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.  Increasing 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, April 2011) 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-30 upstream to RM-50; the District continues to work with the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board (SRSRB), through the Tucannon River Programmatic Habitat project, to extend the restoration plan from RM-30 downstream to the confluence of the Snake River.  This Conceptual Restoration Plan (Anchor QEA, November 2011) 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.

Current Emphasis:  Under this contract WDFW will continue to lead the implementation supervision of the Project Area 14 construction scheduled for completion during the Summer of 2014.  The PA-14 project is identified as Tier I project (Anchor QEA, Nov 2011) and will focus on increasing large wood debris complexity and floodplain connectivity.  A description of the project area with respect to existing natural processes and habitat conditions is provided in the Design Report, along with the specific physical and biological objectives that the proposed restoration features are expected to achieve.  In addition, the project’s contribution to the overall watershed-scale restoration plan is described. Construction considerations and best management practices are included for the proposed treatment actions.

WDFW will also work to complete habitat restoration designs and permitting for Project Area 11 conceptually described in the restoration plan (Anchor QEA, Nov 2011).  It is WDFW’s intention to be ready for implementation of the design in 2015.   WDFW will also begin design and permitting tasks on Project Area 8 (conceptually described in Anchor QEA, Nov 2011, with an intended implementation in the 2016 work window.

WDFW will also begin design and permitting on Project Beetle Kill, taking advantage of the consequences of a persistent beetle infestation currently occurring on the W.T. Wooten Wildlife Area, with an intended implementation in 2016 work window.  The project concept is to identify areas of trees that are dead or dying from beetle infestation, coordinate with USFS, DNR, and others to determine the percentages of the dying trees that can be used for stream habitat restoration, design a helicopter delivered large wood replenishment project, and organize the design to maximize helicopter time (proximity of trees to project sites), address reaches that have no or limited access for conventional ELJ construction, and define and in some cases consolidate project reaches that will not be addressed during this effort.  Potential project benefits are, cost effective approach, treating a large area in a time effective manner, managing landscape impacts and associated costs, economical use of available materials, and reforestation of riparian areas from which trees are gathered.

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 and permitting,
-- Pre-construction work (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 spring of year-four is reclamation work and the re-planting impacted areas.  Therefore, multiple projects will be progressing simultaneously and not sequentially; and 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 most pre-construction activities.  The Tucannon River In-Water Work Window is July 15th through August 20th in the stream reaches located on WDFW public lands.  Reclamation will occur the spring following the project construction.  Tree planting during the spring is the critical period for plant survival, because the area has limited precipitation approximately 12”-13”, mostly occurring in the winter and spring months.