The Umatilla Subbasin has been the homeland of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), since time immemorial. Riverine systems and floodplains have been dramatically altered since the Euro-American settlement of the region. This has led to expected habitat changes (i.e. degradation), such as channelization, lack of wetlands and riparian vegetation, and impaired water quality. This in turn has resulted in the steady decline in all fisheries resources within the Umatilla Subbasin.

Further information can be found in:
-Meacham Creek Watershed Analysis and Action Plan (Andrus et al 2003)
-Umatilla/Willow Subbasin Plan (NPCC 2004)
-CTUIR TMDL for Temperature and Turbidity (CTUIR 2004)
-The Umatilla River Vision (CTUIR 2008)
-Umatilla Subbasin 2050 Water Management Plan (Umatilla County 2008)
-Umatilla River Water Rights Assessment (CTUIR 2010)
-Birch Creek Watershed Action Plan (CTUIR 2016)
-First Foods Upland Vision (CTUIR 2019)

As a result of this apparent decline, the CTUIR Fisheries Department initiated the Umatilla Anadromous Fish Habitat Project (the Umatilla Project) in 1987 to protect, enhance, and restore functional floodplain, channel, and watershed processes to provide sustainable and healthy habitat for First Foods species. As part of the Northwest Power Conservation Council’s (NPCC) Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, this project is one of BPA’s actions to provide off-site mitigation for impacts to salmon and steelhead populations and wildlife habitat caused by the construction and operation of FCRPS dams. The Umatilla Project (BPA project 1987-100-01) specifically addresses habitat improvement gaps for the Middle Columbia population of the Umatilla Basin steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Distinct Population Segment (DPS) identified in the 2020 FCRPS BiOp including lost fishery resources that are of cultural significance of the CTUIR.  Additional species include ESA-listed Threatened bull trout, Mid-Columbia Spring and Fall Chinook salmon, re-introduced coho salmon, Pacific lamprey, and other native fishes.  Specific life stages addressed for these fishes include adult holding, spawning, juvenile rearing including over-wintering and migration.

The Project utilizes a First Foods-based strategy for aquatic ecosystem restoration organized around the Umatilla River and Upland Visions’ functional Touchstones: water quality and quantity, geomorphology, connectivity, riparian vegetation, and aquatic biota. These Touchstones allow for a clear and direct connection between traditional and contemporary methods, as well as a linkage to primary limiting factors, basin and subbasin plans, and ESA species recovery plans and watershed assessments. This also aligns with a holistic, processed-based methodology for enhancing and beginning the process to restore watershed processes to benefit treaty resources. Since the Project's inception, the Umatilla Project has engaged collaboratively with subbasin partners to strategically plan restoration, implement restoration actions, and cost share on critical habitat restoration and passage actions throughout the subbasin.  

The Umatilla Anadromous Fish Habitat Program (UAFHP) prioritizes the implementation of restoration actions following the principles of process-based restoration (Roni et al. 2002; Beechie et al 2008; Beechie et al. 2010). This framework includes addressing the fundamental ecological processes responsible for creating and maintaining high functioning habitat: protection, conservation, reconnection, and restoration.  Umatilla watershed limiting factors include In-channel characteristics (geomorphology and habitat complexity), Passage, Riparian/Floodplain, Sediment and water Temperature (2008 Fish Accords).

The proposed Project work in CY 2024 includes:

- Overall Habitat Program management for existing and proposed projects, land management activities such as noxious weed removal, revegetation, and monitoring fish passage at project sites.

- Mainstem Umatilla River Assessment and Action Plan:  The assessment and action plan have been developed in collaboration with state co-managers, Federal and local agencies and other stakeholders. The primary study area includes approximately 107 miles of stream from the confluence of the Columbia River near Umatilla, Oregon, to the headwaters of the North and South Forks of the Umatilla River in northeast Oregon. Secondarily, a reconnaissance-level assessment of the upland conditions and tributary processes that influence the primary study area.

- Imeques Project: Mainstem Umatilla River design project over 1.8 miles of stream (RM 77.1 78.9 to address off-channel fish habitats, instream complexity, and infrastructure concerns at the acclimation facility addressing steelhead/spring Chinook, coho spawning and rearing habitat enhancement.  

- West Birch Stanley Creek Fish Passage Project Implementation: These two projects were identified as a high priority on the ODFW/ODOT list of priority fish passage projects addressing steelhead adult and juvenile passage. They were also identified as a priority in the Birch Assessment (CTUIR 2016).

- Peterson Diversion Removal: The Peterson Diversion is the highest priority barrier located on the
Birch Creek mainstem since the downstream removal of the Reith Dam in 2018, and it ranks high on the statewide priority barrier list issued by the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife addressing steelhead adult and juvenile passage.