Activity:

Restoration

Restoring, enhancing, improving watershed or stream function and process.

Pond 5 Reach Riparian Restoration

The Wapato Reach of the Yakima River, between Union Gap and Mabton, has experienced a 40% to 50% aerial cover loss in riparian forest between 1949 and 2015, as documented in the 2021 Wapato Reach Riparian Assessment. Forest loss is caused by the fundamentally impaired flow regime, this impairment being driven by the storage and diversion of water for irrigated agriculture. This rate of forest loss is unsustainable and will lead to the destruction of the majority of the forest by 2100 unless resource managers and funders take corrective action.

Yakima River Mile 89.5 Floodplain Reconnection

This project aims to restore side channel and wetland habitat over 900 acres and 6 miles of side channels on the Yakima River, near the town of Toppenish, Washington, within the Yakama Reservation. The intent is to restore fish and wildlife habitat, which have been degraded by land use changes, land conversion to agriculture, and river regulation.

Wapato Diversion Reconstruction

The Yakama Nation, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and partners, are designing and constructing improvements to the Wapato Diversion Dam (Diversion) on the Yakima River, about two miles south of Union Gap, Washington.  The Diversion project is being developed over several years and consists of two main stages: (1) A series of short-term repairs constructed in March of 2024 and (2) The design and construction of features to achieve long-term, multidisciplinary objectives.

Dry Creek RM 1.8-3.8

Yakama Nation Fisheries has developed a restoration design for Dry Creek River Mile 1.8-3.8. This design, informed by a Geomorphic Assessment and Seepage Study, will guide instream and riparian wood enrichment, constructed margin jams, and removal of a spoil pile within the floodplain. These efforts aim to encourage natural wood accumulation, bank erosion for wood recruitment, and activation of floodplains, side channels, and alcove habitat to improve conditions for steelhead lifecycles.

Hemlock Dam Removal

Hemlock Dam was demolished and removed in the summer of 2009. The dam was an aging Forest Service facility on Trout Creek, in the Wind River watershed of southwest Washington. At 26-feet high and 183 feet across, the concrete dam formed a migration impediment to Lower Columbia River steelhead, and degraded water quality and habitat for the fish through the lower two miles of Trout Creek, a major tributary to Wind River.

Cle Elum Pool Raise: Speelyi Shoreline Protection Tree Harvest

The goal of this project is to remove trees in preparation for the Bureau of Reclamation’s construction of the Cle Elum Pool Raise: Speelyi Shoreline Protection Project. The Bureau of Reclamation who is leading and funding this Project owns Cle Elum Dam. Yakama Nation serves as a support role to work with communities along the shoreline of Cle Elum Lake to implement the Cle Elum Pool Raise Project. More information can be found online at https://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/eis/cleelumraise/.

RFP - On-Call Wetland Assessment and Environmental Permitting Services

Yakama Nation Fisheries is seeking proposals from qualified Wetland Assessment and Environmental Permitting firms to award a new consultant services contract for wetland assessment services in support of salmon habitat restoration projects taking place in the Upper Columbia Region (including the Methow, Entiat, and Wenatchee Valleys) in Chelan and Okanogan Counties, Washington.  Based upon the proposals received under this solicitation, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation will award a one-year on-call contract to the best quality bidder for the Scope of Work described wit