This contract is being developed to fund two projects on the Washington State Wooten Wildlife Area for restoration of Spring Chinook habitat.  The Tucannon LWD Restoration project is designed to restore physical processes in a 2 mile reach of the Tucannon River.  The LWD (whole conifers with root wad intact) will be placed in the river using helicopter placement techniques.  The project is cost-shared by a $206,000.00 grant through the Snake River Salmon Recovery Funding Board.  The SRFB grant has been used to develop an assessment and design for the project and will be used as match for this BPA contract for the construction of the project.  A final assessment report and project design will be completed by October 2011 and will be added as an attachment  to this contract.

The Quonset Hut Removal and Floodplain Restoration Project is designed to remove a Quonset Storage building and an old bunkhouse from the Tucannon River Floodplain to allow for natural processes to reclaim secondary channels that, up until 3 years ago, were disconnected from the river.  Removal of the buildings and subsequent restoration of native grasses and riparian habitat within the floodplain will make it possible for the river to regain access to over 30 acres of natural floodplain.  Additionally, there is a major spring creek and wetland habitat within the project area that will provide additional rearing habitat opportunities when the river has access to the entire floodplain.  WDFW will provide match by implementing and paying for the habitat restoration.  Habitat restoration will include restoration of over 10 acres of native grassland, reconnection of existing floodplain channels, and restoration of nearly 4 acres of riparian habitat adjacent to an existing mature cottonwood gallery.  The riparian will be irrigated using well water on the property, and the wells will be trusted in a manner that their future use will be strictly for emergency (fire) or if needed for additional habitat restoration efforts. The Tucannon River has been channelized and confined over the past century; this project will open a significant area of spring and wetland habitat to be reclaimed by the river.  The benefits will primarily be restoration of historic spring Chinook spawning and rearing habitat, however large areas of riparian will be restored by the project and it is anticipated that natural riparian restoration will occur as well.