I've gotta add this.
Eventually ladders or some other viable means of fish passage WILL be built. Not just in the Cowlitz, but in the Lewis River as well.
There's a new force in the mix, and at present I'm not at liberty to discuss who it is.
We just dont know who's gonna foot the bill, how much the cost will be, or when, or how it will be achieved.
I'll throw this into the equation... a ladder to pass a 500 ft high dam could amount to 250 or more pools, and be approximately 2500 or more feet in length. Similar structures currently being built cost approximately $500 per foot, and complexity factors for this type of facility can add 100%. So it's not inconceivable that a ladder could cost $2 1/2 million, or more, and that's the cheap part. Operations and maintenance could add over $100,000 per year. So the question becomes: how will the program be paid for?
Then comes the question of how are the fish going to survive the passage on their upstream migration, and if they've expended that much energy just to climb the ladder, what will their success in spawning be? Then comes out-migration: how do you prevent the juvenile fish from becoming fish meal in the turbines?
These and other questions need answers that will work, before anyone is gonna allocate a dime.
The Columbia and Snake river system isnt that great of a model, their mortality rates are so high that you cant readily accept the viability of the program. But they DO have a upstream fishery...
I'm not posting this as a slap at anyone, and I'm not defending the State or TPL.
I'm actually trying to encourage some creative thought about how tho solve these problems. Once we have a solution, maybe something can be done for the fisheries and the people who use them.

Head hunter.