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.