# CCR-27658
SOW modified to add Work Element 100  for construction observation and increase the project budget.
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This actions funded under this contract are elements of a larger multi-agency effort to implement habitat improvement projects within the Upper Columbia River Tributary system designed to address the priorities established by the Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Plan.  The Bureau of Reclamation completed the Middle Methow (M2) Reach Assessment in August 2010.  The assessment provided the basis for identification and prioritization of projects to benefit ESA-listed fish species.  As the next step in this effort, Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation (MSRF) and its partners, including Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), Yakama Nation (YN), WA Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), and Trout Unlimited (TU), plan to implement multiple salmon habitat enhancement projects in the M2 reach of the Methow River beginning in 2012.  

This M2 Implementation Contract is for two construction projects within the larger M2 Habitat project that MSRF has scheduled for construction in 2012:
     1.  M2-Whitefish Island Habitat Improvement Project (WFI), and
     2.  M2-WDFW Floodplain Habitat Improvement Project (WDFW)

Implementation for these projects includes the following elements:
     •  Construction of habitat complexity structures,
     •  Connection of off-channel habitat,
     •  Enhancement of wetland areas,
     •  Restoration and enhancement of riparian areas, and
     •  Completion of any short-term adaptive management actions as necessary to achieve the project objectives.  

The project sites were identified through a reach-scale effort to improve habitat and habitat forming process to support the long- and short-term recovery of ESA-listed spring Chinook and steelhead.  The project areas, like most of the M2 reach, have little cover or complexity.  Historic and ongoing land uses, including bank hardening, conversion of riparian areas, and loss of natural stands of cottonwood forest, severely limit opportunities for natural restoration of river processes.  The purpose of the specific project elements is to restore natural processes to the greatest degree feasible while adding sustainable features that immediately improve habitat based on the reach-level goals.  The project primarily targets rearing juvenile fish during low water, but project features are also intended to provide benefits for both juvenile and adult fish during all flows.

The goals for the project areas are as follows:

M2-WFI
     •  Increase habitat complexity in side channels to improve rearing for juvenile spring Chinook salmon and steelhead
     •  Reduce stranding and overwinter mortality by increasing duration and extent of surface water flow in side channel
     •  Protect and improve existing overwinter rearing habitat in groundwater-fed pools
     •  Increase habitat complexity along main channel margins to provide cover and refuge for juvenile spring Chinook and steelhead
     •  Promote long-term wood recruitment, shade, and bank complexity by protecting existing riparian vegetation and reestablishing missing riparian vegetation
     •  Provide high flow refugia by restoring floodplain/channel interaction
     •  Support habitat for Pacific lamprey by promoting and protecting fine sediment deposition and slow water habitat
     •  Add structure to capture and retain mobile wood in the project area to provide cover and increase streambed complexity.
     •  Increase protection for side channel and floodplain integrity.

M2-WDFW
     •  Provide high flow refugia and improve nutrient cycling by restoring floodplain/channel interaction
     •  Increase habitat complexity in side channels to improve rearing for juvenile spring Chinook salmon and steelhead
     •  Restore an appropriate channel width to improve in-channel habitat conditions during low water
     •  Improve juvenile steelhead, spring Chinook and Pacific lamprey access to off channel habitat.  
     •  Increase habitat complexity along main channel margins to provide cover and refuge for juvenile spring Chinook and steelhead
     •  Promote long-term wood recruitment, shade, and bank complexity by protecting existing riparian vegetation and reestablishing missing riparian vegetation
     •  Remove abandoned infrastructure that restricts channel-floodplain interaction and artificially controls channel grade
     •  Support habitat for Pacific lamprey by promoting and protecting fine sediment deposition and slow water habitat
     •  Add structure to capture and retain mobile wood in the project area to provide cover and increase streambed complexity.
     •  Reduce salmon mortality caused by potential periodic maintenance of an irrigation diversion.

The project will focus on restoring floodplain and river processes, improving off-channel habitat, and restoring riparian function.  Actions will include removing remnants of unnecessary infrastructure, placing wood structures, replacing undersized culverts, and planting native trees and shrubs.  Public and landowner concerns over large wood structures on the mainstem Methow River currently limit opportunities for implementation of more comprehensive actions to increase main channel habitat complexity.  

MSRF has secured separate funding through BPA and Reclamation to complete the necessary state, local, and federal permitting processes, including ESA and cultural resource consultation.  Instream construction for the WFI and WDFW projects is scheduled to begin in July 2012.

MSRF has also secured separate BPA funding for a portion of the LWD trees and rootwads required for habitat structures in the project.