Asotin Creek, a 325 square mile tributary to the Snake River in WRIA 35 is home to ESA listed stocks of summer steelhead, spring chinook salmon, and bull trout. The watershed is managed as Wild Steelhead Reserve by WDFW. Turbidity and sedimentation were primary limiting factors identified by the 1995 Asotin Creek Model Watershed Plan (Plan). The Plan was the first in WA dealing specifically with watershed restoration and protection for fish habitat and was developed by BPA, NRCS, WDFW, USFS, DOE, and local landowners. Proposed projects will reduce in-stream sediment and compliment previous upland, in-stream habitat and riparian projects already completed in the basin. Overall goals are to increase egg incubation success and juvenile salmonid survival. The Asotin Co. Cons. Dist (ACCD) will work with landowners, BPA, NRCS, WDFW, DOE, Nez Perce Tribe and citizens to ensure proper planning, cost effectiveness, and upland best management practice (BMP) projects. This proposal is for on-going prioritized Upland BMPs in the watershed. These projects will include 597.8 ac of 5-Year Direct Seeding, 3 Sediment Basin Construction, 65.8 ac of Grass/Forb Planting, Yellow Star Thistle program and 4,500 trees for reforestation. Projects will address water quality issues in the watershed resulting in less sediment entering streams. ACCD will monitor projects, NRCS will provide technical assistance and landowners will implement projects and provide records to ACCD and NRCS.
