The Wind River Watershed project is a collaborative effort to restore wild steelhead in the Wind River.  The four agencies forming the nucleus of this partnership include the US Forest Service (FS), Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), U.S. Geological Survey Columbia River Research Lab (CRRL), and Underwood Conservation District (UCD).  This partnership was established in the early 1990's and with support from BPA, has continued to conduct important habitat, research, monitoring and coordination activities across the subbasin.  The project works at multiple levels to identify and characterize key limiting habitat factors in the Wind River, to restore degraded habitats and watershed processes, to measure, track and document fish populations, life histories, and interactions, and to share information across agency and non-agency boundaries.

This contract funds continued habitat restoration within the Wind River watershed.  In FY10, work under this contract includes continued operation of the Wind River Gage to support all of the habitat and monitoring efforts underway across the watershed.  The contract will also fund decommissioning of a road and all of the required surveys, public involvement, environmental coordination and documentation to support the project.  Funds available for this contract are inadequate to cover the full cost of the road decommission, so the FS will be actively pursuing other sources of (non-BPA) funds to provide cost share and allow accomplishment of this important project.  The road to be decommissioned (Forest Road 3056) is currently a source of sediment to the Wind River, and blocks migration of juvenile steelhead, resident fish, and other aquatic organisms on at least three branches of Youngman Creek, a tributary to the upper Wind River.  Removal of the undersized and perched culverts and decommissioning of the road will improve the hydrologic performance of the Youngman Creek drainage by reducing overland water flows, and permitting the streams to properly function over a range of flows.  Sediment introduction to the Wind River will be reduced, and connectivity within the stream and riparian corridor will be re-established, improving migration for all life histories of fish and for other organisms that are an essential part of the aquatic ecosystem.  The road decommission project includes revegetation of the road surface and planting of trees at stream crossings.  In addition to work related to the decommission, this contract provides funding for identification and prioritization of outyear habitat project work in the watershed.