Taneum Creek Rag-Heart Habitat Enhancement

The Yakama Nation restored in-stream habitat and floodplain connectivity along an approximately 1.5 mile-long segment of Taneum Creek (RM 1.8 -3.4) in Kittitas County at 1) Heart K Ranch Reach Sites 2, 4, and 5 and, 2) Ragland Reach within WDFWs LT Murray Wildlife Area. This project expanded upon the Taneum Fish Passage at RM 1.8 project (18-1710), moving upstream.

At the Heart K Ranch Reach, grant funds were used to install 13 channel spanning engineered wood structures (ELJs) and to place 44 unanchored key pieces (with rootwads) instream. This project also filled a funding gap in project 18-1710 RM 1.8 by covering costs to construct one of the five ELJs installed at the Ragland Reach and for the mobilization, temporary access and staging there. Restoration metrics for each project reflect the number of structures funded by each, and do not double count restoration acres or miles.

Wood placement is expected to a) trap bedload to raise the channel bed, improving floodplain connectivity and stabilizing further downcutting of Taneum Creek, and b) enhance aquatic habitat by sorting and storing spawning gravels and improving pool formation and flow. The objectives of this project are to increase frequency and quality of pool habitat, increase area of complex cover within the main channel, increase floodplain connectivity and groundwater storage, increase channel length, and increase beaver recolonization in order to enhance instream habitat for ESA listed Steelhead, coho, chinook, rainbow trout and cutthroat trout

Project goals included: stabilizing headcut upstream migration causing passage issues and improving floodplain connectivity and enhancing instream habitat by placing abundant woody material to raise the channel bed to improve and increase habitat for juvenile reaing coho salmon, spring chinook, steelhead and resident trout.