Tepee Creek Fish Passage Restoration

The Yakama Nation used this funding to replace 3 partial barriers on Tepee Creek to restore juvenile salmonid access to 8.7 miles of upstream habitat. Tepee Creek, a tributary to White Creek in the Klickitat River subbasin, provides important spawning and rearing habitat for ESA-listed Mid Columbia River steelhead. The White Creek watershed as a whole is likely the most important spawning and rearing tributary watershed within the Klickitat subbasin. In recent years, the White Creek watershed has accounted for up to 40% of the observed steelhead spawning in the entire Klickitat subbasin. Tepee Creek has accounted for up to 21% of the observed spawning in the Klickitat subbasin in recent years, however in most years it likely accounts for between 5% and 10%. Because of the very low to nonexistent base flow conditions at many spawning areas, post-emergence movement by steelhead fry and juveniles is critical to their survival. Access to refugia (in the form of perennially-flowing stream reaches or remnant pools in otherwise dry reaches) is necessary for successful rearing within this watershed.

The goal of the project is to connect isolated freshwater in-stream habitat to increase the range and distribution of salmon. The objective of the project is to increase access to freshwater in-stream side channels, oxbows, and other channels.



The objective of the project is to increase access to areas blocked by human-caused impediments.