CTUIR Ceded Area Subbasin Priority Natural Resource Acquisitions III

This proposal includes securing fee title acquisition or conservation easement opportunities for land, water, grazing or timber rights benefiting ESA-listed fish and tribal First Foods. The project applies to the CTUIR ceded area subbasins (Umatilla, Walla Walla, Tucannon, Grande Ronde & John Day) focusing on water, land, and resource acquisitions to protect and/or restore ecological and physical processes important to aquatic Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed species and other native aquatic species important to CTUIR. Priority stream acquisition and conservation reaches will be selected based largely on past planning (NPCC Subbasin Plans, ESA Recovery Plans, etc) and consistent with the CTUIR River Vision which emphasizes natural floodplain function.

For example, Umatilla Basin high priority areas would include:
1. mid-mainstem (16 miles) and lower (62 miles) Umatilla River;
2. lower 15 miles of Meacham Creek (a major tributary to the upper Umatilla River):
3. 24,200 acre Isquulktpe Creek watershed (a tributary to the Upper Umatilla); and
4. Birch and McKay Creek watersheds.

Meacham Creek has been the site of intensive floodplain restoration effort by CTUIR. Isquulktpe Creek is a CTUIR watershed project with a long history of restoration effort, but headwaters (approximately 4,000 acres) remain an acquisition and restoration goal. The CTUIR recently completed a geomorphic watershed assessment of Birch Creek, a priority stream for threatened summer steelhead. Reintroduction of steelhead may soon occur in McKay Creek. Protection and enhancement of the mainstem Umatilla River is also a priority due to the reliance upon this habitat for over-wintering by multiple fish species. The lower Umatilla River lacks critical juvenile rearing habitat for multiple species of native fish.

Project Objective: Achieve benefit for Threatened summer steelhead, Threatened bull trout, reintroduced Chinook and coho salmon and other tribal First Foods through conservation of land, water and natural resource management rights:

1) Purchase permanent fee title or conservation easement of critical stronghold or high restoration potential habitats;

2) Lease or permanent acquisition of critical instream water rights;

3) Purchase grazing or forest management rights providing watershed conservation benefits.

Project Approach: Pursue permanent protection of high value habitats to protect and/or to enhance physical and ecological processes and leverage other cost share funding.

Projects will be evaluated using the following criteria:
1. Provides significant conservation and/or restoration benefits for sustaining CTUIR First foods;
2. Consistency with subbasin plan priorities, NOAA Recovery Plans, Comprehensive State Wildlife Conservation Strategies, and CTUIR River Vision;
3. Multiple fish species and/or life stage benefits;
4. High degree of defensibility relative to size/configuration of acquisition tract and adjacent threats;
5. Direct enhancement of connectivity between conservation areas; and
6. Enhancement of administrative or logistics associated with management of existing adjacent areas.

All acquisitions will be completed in accordance with the CTUIR Land Acquisition Strategy Plan. The Tribe will acquire land at or below Fair Market Value based on current Federal Yellow Book standard appraisals. Land may be purchased with water rights if the land/water package scores high as per above criteria.

PCSRF Priority Intended to Achieve: Priority #1 - Factors limiting the productivity of ESA-listed Pacific salmonids, as described in habitat objectives and restoration strategies in the 2004 NPCC Subbasin Plans, and the Mid-C Steelhead and Snake River ESA Recovery Plans.

Benefits will be achieved through the protection and restoration of natural physical and ecological processes and resulting habitat and water quality improvements. Impacts from development and resource extraction actions that might degrade aquatic habitats and limit fish production will be eliminated. ESA species: summer steelhead and bull trout; other species: spring Chinook, coho salmon, pacific lamprey, freshwater mussels, and other miscellaneous resident fish.