The project is located along the mainstem of the Methow river, approximately 1 mile downstream of Mazama, Washington. The reach is located along highway 20, between river mile (rm) 14 and rm 15.5 and contains tributaries of Goat Creek and Boulder Creek. UCSRB prioritization Tier 1 reach and Tier 1 assessment unit.

This project will improve bank, channel, riparian, and aquatic habitat conditions to address limiting factors associated with ESA listed chinook salmon and steelhead within the Methow river. It will increase in-stream hydraulic diversity, stream cover, and microhabitats along channel margins, increase frequency, duration, and area of floodplain inundation, and improve riparian communities. 2. The work will include the following activities as shown on the drawings: installation and removal of temporary construction access routes and cofferdams, dewatering, earthwork within the existing channel and floodplain (excavation of pilot channels through existing levees), installation of multiple wood habitat structures to enhance aquatic habitat, and revegetation of all disturbed areas (planting and/or seeding). All work shall be completed in accordance with the contract documents, drawings, and specifications.

Existing conditions the Goat Creek habitat improvement project is located on the Methow river near the confluence with Goat Creek near Mazama, WA. The project reach and floodplain has been negatively affected by anthropogenic controls such as US highway 20, residential development, levee construction, and rip-rap bank protection placement. In general, these activities have confined the Methow river, limited lateral channel migration, and reduced the connectivity with the floodplain surface and adjacent secondary channels. These conditions have resulted in reduced juvenile salmonid habitat quantity and quality in the primary channel and secondary channels.

Limiting factor: 1. Lack of floodplain connectivity 2. Lack of secondary channel connectivity 3. Lack of key habitat quantity (pools, floodplain, secondary channels) 4. Lack of large woody material 5. Channel confinement from levee construction

Project goal and objectives: goal 1. Develop more normative river and floodplain functions to enhance habitat diversity, increasing the capacity of the project reach to support juvenile life stages of chinook salmon and steelhead. Objectives 1. Increase the frequency of channel units (i.e., more pools) 2. Improve and increase baseflow fish cover quantity and quality including interstitial spaces of comparable size to juvenile fish for concealment cover. 3. Increase availability of reduced water velocity (and increase diversity of available velocities) across a broad range of flows to decrease fish bioenergetic demands. 4. Distribute stream flow and energy onto the floodplain, thereby reducing the available stream power concentrated into one primary channel. 5. Increase density of native riparian plant communities for shade and bank stability. 6. Do not increase flood hazard risk to any private property and public infrastructure

Proposed work:
-    Add in-channel wood structures at opportunistic locations to promote: · increase channel unit frequency · localized deposition and scour · additional wood recruitment · facilitate reactivation of relic side channels · increase hydraulic diversity · increase cover for juveniles
-    Removal of select portions of existing levees to promote: · increase floodplain activation · activation of relic side channels · reduce water velocities
-    Add riparian plantings in relic side channel segments to promote: · shade development for thermal buffering · increased bank stability · future large wood recruitment
Areas (planting and/or seeding). All work shall be completed in accordance with the contract documents, drawings, and specifications.

This work will take place on Washington State Owned Aquatic Lands (DNR) and private lands where CCFEG is working with willing and supportive landowners.

CCFEG has contracted for design with Rio Applied Science and Engineering. CCFEG is working with DNR, DOE, WDFW, Okanogan County, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Recreation and Conservation Office for permitting. In addition to BPA, the project is funded by the WA Recreation and Conservation Office's Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the HCP Wells Tributary Committees. The Army Corps of Engineers will act as the federal nexus for environmental compliance and cultural clearance.