Two Yakama Nation fish habitat restoration projects were awarded more than $2.8 million by the Bureau of Reclamation, according to a news release from U.S. Sen. Patty Murray’s office.
The funds are part of $8.7 million in awards to five environmental water resource projects across the state — two involving the Yakama Nation, two in Kittitas County and one in Chelan County.
“This announcement is great news for the Yakama Nation and Chelan and Kittitas counties as they work to restore critical fish habitats, conserve water, improve watershed health and help surrounding ecosystems,” Murray said in a news release.
The awards are funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, in which Reclamation is investing a total of $8.3 billion across the country over five years for water infrastructure projects.
The Yakamas received nearly $2.3 million for anadromous fish survival in the Lower Yakima River. In partnership with the Benton County Conservation District, the tribe will improve fish passage and habitat projection and enhancement.
The tribe will complete a cold-water refuge within the mainstream at the confluence of Amon Creek that include 1,400 linear feet of cool water channel habitat and restoration of 20 acres of riparian area. The project also calls for the completion of electrofishing and the installation of a fish trap on the Wanawish Dam to remove and prevent reintroduction of invasive predatory fish that impede migrating fish. The project aims to improve steelhead, chinook, coho and sockeye runs and Pacific lamprey population.
The Yakamas received $600,000 for another project that will reconnect about 9 miles of side channel along the Yakima River within the Yakama Reservation. Upstream flow regulations in Reclamation’s Yakima project have constricted historical floodplain processes and blocked side channel access for native fish. The tribe will excavate five historic side channels connecting to the river’s main stem and install two logjam inlet structures to ensure fish access.
The Kittitas Conservation Trust was awarded nearly $2.5 million for an in-stream restoration project on Gold Creek, the headwaters of the upper Yakima River in Kittitas County.
The Kittitas Reclamation District received $3 million to restore in-stream flows that will benefit fish and wildlife in Manastash Creek. The project involves piping 2,656 feet of canal, which is expected to save 385 acre-feet of water lost to seepage each year. The water savings will benefit coho, chinook, steelhead and bull trout.
Chelan County was awarded $468,903 to restore wet meadow hydrology in Camas Meadows, a unique ecosystem within the steep canyon drainage of the north-central Cascades. The 1,300-acre meadow flows into Camas Creek in the Wenatchee watershed.
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