The Wind River Watershed project is a collaborative effort to restore wild steelhead in the Wind River.  The four agencies working in 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).  The 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 watershed.  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 with all interested parties.

This FY2020 contract funds continued habitat restoration in Trout Creek, an important tributary to the Wind River. Work identified under this contract is intended to complete our treatment of Lower Trout Creek, the stream reach immediately upstream of the Hemlock Dam reach.  Under this contract, we would conduct surveys of the instream and side channel habitat restoration just completed in Lower Trout Creek, to ensure that the work is functioning as intended and is not in need of any followup.  We would also conduct site preparation and planting of native trees and shrubs in all disturbed project areas that are not already fully stocked with desireable vegetation.  To give our planted vegetation a leg up on the surrounding reed canary grass in the Lower Trout/Hemlock area, we would use weed fabric around select planted trees, and in some cases would install browse protection on those trees.  

This contract also funds work to identify projects for upcoming years.  We have proposed this work under two work elements:  WE 174, that focuses on developing a plan for the habitat work we would conduct in FY2021 (under our next contract) in the "Pacific Crest" reach of Trout Creek, which is located immediately upstream of the Lower Trout Creek reach where we've been working over the past several years; and WE 114, that focuses on the Upper Trout Creek drainage, and intends to identify any remaining essential projects in that portion of Trout Creek.  The work identified under WE 114 would be implemented in FY2022-24.  Trout Creek is the "treatment" watershed in a BACI study being undertaken by WDFW and USGS under the Wind River Watershed project.  The study is intended to evaluate the efficacy of habitat treatments on steelhead recovery.  The projects we are seeking to identify in Trout Creek are consistent with this drainage being a "treatment" subwatershed, and are intended to improve the quantity and quality of habitats available to the native steelhead run in this drainage which has been steadily increasing in size since removal of Hemlock Dam in 2009.