This amended contract includes a Scope of Work and budget for the "add-on" work to be performed in 2010. The 2010 construction season will address fish passage barriers in Derby Canyon Creek. Contract dates start on 11/20/2009 and extend to 03/14/2011. Work for the "add-on" contract will focus on conducting surveys as needed, developing designs, obtaining permits, monitoring, replacing barriers, and post construction riparian planting. A percent sign (%) was added to the title of the "add-on" work elements to indicate new work. Work Elements W through AJ, plus U, describe the work that will be conducted under this amended Scope of Work.

The following notes are from the original Access contract with a performance period of 03/15/2009 through 03/14/2010, which includes Work Elements A through V. The 2009 construction season addressed fish passage barriers in Chumstick Creek.
Special Note Regarding Subcontracts:  Copies of all sub=contracts shall be submitted to the BPA Contracting Officer within two-weeks issuance.  (D. Byrnes)

The UPA Wenatchee Subbasin Access Programmatic (Wenatchee Access) projects are proposed by the Chelan County Natural Resource Department (CCNRD) and are part of a regional commitment by Chelan County to initiate long-term habitat protection and restoration efforts within the Wenatchee River subbasin for ESA-listed species. The Wenatchee Access projects will be located in the Chumstick Creek watershed in the Wenatchee subbasin. Replacing the Chumstick Creek barrier culverts will primarily benefit Upper Columbia steelhead. In addition, Upper Columbia spring Chinook may benefit from these actions and bull trout may re-establish in the watershed.

ISRP comments for the Wenatchee Access proposal include:
This proposal does not adequately justify the actions proposed in terms of specific benefits to fish and wildlife and description of methods and, thus, does not meet the ISRP review criteria. This proposal could have made a stronger case for replacing the culverts in question if it summarized what species would benefit from the passage improvements for each watershed, and estimated how many miles of stream would potentially be made available after road crossings were fixed. This work would replace 43 culverts in the Wenatchee subbasin. Only one of those culverts - Mill Creek in the Peshastin watershed - is described. The Mill Creek culvert is located near the mouth of the stream and is claimed to block steelhead spawning migrations and possibly other anadromous or adfluvial salmonids, although steelhead is the only species apart from westslope cutthroat that occurs in Mill Creek according to the distribution maps supplied with the proposal. No details about the other 42 culverts are given, however the map in attachment B shows they are located in clusters on Derby, Brender, Ruby, and East Fork Mission Creeks.

This proposal should have provided information about habitat conditions upstream from the fish barriers in these streams so that replacing the problem culverts would be better justified. The proposal should have also described what structures will replace the culverts and how fish passage at all life history stages will be assured. Will modular bridges be used, bottomless arch culverts, low-water crossings (crossings that are inundated at high flow), or other types of road crossing structures? The narrative says that the Upper Columbia River Regional Technical Team's prioritization scheme will influence the order of repairing the crossings, but details are not provided. If some streams have a higher priority for passage improvements than others, the rationale should be given. It is unlikely that Level 1 monitoring will reveal whether the fish passage improvements achieve their desired objective unless actual stream surveys are carried out post-replacement.

This contract is addressing the ISRP comments by providing a final version of the Upper Columbia Regional Technical Team (UCRTT) final barrier prioritization framework, which prioritized the culverts based on biological benefit. The results indicated that Chumstick Creek culverts were a high priority. The combined biological benefit of replacing the North Road Culvert and the privately owned Chumstick Creek culverts will greatly benefit Upper Columbia steelhead. Specific comments from the UCRTT include the following:
Chumstick Creek is a 4th order stream (Strahler 1:100k classification) at the North Road culvert so it is automatically high priority under our general rules. The remaining culverts upstream of the North Road are also high priority based on greater than 5 km of low gradient habitat for steelhead spawning and rearing. The Chumstick Creek watershed did have a very poor USFS riparian road analysis score (-0.82); however, we believe that the majority of roads causing that low score are upstream of the anadromous reaches of Chumstick Creek. Additionally, Chumstick Creek is considered a major spawning area for steelhead based on intrinsic potential, so it is important for spatial structure considerations in steelhead viability. Additional use by spring Chinook juveniles for rearing is also expected in the lower portions of Chumstick Creek. Chelan County Natural Resource Department and the USFWS are working together to replace the North Road Culvert as well as the remaining passage barriers on private property. The North Road Culvert is scheduled to be replaced in 2009, and it is anticipated that the remaining 13-18 barriers will be replaced in the next several years.

CCNRD staff worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assess the culverts to determine which ones were barriers and needed to be replaced. Then CCNRD contacted landowners to determine feasibility of replacing the barrier culverts. Sites were considered “feasible” when the landowner was willing to have the barrier culvert replaced. All landowners that were contacted by CCNRD regarding barrier culverts on their property signed landowner willingness forms, which are posted on PISCES. The preferred alternative for each of the barrier culvert sites was identified and discussed with the landowners.

Work in 2008 included project identification, prioritization, feasibility analysis, survey, design and permitting. Construction and monitoring will occur for several of these projects in 2009. This will include advertising and awarding construction contracts to qualified companies. The work for the 2007-09 Wenatchee Access proposal will end with this performance period (approximately March 2010). Refer to the PISCES Statement of Work Report for more details regarding the Work Elements, Milestones and timelines.

The existing fish passage barrier culverts will be replaced by modular bridges. Hardened fords or low-water crossings will not be used to replace the culverts. The bridges were designed to meet the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s criteria to ensure fish passage for all life stages during all times of the year. The Chumstick Design Drawings are posted as an attachment in PISCES.

Twelve barrier culverts are scheduled for replacement in the 2009 performance period.

No property was purchased with the previous Wenatchee Access contract (project 200740000, contract number 37517). Therefore, a Property Inventory sheet is not attached.