This project will protect critical off-channel rearing habitat along a priority reach of the Naches River. Fish managers and stream ecologists have identified the project reach as a critical rearing area for juvenile steelhead, chinook, coho and bull trout. The attendant floodplain is relatively unconfined, and groundwater upwelling is significant. The largest municipality in the Yakima Basin (City of Yakima) borders the downstream edge of the project reach. Although development has degraded habitat function, large areas remain unencumbered. However, future development will further compromise habitat function unless protection actions are taken. In other areas of the basin, salmonid rearing habitat has been heavily impacted through irrigation, diking and a myriad of construction actions. This project will protect key areas from development, providing habitat "strongholds" for the future. Project objectives include: 1) Continue implementing projects that have been initiated through the BPA-funded "Yakima Side Channels" project, by purchasing four parcels tha have already been appraised; 2) Prioritize additional projects for protection, based on their habitat value for salmonids, impending and long-term threats, and restoration needs; and, 3) Promote resource management partnerships, through project coordination and implementation, between the Yakama Nation and the Yakima County Planning Department.