains its own records regarding barrier culverts on its lands. As of August 1, 2001, BLM's district offices had assessed 1,152 culverts for fish passage and identified 414 barrier culverts. BLM plans to continue its ongoing watershed analysis process, and estimates, based on assessments to date, that an additional 282 barrier culverts may be identified, for a total of 696 culverts blocking fish passage. The Forest Service initiated a regionwide assessment of culverts on fish-bearing streams in fiscal year 1999 to determine the scope of fish passage problems and to create a database of culvert information that will allow it to prioritize projects to address barrier culverts on a regionwide basis. The region first developed written guidance and provided implementation training to staff at each forest office. In fiscal year 2000, 13 of the 19 forests conducted the assessments and reported the results to the region's fish passage assessment database. In fiscal year 2001, the remaining six forest offices initiated their assessments and follow-up and verification of the first year's results is ongoing. As of August 2001, the forest offices had assessed 2,986 culverts for fish passage and identified 2,160—or about 72 percent—as barrier culverts. The region plans to complete its assessment by December 2001, and based on its findings thus far, estimates that an additional 2,645 barrier culverts may be identified, for a total of 4,805 culverts blocking fish passage. On the basis of information collected as of August 1, 2001, the two agencies estimate a total of 10,215 culverts on fish-bearing streams under their jurisdictions—2,822 culverts on BLM lands and 7,393 culverts on Forest Service lands—as shown in figure 2. Detailed information on district and forest office culvert assessment efforts is provided in appendix I. Additional ground work is necessary before both agencies have complete information on the extent of barrier culverts on their Oregon and Washington lands, and as such, neither agency has established a process for prioritizing passage restoration projects on a regionwide basis. However, the agencies are using the fish passage information they have collected to help them coordinate and prioritize culvert repair, replacement, and removal efforts on a more limited scale. For example, officials at BLM's Coos Bay district stated that through the ongoing culvert assessment process, they annually reprioritize culvert projects for each resource area within the district and for each watershed within each resource area, thus ensuring that the most critical barriers are addressed first. In addition, according to BLM state office officials, some culverts identified by district offices as fish passage barriers are included in their deferred maintenance and capital improvement project backlog and evaluated for funding among other road and facility projects. State office officials stated that while culvert passage restoration projects have not ranked high due to the critical nature of other backlog projects, they expect barrier culvert projects to move up the list for funding as the backlog is reduced. National forest offices use their culvert fish passage assessment information to assist them in prioritizing culvert maintenance activities and for broader road management planning purposes. For example, in fiscal year 2001, regional officials directed each forest office to identify its top five culvert passage restoration projects when submitting its final assessment report. The region considered these projects for funding; however, according to a regional office official, it is not known how many of these projects were actually completed. In addition, Olympic National Forest officials stated that they have developed a draft road management strategy that uses the fish passage assessment results as input to assist them in further prioritizing of road projects identified by the strategy.