King County seeks to acquire additional properties to expand the restoration area for a future floodplain re-connection and salmon habitat restoration project on King County-owned land at the lower Rutledge Johnson levee (~RM 13.1-13.5) of the Cedar River. The restoration project is in the conceptual design phase. This reach scale acquisition includes multiple properties immediately upstream of the planning area , which if acquired, will allow the county to remove more of the levee. Under existing conditions, juvenile salmonid habitat is largely confined to the mainstem river through the Rutledge Johnson/Rhode levee reach, which limits rearing and refuge for Chinook and other species. An existing side channel and connecting drainages form a backwater with a single connection to the Cedar River at the downstream end of the Rutledge Johnson levee. With acquisition of additional parcels, a future restoration project could reconnect over 25 acres of the Cedar River floodplain and remove the Rutledge Johnson and Rhode levee, with the goal of restoring riverine processes that benefit Chinook and other salmon populations. Acquisitions will allow restoration projects to improve in-stream and off-channel salmon habitat by increasing channel complexity, creating more diverse flow conditions, and facilitating more direct connections to floodplain habitats. Acquired properties will be restored when King County secures sufficient design and construction funding.