The Big Valley Reach Assessment area is located in the Methow subbasin on the Methow River in Okanogan County. The reach assessment was conducted by the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to address the recommendations of the UCSRB and to identify potential protection and restoration areas within the Big Valley reach. Reclamation provides technical assistance in partnership with private parties, states, tribes, Federal agencies and others to implement streamflow improvement, fish screen access and channel complexity actions which are intended to improve the survival and recovery of anadromous fish listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as part of Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinions issued by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) NOAA Fisheries. The assessment team's overarching hypotheses on the ecosystem processes are: 1) the proposed potential habitat actions presented in this reach assessment provide a cumulative benefit that will improve ecosystem resilience at the reach scale; and 2) the processes that naturally create and destroy habitat upon which the species of concern depend will be maintained or restored resulting in a net increase in abundance, productivity, diversity and structure of the populations.

Big Valley Reach Assessment Complete Report
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation 2008a. Big Valley Reach Assessment ,Methow River, Okanogan County, Washington. August 2008. http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/fcrps/thp/ucao/methow/bigvalley/bv-reachassmt.pdf