CTUIR Ceded Area Subbasin Priority Natural Resource Acquisitions V

This recurring project 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 are 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. This project helps to defray the costs associated with the acquisition of properties that become available and meet all six criteria listed below for fisheries restoration and the protection of reserved tribal treaty rights within the subbasins of CTUIRs ceded area.



Actions were 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.



The funds from this project were used for the acquisition of 39.54 acres of floodplain habitat on the Umatilla River (tax lot #501). This acquisition will allow for habitat restoration and its protection from future development. The property also is the location of Umatilla Supplementation Program acclimation ponds and an important USGS stream gage that is jointly operated by CTUIR staff. The acquisition of this site will ensure the continued operation of those facilities and the gage. In addition to the acquisition of this tax lot, CTUIR will be using other funds to acquire the adjacent tax lot #600. This tax lot includes office and shop facilities that the CTUIR Fisheries Program will use to accommodate its growing program needs.

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.