The Skagit River supports 6 of 22 stocks of Puget Sound Chinook & the largest bull trout and steelhead populations in the Sound. This project will continue acquisition work to protect key floodplain habitats & associated functions such as large wood recruitment, sediment delivery, hydrology, water quality, and channel migration. The target floodplain reaches covered by this proposal include the vast majority of Chinook spawning and freshwater rearing habitats in the basin. Target parcels will be identified utilizing a rigorous cost-effective formula developed by the Skagit Watershed Council. This project built on and enhanced the systematic and highly successful, SRFB-funded assessment and acquisition work undertaken by The Nature Conservancy (01-1369P) in the 'upper' Skagit River. The assessment phase included refinement of past property prioritization work, landowner outreach and restoration planning (if needed). The updated assessment identified properties with the best salmon habitat or best potential for restoring salmon habitat or floodplain processes. Landowners of these priority parcels were contacted and 4 tracts were acquired from willing landowners. Acquisition of these properties totaled 180.57 acres and provides long-term protection of the best remaining spawning and rearing salmon habitat in the basin from future harvest, development, or hydromodification. This project was funded by the Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB) on December 13, 2007 as a $2,312,800 comprehensive acquisition and assessment grant for both the "middle" and "upper" Skagit River reaches. For administration purposes, the project was split into two separate grant contracts. This grant for $1,045,392 is administered by The Nature Conservancy. The companion grant (07-2017P) is administered by the Skagit Land Trust.