Project goal is to implement habitat protection, enhancement and recovery strategies to restore habitat function and channel processes throughout the basin to improve species key life cycle survival and productivity.  Project focus is to assist implementation of the 45 projects prioritized into three implementation tiers throughout the 50 river miles in the completed geomorphic assessment areas.  The 45 projects are broken into three tiers of implementation priority, tier 1 being the highest priority.  There are 12-tier 1, 14-tier 2 and 19-tier 3 projects.  Individual Project Areas are designed at a sub-reach and/or reach scale.  The accumulated sub-reach and reach scale restoration actions will significantly improve natural processes and habitat conditions as well as the process utilized for identifying and prioritizing project selection and implementation.  Effectively changing river processes and habitat function requires reach-scale actions which is a goal of this project.  Conventionally, small scale or site specific actions have been the norm because of lack of reach scale geomorphic assessments and long term funding commitments.  Long term sufficient funding level commitment will lead to restoring channel processes and habitat function at and across the reach scale, improving species survival and productivity in the Tucannon River.

The technical basis for individual project areas was to first complete Phase I, Tucannon River Geomorphic Assessment and Habitat Restoration Study, (Anchor QEA April 2011) which includes; basin description, geomorphic conditions, fish habitat and distribution, hydrologic analysis, sediment transport and mobility analysis, sediment budget analysis and reach characteristics and delineation of 10 discrete river reaches.  This work strengthened the technical understanding of previously identified limiting factors, existing physical conditions and geomorphic processes in the basin in order to identify and prioritize habitat restoration areas.  Included in Anchor's assessment was Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data and true color Orthophotography of the Tucannon River floodplain, (Watershed Sciences, 2010).  

Phase II was to complete conceptual restoration plans for river reaches 6-10 and reach 2 and then rank and prioritize them based on a restoration framework loosely following the recommendation of Roni et al. (2002).  The criteria used for this framework was focused on Spring Chinook in support, coordination and cooperation with the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board (SRSRB) in their development of the Tucannon River Programmatic Habitat Project.  It was reasonably assumed habitat improvements for spring Chinook will also greatly benefit steelhead.  This phase was completed in November 2011 (Anchor QEA, November 2011).  This phase also included 30% designs for Project Area (PA) 2 (Anchor QEA November 2011b) and PA 14 (Anchor December 2011).  

Phase III included the conceptual restoration plans for reach 3 and 4 (Anchor QEA October 2012) and the development of the Integrated Species Restoration Prioritization, Tucannon River document (Anchor QEA November 2012) covering the Tucannon River from river mile 0.7 to 50.3 as well as including all ESA listed species and life cycles.  The conceptual restoration plan for reach 5 was completed for the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board (Anchor QEA October 2012) and was included.

The individual reach-scale projects (Project Areas-PA) covered in this proposal have been identified and prioritized by the geomorphic and conceptual restoration plans and reviewed by the SRSRB Regional Technical Team (RTT) and Tucannon Coordinating Committee (TCC) and placed on the SRSRB 3 year habitat work schedule.  Project areas are assessed under the following elements; channel characterization, floodplain characterization, conceptual project actions, geomorphic implications, biological benefits and potential challenges.  Projects are then evaluated and placed in implementation tiers based on four criteria: expected biological response, consistency with natural processes, benefit-to-cost and reach priority (Anchor November 2012, pages 29-44). The selection criteria that prioritizes the projects will address the limiting factors outlined for the Tucannon River in the 2008 Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion.

Prior to the establishment of the SRSRB Tucannon River Programmatic Habitat Project [#2010-077-00], habitat restoration was primarily restricted to actions directed through the CCD Tucannon Stream and Riparian Restoration program - with a limited and leveraged funding base.  The coordinated, cooperative implementation of prioritized habitat improvement projects among the CCD, SRSRB and CTUIR (Fish Accord) will accelerate priority restoration actions addressed to identified limiting factors throughout the basin.

Columbia Conservation District (CCD) will focus implementation on Tier 1 and 2 projects (26) with the core of projects (18) falling in river reaches 6-10, a critical fish (steelhead and spring Chinook) utilization overlap core area while targeting private lands, approximately 75% of assessed basin is in private landownership.  Depending on landowner willingness we will also actively pursue Tier 1 and 2 project (8) implementation in river reaches 2-5.  Private landowner willingness and ability to leverage BPA funding is a critical driver in successful project implementation.  CCD will present project proposals to affected landowners and assess interest and willingness to implement projects.  As projects planned for implementation progress through design stages they will be reviewed by RTT and TCC incorporating landowner and technical input.

It is acknowledged that full project implementation (45) to achieve the habitat restoration objectives identified in the various assessment documents is unlikely.   Considering the number of projects identified, still limited annual funding (although greatly improved among the programs), and the available seasonal work windows, potential project phasing due to complexity and scale/scope, landowner willingness to participate and the ability to complete multiple projects per year limits progression.  CCD supports SRSRB's anticipated 10 year implementation cycle.

In the interim to track progress using project effectiveness monitoring, BPA is funding CHaMP monitoring at 15 annual sites and 30 rotating panel sites across the basin.  In addition to the randomly selected (GRITS) CHaMP sites independently funded by BPA, the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board proposes to include four "prescribed" sites to the sampling.  These four sites are at specific planned project sites so that project specific effectiveness can be tracked in addition to the watershed scale status and trends data collected by the GRITS based design.  Both of these monitoring efforts are being conducted by independent contractors.  This coordinated M&E effort was put in place to reduce duplication of effort, cost and develop consistency in the methodology and protocols on a regional scale.  Regional review of monitoring data will provide adaptive management direction as to potential shift in implementation actions to address priority habitat limiting factor response.  CCD anticipates projects implemented under this proposal will fall under the BPA umbrella CHaMP monitoring with oversight coordination provided by SRSRB.


Implement habitat protection, enhancement and recovery strategies to support Tucannon Subbasin Plan and Snake River Salmon Recovery Plan identified ESA focal, cultural significant and species of interest recovery in the Tucannon Subbasin.  Tucannon Stream and Riparian Protection, Enhancement and Restoration Project, implemented by the Columbia Conservation District , will address riparian recovery/maintenance, flood plain connectivity and instream habitat quantity and diversity, the primary aquatic habitat limiting attributes identified thru EDT analysis and Geomorphic Assessment and Habitat Restoration Study throughout the Tucannon Subbasin.

Riparian recovery/maintenance, flood plain connectivity and instream habitats are critical management objectives addressing the broadest diversity of limiting attributes in identified priority restoration and protection geographic areas will be addressed.  Biological objectives of diversity, reduced embeddedness, LWD recruitment, primary pools, high flow refuga, riparian recovery and temperature will be addressed with this strategy and benefit ESA and cultural significant focal species, spring and fall Chinook, steelhead and bull trout during their respective key life stages throughout the watershed.  Accumulated restoration/protection geographic areas, Pataha/Marengo thru Mountain Tucannon matches NOAA's  Major Spawning Aggregation designation, (MSA), Pataha/Marengo to Tucannon Mouth and Lower Pataha match NOAA'a Minor Spawning Aggregation designations (mSA).

Instream habitat quantity and diversity project focus is within priority protection/restoration geographic areas which cover the entire watershed due to species and species specific life cycle needs.  Projects, implementing identified strategies, address various biological objectives; sediment reduction, primary pools, flood plain connectivity and LWD recruitment/placement.  Project implementation will provide habitat benefits to spring/fall Chinook, steelhead and bull trout during their respective varied life stage needs throughout the watershed.