The Hangman Restoration Project was initially contracted in August of 2001.  Hangman Creek once supported a run of Chinook salmon and steelhead and a site near the current town of Tekoa, Washington was one of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe’s main fishing areas.  The Hangman Restoration Project was intended to pursue duel benefits of both Wildlife Mitigation and Resident Fish Substitution within the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Program.  The first years of the Project were focused toward identifying priority habitats and pursuing the purchase of parcels that offered the greatest potential to support native fish and wildlife habitats.  Properties were purchased in FY2005 that are credited to Albeni Falls construction and inundation losses.  Assessments of the properties were completed in FY 2006 and 2007.  A management plan for the properties, which the Tribe refers to collectively in the Coeur d'Alene language as hnt'k'wipn, was drafted in Fiscal Year 2007.  

Fiscal Year 2008, the year of this scope of work, will be the first year of implementing substantive management activities on hnt'k'wipn.  The major thrust of these work elements and corresponding budgets are focused toward completing stream alignment and wetland designs and initiating restoration efforts that will prepare the property for in-stream and habitat improvements.  Native fish and habitat improvements within hnt'k'wipn will be accomplished in a yearly stepwise fashion such that activities in any given year will follow the successes of previous years and prepare the landscape for activities to be accomplished in following years.  This strategy will minimize risks, build on successes, and spread the financial burden over a longer period.  For FY2008, habitat restoration activities will include thinning the mature forest on the property to reflect pine open woodland conditions and allow increased diversity within the understory, planting native grasses in an area taken out of agricultural production, and disrupting the drain tile network that removes soil moisture from potential wetlands.  

The ultimate goal of the Hangman Restoration Project and the Hangman Fisheries Project (BPA Project #2001-032-00) is to prepare the Hangman Watershed for the return of the salmon and steelhead anadromous runs.  In order to accomplish this task the focus of the Hangman Restoration Project must remain on the Hangman Watershed at large.  In this current scope of work, a partnership with the NRCS and FSA is officially initiated to implement Continuous Conservation Reserve Programs (CCRP) on priority parcels in the Hangman Watershed.  In the passed the Hangman Restoration has invested efforts in attempting to acquire conservation easements on priority parcels.  However, this approach was fruitless as landowners were very wary of this new and unknown process.  The use of CCRP process has also been an intent of this Project from its inception and it appears that the timing is right to begin what promises to be a productive restoration process.  Landowners are aware of the longstanding program and accepting of the enrollment of segments of their properties in CCRP where they would be distrustful of a conservation easement.  Also, Allotted and Tribal lands within the Hangman Watershed are situated such that they can be enrolled in CCRP to the benefit of the native habitats, where easements would not be accepted.  

As part of the watershed level focus, the Hangman Restoration Project intends to use the latest data and information to identify priority habitats for in-stream and terrestrial habitat restoration.  The Hangman Restoration Project worked cooperatively with an Environmental Protection Agency funded project to identify priority land segments in the Watershed from a hydrologic prospective.  The results of this recent study are now being formalized in reports and papers.  Wetland extent and function in the Hangman Watershed greatly effect instream conditions since the water bearing soils are perched well above aquifers that could infuse the streams with a steady water supply.  Stream flow through the dry season is determined by the amount of water stored in the surface and near surface water holding capacity of the soil.  Hydrologically, downstream conditions appear to influence wetland potentials more than upstream conditions.  These discoveries greatly alter the definition of priority landscape parcels and the Habitat Prioritization Plan must be updated in incorporate these recent findings.  This Scope of Work also includes a work element and milestones to incorporate the recent hydrologic findings into the Habitat Prioritization Plan.