Background: The Tucannon River basin is located 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. Increased abundance will lead to de-listing of the species, which is the overall recovery goal for the system. Previous efforts (CCD 2004; SRSRB 2006) have identified the habitat-limiting factors associated with the decline of ESA-listed populations.  

The Tucannon River Geomorphic Assessment & Habitat Restoration Study (Anchor QEA, 2011, updated 2021) 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 district continued to work with the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board (SRSRB), through the Tucannon River Programmatic Habitat project, and extended the restoration plan from RM-20 downstream to the confluence of the Snake River.  The Conceptual Restoration Plan (Anchor QEA, 2011, updated 2021) 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 channel processes in the spring Chinook priority restoration reaches of the Tucannon River, leading to improved population productivity and abundance.  

This BPA support contract will facilitate the development of future projects and the refinement of the work plan as well as soliciting project sponsors for implementation.  WDFW will partner with SRSRB to implement projects; this contract continues the WDFW role anticipated in the Tucannon Habitat Programmatic Project: to help perform project selection, implementation management, monitoring planning, data collection, outreach, and other tasks where WDFW can provide expertise; and to be an implementer of the on-the-ground project construction activities for projects identified in the work plan. In 2024-2025 WDFW will work with the Programmatic to identify a new WDFW work plan for the upcoming years based on the outcome of the Tucannon Conceptual Plan (2021), and Tucannon Floodplain Management Assessment and Action Plan.  

Current Emphasis:  WDFW will develop designs for new projects on the Tucannon Headwaters located in the W.T. Wooten Wildlife Area, help with permitting, and conduct pre-construction activities for those projects. Project designs for Project Area 14.1 and Project Area 8-10.3 were conceptually described in the restoration plan (Anchor QEA, 2021) as priority actions for improving spring Chinook habitat by focusing on increasing floodplain connectivity, channel complexity (perennial length), and habitat complexity.

The PA 8-10.3 project actions were identified as a high priority for habitat improvements (Anchor QEA, Nov 2021), and will focus on increasing large wood debris complexity, stream length, reducing stream power, and increasing floodplain connectivity, the highest priority actions for spring Chinook in the Tucannon. WDFW will work with project partners (Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of The Umatilla Indian Reservation, environmental consultants, and Floodplain Management Team) developing the PA 8-10.3 final design. The project’s contribution to the overall watershed-scale restoration plan is described in the Tucannon Conceptual Plan (Anchor QEA 2021).  The PA 8 - 10.3 Project includes the newly created floodplain exposed by the removal of Big Four Lake and provides a great opportunity to gain stream length in a reach that has high stream power. The 2021 Geomorphic Assessment also identifies a number of adaptive management restoration actions on the W.T. Wooten Wildlife Area that would greatly increase floodplain connectivity across a number of project areas previously treated over the past ten years.  WDFW will review those recommended project area concepts (PA 6, 9, 10, 11, 14) and prioritize two projects based on habitat potential, effort, and cost using the Tucannon Implementers Group and Regional Technical Team.  One of the two concepts (10%) would be prioritized further to be developed into a preliminary design (30%) for implementation in 2025.
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Management Considerations: The initiation and subsequent management of restoration actions in each identified Project Area 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
-- 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 winter/spring of year-four is planting of design features, site remediation, and the re-planting of impacted areas. Therefore, multiple projects may progress simultaneously and not sequentially. 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 July 15th through August 25th for most of the stream reaches located on WDFW public lands.  Site plantings (design features) and reclamation (impact remediation) can occur in the fall and the spring following the project construction. Tree planting during 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.