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-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.  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:  WDFW will advance the preliminary design (initiated under contract #68874), permitting, and pre-construction activities for habitat restoration at Project Area 13, conceptually described in the restoration plan (Anchor QEA, Nov 2011) as a priority action for improving spring Chinook, by focusing on increasing channel length, improving shape, channel complexity, and floodplain connectivity.

Under this abreviated contract (6.5 mos) WDFW will lead the implementation supervision for: completion of a final design, surveys and clearances, and any ancillary near-term pre-construction site evaluation and access preparation, in anticipation of implementation of Project Area 13, scheduled for the summer of 2020.  The PA-13 project actions were identified as a high priority for habitat improvements (Anchor QEA, Nov 2011), and will focus on increasing large wood debris complexity and floodplain connectivity, the highest priority actions for spring Chinook in the Tucannon.  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.

This is a unique opportunity for the Programmatic habitat effort in that significant channel length improvements and floodplain connectivity are possible at this site.  A complementary project, funded by a legislative capital project grant (WA) and managed by WDFW, is underway to reconfigure an existing fish weir and trap and adjacent impoundment (Rainbow Lake) to reduce the impoundment footprint in the floodplain scheduled for implementation in 2017-19.  Combined, the two projects create an opportunity for a larger floodplain reactivation and connection in the PA-13 project reach.  WDFW, independently and through the programmatic, is engaged in design considerations and leading the development of the Rainbow Lake capital project, to maximize effectiveness and the opportunities represented by the two closely-related projects; WDFW’s intention is to be ready by late 2019 for implementation of the PA-13 design in the summer of 2020.
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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 spring of year-four is reclamation work and the re-planting of 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 all pre-construction activities.  The Tucannon River In-Water Work Window is July 15th through August 20th for all the stream reaches located on WDFW public lands.  Site plantings (design features) and reclamation (impact remediation) will occur 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.