CTUIR Ceded Area Subbasin Priority Natural Resource Acquisitions III

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:



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.



This project enabled the relocation of a groundwater well that was currently located in the middle of the floodplain restoration area on a ~1,000-acre conservation easement that CTUIR is acquiring. The easement could not be completed and restoration could not occur until the well was moved from the floodplain to a location in the uplands and out of the way of the restoration activities (this well relocation was begun through funding from Project 2018-Umat-01). Once completed, this easement will restore and permanently protect roughly 400 acres of floodplain, 600 acres of uplands, and transfer 3.5 cfs of senior water rights instream in perpetuity in Birch Creek and the Umatilla River (the easement will close in September 2024).



Note: The metrics for this project were split 50/50% with project 18-Umat-01 since they combined to achieve the same goal (acquisition and relocation of groundwater well). The purchase of the easement was not reported in the metrics since this will occur with subsequent funding.

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.