The nearly completed fish ladder at Soda Springs Dam on the North Umpqua River should be considered a positive project overall for Douglas County. Most important, it allows salmon, steelhead and other native species access to three miles of the North Umpqua River and three miles of Fish Creek for the first time in 60 years. Restoring the native habitat and increasing the area for spawning has the potential to increase the fish population in the North Umpqua, which should be encouraging to wildlife enthusiasts and anglers alike. Installing the fish ladder was a compromise arrived at by PacifiCorp and …