Funding for adaptive management of step-pool channel at the Boulder Field site one year after channel construction. This effort will assess, identify, and correct any post-high flow changes to the pools, steps, or channel that limit fish passage. This is an extension of the Boulder Field Passage Project which provided access to 23.4 miles of mainstem habitat and dozens of miles of tributary habitat. Project design criteria includes passage of a 14-in (or larger) steelhead/bull trout during 90% of March, 70% of April flows, 15% of May flows, and 90% of August/September natural flows.  The window for passage will range from approximately 50-1000 cfs in Icicle Creek, with a potential for passage at a high flow channel at up to around 3000 cfs.

Icicle Creek is described by the Upper Columbia Regional Technical Team (RTT) as a priority 2 watershed in the Wenatchee Subbasin. Per the 2020 UC RTT Revised Biological Strategy, Habitat Quantity (Anthropogenic Barriers) is the number 2 priority Ecological Concern for the Icicle Creek AU. Implementation of this project will address a high priority ecological concern in a high priority AU.

In the context of Wenatchee River subbasin restoration, Lower Icicle Creek is the number 3 scoring assessment unit (AU) for Steelhead (SH), and Spring Chinook (SPCH) & Steelhead, and Total Restoration. It is the number 5 scoring AU for SH in the UC Region and number 15 for Total Restoration in the UC region which indicating its significance for SH, SPCH, and Bull Trout. Furthermore, the UCRTT Biological Strategy specifically lists passage at the boulder field as a priority action type and notes that “EDT and ICRT intrinsic potential models predict very large increases in capacity for steelhead with access to Upper Icicle”. This project directly improves/provides access to upper Icicle Creek.