This project supports implementing larger-scale projects to improve local watershed health and ecosystem conditions and function within the Pend Oreille subbasin, consistent with the NPCC Sub-Basin Plan. The Kalispel Tribe has a history of matching & leveraging funds from various sources (e.g. SRFB, DOE, DOT, BIA, USFS) to implement large scale watershed projects. Land management and watershed restoration will be based upon the jointly-developed objectives and expected performance outcomes.

In previous years contracts (2016-2019) the USGS examined thermal heterogeneity across space and time and identified potential cold-water refuges for salmonids in the Pend Oreille River. The USGS had specific objectives:
1. Continue to compare longitudinal patterns of water temperature derived from thermal infrared imagery to in-stream measurements in the
     water column.
2. Continue to assess spatial (lateral, longitudinal, and vertical) and temporal thermal heterogeneity in water temperature at multiple scales.
3. Continue to evaluate statistical associations between hydrologic and geomorphic variables and occurrence of cool-water areas.
4. The USGS and a Tribal Contractor have provided a cold-water refuge protection and restoration framework (attached). The framework will
     help prioritize areas for protection and potential enhancement of cold-water refuges in the Pend Oreille River.

Based on the framework, the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, Natural Resources Department (KNRD) hired a qualified design engineering team (Northwest Hydraulic Consultants) for the planning, design, and permitting for 2 sites that are part of a temperature refuge enhancement project located north of Newport, Washington: Indian Creek mouth and springs in the vicinity of Duncan Lake/Springs. This planning and design has been completed and gone through ISRP and BPA review. In 2022, implementation of the cold water refugia project took place and was completed at the mouth of Indian Creek.  For this contract year, additional cold water refugia projects will be identified as potential areas to enhance for future design (2024) and implementation (2025).