In partnership with:

Bonneville Power Administration

Mel Sampson Coho Facility

Background: During the pre-treaty era, 44,000 to 150,000 coho returned to the Yakima Subbasin annually. By the mid-1980s they were extinct. Habitat loss and overharvest are factors that led to the extinction. The fish’s cultural significance combined with U.S. v. Oregon objectives to restore salmon to upriver areas resulted in the release of hatchery fish (raised outside the subbasin) beginning in the mid-1980s. 

Chewuch River Reach Assessment

The Chewuch River supports populations of salmonids that are currently listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), including spring Chinook salmon, summer steelhead, and bull trout. Habitat for these species has been impacted by anthropogenic activities throughout the basin. Specific goals of this assessment include:
• Identify actions that address critical aquatic habitat impairments limiting the productivity of local salmonid populations.

Goodfellow/Chotzen Floodplain Reconnection

The proposed Goodfellow/Chotzen Floodplain Reconnection Project (Sunnyslope side channel) utilizes natural processes to restore floodplain functions in an approximately 5-acre area located along the left bank (north side) of the Wenatchee River at RM 1.4. The project will remove a low earthen berm from the floodplain, allowing water from an existing side channel to access a larger portion of its historic floodplain during high flows.

Nason Creek Inner Zone Project Identification

A Reach Assessment (RA) of the Lower White Pine Reach (LWP) of Nason Creek, Chelan County, WA was completed in 2009 by the USBR. The RA examines the condition of fluvial geomorphic processes and the effect on salmonid habitat, and identifies priority restoration strategies and areas. The effort presented in this document builds on the work completed in the RA by identifying more specific project opportunities within portions of the reach.

Entiat Stilwaters 3-D Reach Assessment

In 2009, the Yakama Nation  procured field investigations and analyses for fish habitat project alternatives for Reach 3-D of the Entiat River.  The 3-D Reach starts at River Mile (RM)24 and ends at RM 25.  The 3-D reach has been listed as a priority reach by the Bureau of Reclamation's Priority Reach Assessment Analyses.  The Regional Technical Team (RTT) selected priority reaches and drafted priority actions for implementing habitat actions on February 11, 2009 for the Stillwate

White Sturgeon Management Project

Yakama Nation Fisheries (YNF) has been exploring sturgeon culture requirements by rearing small numbers of white sturgeon in tribal hatchery facilities since the 1990s.  Fish were obtained from various sources, including the private Pelfrey sturgeon hatchery operating downstream from Bonneville Dam and mid-Columbia hatchery research by CRITFC and the USFWS. 

Pacific Lamprey Project

The Yakama Nation is working to restore natural production of Pacific lamprey to a level that will provide robust species abundance, significant ecological contributions and meaningful harvest within the Yakama Nations Ceded Lands and in the Usual and Accustomed areas.

Yakima Basin Steelhead Kelt Reconditioning

Columbia River steelhead are iteroparous (able to spawn multiple times). However, as post-spawned steelhead (kelts) attempt to migrate downstream to return to the ocean, their survival is adversely affected by major dams. Therefore, an innovative approach to effectively increasing abundance and productivity of steelhead populations is to capitalize on their inherent iteroparity by reconditioning kelts.

Yakima Klickitat Fisheries Project (YKFP)

To restore sustainable and harvestable populations of salmon, steelhead, and other at-risk species, the YKFP is evaluating all stocks historically present in the Yakima and Klickitat Subbasins and, using principles of adaptive management, is applying a combination of habitat protection and restoration, as well as hatchery supplementation or reintroduction strategies to address limiting factors.