Boat launch off-channel reconnection project

The project designed and constructed a flow-through channel between a .25 acre existing pond and the Wenatchee River by removing sections of a 30 ft. berm to provide refuge and rearing habitat and increase floodplain connectivity. The Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board Upper Columbia Spring Chinook Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Plan (2007) and A Biological Strategy to Protect and Restore Salmonid Habitat in the Upper Columbia Region (UCRTT 2008) recognizes the lack of off-channel habitat due to land development and state highway and railroad construction (UCRTT 2008) as primary limiting habitat factors for listed salmonids on the Lower Wenatchee River.This site is an excellent location to improve side channel complexity because it adjacent to known spawning and rearing habitats for salmonids and was identified and ranked #7 out of 26 total sites in the Lower Wenatchee River Channel Migration Zone Study (Jones & Stokes 2004) that was sponsored by Chelan County Natural Resource Department and funded by SRFB in 2004.
The Boat Launch Off-Channel Pond Reconnection Project (CMZ 19a) is located in the lower Wenatchee River, at RM 24.2, downstream of the Icicle Creek confluence immediately next to the town of Leavenworth, WA.

The goal of this project is to design and construct a flow-through channel between a .25 acre existing pond and the Wenatchee River by removing sections of a 30 ft. berm to provide refuge and rearing habitat and increase floodplain connectivity.