Habitat

Regional Priorities

The region is removing barriers to fish migration, keeping water in streams, planting trees to shade and keep the water cool, and removing and setting back dikes to allow rivers to reconnect with their floodplains. Recent accomplishments include the following:

• Completed projects that placed tree root wads and logs in the Tucannon and Touchet Rivers and along Alpowa and Asotin Creeks to improve salmon habitat.
• Reconnected more than one mile of floodplain on the Tucannon River by moving a dike back from the riverbank.
• Restored fish passage by removing culverts (pipes and other structures that carry streams under roads) in Buford and Cottonwood Creeks, opening more than seven miles of habitat.
• Made progress on projects that will restore fish access to more than fifty miles of habitat in Mill Creek.
• 645 miles of stream made accessible
• 91 barriers impeding passage corrected
• 1,213 riparian acres treated*
• 116 riparian stream miles treated*

*Riparian areas are streamside forests, wetlands, and vegetated areas. “Treated” usually means fenced to exclude cattle, planted with native trees and shrubs, removed invasive plants, or a combination of those.

For more information about habitat project actions, visit the Recreation and Conservation Office’s Salmon Recovery Portal and Project Search public databases.