Industrial and agricultural pollution and toxic contamination, dams that block fish migration and access to spawning habitat—the decline of salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and lamprey in the Columbia River is has many causes. To restore the river and the life that depends upon it, the Yakama Nation Fisheries is employing many and varied strategies, simultaneously. In some areas, habitat recovery is the key; in others, supplementation of salmon runs may need to be the driver.
The Wapato Reach of the Yakima River, between Union Gap and Mabton, has experienced a 40% to 50% aerial cover loss in riparian forest between 1949 and 2015, as documented in the 2021 Wapato Reach Riparian Assessment.
This project aims to restore side channel and wetland habitat over 900 acres and 6 miles of side channels on the Yakima River, near the town of Toppenish, Washington, within the Yakama Reservation.
The Yakama Nation, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S.
Hemlock Dam was demolished and removed in the summer of 2009. The dam was an aging Forest Service facility on Trout Creek, in the Wind River watershed of southwest Washington.
Yakama Nation Fisheries has developed a restoration design for Dry Creek River Mile 1.8-3.8.
Yakama Nation Fisheries is managing the Dry Creek Confluence Project, located where it joins Wind River, which aims to improve habitat for threatened steelhead populations.
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 apply
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.
This project expands research, monitoring, and evaluation (RM&E) activities conducted by the co-managers in the Yakima Basin (Yakama Nation and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife-WDFW) to better evaluate viable salmonid population (VSP