Background:  The Tucannon River basin is located within the ceded-area of the CTUIR in Southeast Washington State, in Columbia and Garfield counties.  The system-wide restoration objective for the Tucannon River is to improve habitat conditions for Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed species (Snake River Spring Chinook and Steelhead) for all life history stages.  It is expected that improved habitat conditions will lead to an increase in the abundance of listed species returning to the river.  Increasing abundance will lead to de-listing of the species, which is the overall recovery goal for the system.  Previous efforts (CTUIR, WDFW, CCD and SRSRB) have identified the habitat-limiting factors associated with the decline of ESA-listed populations.  

The Tucannon River Geomorphic Assessment & Habitat Restoration Study (Anchor QEA, April 2011) identified and prioritized stream reaches and restoration actions which would best improve habitat for salmonids.  Focusing on the high priority areas for Tucannon spring Chinook, the Columbia Conservation District (CCD) coordinated the development of a habitat restoration plan for the Tucannon River from RM-20 upstream to RM-50; the CCD continued to work with the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board (SRSRB), through the Tucannon River Programmatic Habitat project, and extended the Tucannon River restoration plan from RM-20 downstream to the confluence of the Snake River.  This Conceptual Restoration Plan (Anchor QEA, November 2011) has prioritized projects into three Tiers (1-3) based on the projected effects of implementation as a benefit to Snake River spring Chinook, cost-efficiency relative to those benefits, and the feasibility of construction.
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Overview:  The Snake River Salmon Recovery Board (SRSRB) manages the Tucannon River Programmatic Habitat Project (2010-077-00) through a parent contract for the operations support, management organization, implementation assistance, and reporting described in this summary.  The goal of the Tucannon River programmatic is to restore habitat function and natural channel processes in the spring Chinook priority restoration reaches of the Tucannon River, leading to improved population productivity and abundance.  The CTUIR will manage this project as a contribution in support of programmatic goals, consistent with the CTUIR River Vision: a desired riverine system that is shaped and maintained by the dynamic interactions and interconnections of its natural physical and ecological processes. The restoration actions proposed for implementation in the prioritized river segments promote and enhance the interconnected nature of the five primary touchstones of the Tribes' Vision: a) hydrology, b) geomorphology, c) connectivity, d) riparian community, and e) aquatic biota.  

Major limiting factors influencing the condition of these touchstones throughout the project reaches proposed for treatment in the watershed, include:  
  • Anthropogenic modifications affecting and causing loss of natural channel forming processes linking the Tucannon River to its floodplain,
  • Loss of key in-channel habitat complexity, including diversity and quantity, especially in the form of gravel sorting, velocity diversity, and pools associated with large wood, and
  • Elevated summer water temperatures.

Status:  This CTUIR support contract facilitates the development of future projects and the refinement of work planning, consistent with the Tribes' First-Foods and River Vision, as well as identifying and sequencing projects for implementation pursuant to the prioritized restoration strategy of the Habitat Programmatic.  CTUIR will partner with SRSRB participants to implement projects; this contract continues the CTUIR role anticipated in the Accords (BPA) and the Tucannon Habitat Programmatic Project: to help perform project selection, implementation management, monitoring planning, data collection, outreach, and other tasks where tribal staff can provide expertise; and to be an implementer of the on-the-ground project construction activities for projects identified in the Programmatic work plan, and sub-regional Snake River Salmon Recovery Plan.

Current Emphasis:  Under this contract, CTUIR will maintain watershed coordination with SRSRB, CCD, WDFW and Nez Perce Tribe by attending monthly and quarterly meetings.  CTUIR will also be a member of and attend the associated meeting of the SRSRB Lead Entity committee, which reviews, ranks and selects projects for funding through the State of Washington RCO board.  CTUIR will lead the implementation supervision for: pre-construction site preparation, permitting, and design finalization in Project Area 17-18, scheduled for implementation during the summer of 2017/2018 in a phased approach.  PA 17-18 actions were identified as a high priority for habitat improvements (Anchor QEA, Nov 2011), and will focus on increasing the amount of large wood debris to increase channel complexity and floodplain connectivity, the highest priority actions for spring Chinook in the Tucannon.  A description of the project area with respect to existing natural processes and habitat conditions is provided in the Design Report, along with the specific physical and biological objectives that the proposed restoration features are expected to achieve.  Concurrently, the measures proposed are generally compatible with WDFW management objectives for this portion of the watershed area, and with the irrigation operations associated with the W.T. Wooten Wildlife area food plots.

Project Elements: included in the first phase of the Hartsock Floodplain Restoration Project (PA 17-18), these project elements include:
  -- Removing selected levee segments, and excavating seasonally active side channels to increase floodplain connectivity and allow for local sediment deposition and channel migration;
  -- Helicopter and excavator installation of ~ 50 LWD structures to increase complexity throughout the reach to provide velocity refuge for instream juvenile salmonid habitat, pools for adult salmonid holding habitat and promote side channel and floodplain connectivity;
  -- Increase spring channel connectivity with the river on WDFW property to promote salmonid spawning and rearing; and
  -- Work toward long-term planning of the replacement of the downstream Tucannon River Road bridge.
In addition, the project’s contribution to the overall watershed-scale restoration plan is described in the basis of design report (BDA). Construction considerations and best management practices are included in the BDA and the 90% design drawings for the proposed treatment actions.

The 90% design identifies the following types of measures that can address spring Chinook limiting factors and the touchstones of the CTUIR River Vision: 1) Increasing large woody debris loading to promote instream habitat quantity, quality/complexity; 2) Increasing instream habitat quantity/quality with habitat boulder clusters; 3) Hydraulically reconnecting the river with its floodplain thru side channel construction (improved off channel habitat, floodplain vegetation); 4) Restoring riparian forest vegetation to promote future large wood loading and summer water temperature reductions; 5) Replacing downstream bridge to increase flood conveyance, and reduce upstream geomorphic effects.

The intention is to be ready for complete implementation of phase 1 of the PA-17/18 design in 2017.  The CTUIR may also initiate preliminary design, permitting, and pre-construction activities for habitat restoration at Project Area 4, 5, and 7, conceptually described in the restoration plan (Anchor QEA, Nov 2011) as a priority action for improving spring Chinook, by focusing on increasing channel length, improving shape, channel complexity, and floodplain connectivity.  This will include working with US Forest Service to complete a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review for the project area.
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Management Considerations: The initiation and subsequent management of restoration actions in each Project Area reach identified within the Tucannon Programmatic occurs generally on a four-year project-cycle overlap.  Each individual project is scheduled and completed across four major elements or sequenced stages:
-- Design, risk review, clearances and permitting,
-- Pre-construction activities (material staging and site preparation),
-- Construction (design implementation), and
-- Vegetative planting (design features) and reclamation, or site restoration and the remediation of construction impacts.  

Generally, year-one will include design and permitting; year-two will be material acquisition/pre-construction preparation/ logistics considerations; year-three is the construction of the design, and the spring of year-four is reclamation work and the re-planting of impacted areas.  Therefore, multiple projects will be progressing simultaneously and not sequentially; and the construction of one project will occur in each year over the duration of the Habitat Programmatic Project. Permits need to be in place prior to all pre-construction activities.  The Tucannon River In-Water Work Window is July15th through August 20th for all the stream reaches located in the Tucannon Watershed.  Site plantings (design features) and reclamation (impact remediation) will occur in subsequent years, usually followed by fall and spring planting cycles in the 3 years following the project construction.  Tree planting between the late fall–early spring is the critical period for plant survival, because the area has limited annual precipitation (approximately 12”-13”), mostly occurring in the winter and spring months.