Upper Walla Walla River Watershed Assessment and Strategic Action Plan

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Fisheries Program, in collaboration with co-managers, has contracted a qualified environmental firm to develop an Upper Walla Walla River watershed assessment/strategic action plan. The project is focused on the Walla Walla River from the confluence with Dry Creek near Lowden, Washington, to the headwaters of the North and South Forks of the Walla Walla River in northeast Oregon. The geographic extent of this assessment builds on previously completed studies to provide continuity from the mouth to the headwaters of the Walla Walla River.
Habitat/Instream surveys and feasibility studies were incorrectly reported at proposed and were never intended to be a component of this project. Conducting a Watershed Assessment to produce a strategic action plan accurately represents the work done and has been reported as such at actual.

The Upper Walla Walla River Watershed Assessment will benefit salmon and steelhead habitat by identifying key limiting factors that currently exist at a watershed scale and a reach scale. After limiting factors and problems are identified and quantitatively ranked, the Strategic Action Plan will establish a 20-year strategic approach to process-based restoration to most effectively benefit salmon and steelhead in the upper Walla Walla River. We will produce a watershed atlas-style final product that will be shared with all implementers in the basin so that restoration efforts within the basin are coordinated and maximum habitat benefit for salmon and steelhead is achieved.