This change in policy is not about dams, but is in response to a lawsuit by the home builders association and development associations.
Water flows downhill. While on the surface this may appear to only negatively effect further restoration of fish stocks (to some that alone is a major hit, to others it is not) to currently seldom or unused stretches of water, it could also have a serious effect on fish populations that haven’t been sufficiently studied to determine how critical the habitat in those areas of the watershed is to their survival. The burden of proof has been shifted.
Even where water with fish has been determined to be critical to those fish, in some areas around Puget Sound the economic impact was determined to outweigh the benefits of the salmon (according to the NMFS), so the areas lost protection. At the same time, the NMFS acknowledged that not all benefits of the salmon were accounted for. According to the NMFS officials, they are required to conserve, and “conserving” means keeping the fish from going extinct, not increasing or even keeping current levels.