Project partners are requesting additional funds to protect critical salmon habitats with conservation easements on approximately 150 acres on the Richert Ranch at the Skokomish River North and South Fork confluence. This will protect in perpetuity approximately 2.4 miles of mainstem and off-channel fish habitat which supports ESA-listed chinook salmon, summer chum salmon, and bull trout, in addition to non-listed coho and fall chum salmon and steelhead. Due to the failure of an agricultural dike, the North Fork is now flowing through a cattle pasture and into Richert Springs, an off-channel refuge, creating a new confluence approximately 1.25 miles downstream. The portion now flowing through the cattle ranch will undergo significant restoration once conservation easements have been successfully obtained. The old mainstem in this area has gone completely dry (subsurface) in Fall 2003 and 2005, blocking all fish passage to the upper South Fork and Vance Creek; the proposed conservation and restoration of the new channel will help insure improved passage of all species and life stages of salmon in this area. Conditions required of the permanent conservation easement include riparian and floodplain vegetation and wood protection, removal of development rights, the ability to conduct complete restoration including but not limited to levee removal, livestock exclusion, flood easements, and maintenance and monitoring access; it does not allow general public access.