DESCRIPTION
The North Yakima Conservation District proposes an assessment and preliminary design project to investigate the feasibility of creating groundwater fed side-channel habitat in existing remnant and paleo-channels in the Naches River floodplain. Additional off-stream habitat in this reach of the Naches River will improve habitat conditions for Mid-Columbia steelhead, spring Chinook, coho, and bull trout by providing refuge from the flip flop flow regime change that takes place in the fall. The assessment will focus on utilizing the entire 50 acres of property along 0.5 miles of the Naches River to achieve the maximum possible benefit to fish. Contracted work will include site assessments, groundwater level investigation, hydraulic modeling, preliminary designs, and a preliminary design report.
The North Yakima Conservation District completed an assessment to investigate the feasibility of creating groundwater fed side-channel habitat in existing remnant and paleo-channels in the Naches River floodplain, just west of Naches, WA. Additional off-stream habitat in this reach of the Naches River will improve habitat conditions for Mid-Columbia steelhead, spring Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon, and Bull Trout by providing refuge from the flip flop flow regime change that takes place in the fall. The assessment focused on utilizing the entire 50 acres of property along 0.5 miles of the Naches River to achieve the maximum possible benefit to fish. The assessment identified favorable groundwater conditions to support the creation of off-channel habitat at the project site, which facilitated the creation of conceptual channel design alternatives and ultimately a chosen alternative that was developed into a preliminary level design.
