Kittitas Conservation Trust used this planning grant to conduct a comprehensive hydro-geomorphic and watershed evaluation to identify the causes of Bull Trout mortality in the upper Kachess River, including seasonal dewatering, spatial constraints, and habitat degradation, and to identify, prioritize and complete final designs and bid documents for restoration actions to improve spawning, rearing, and migratory conditions for this threatened Bull Trout population. The assessment study area began at the confluence of Upper Kachess River with Kachess Lake and extended upstream approximately 2.5 miles to barrier falls. Its primary focus was the eastern floodplain and associated tributaries, but also included a watershed look at the impacts associated with human disturbances like roads, mining, and forest management. During design development, additional groundwater wells were installed to understand whether the site could support groundwater-fed gallery channels. Data collected from the wells indicated that the site would not support these channels so no further design development was done for this aspect of the project. The Upper Kachess River drains a 28.5 square km high mountain watershed in the Cascade Mountains of Northern Kittitas County (WRIA 39) and contributes cold, clean, high-quality water to the Upper Yakima River system via Little Kachess Lake and the Lake Kachess reservoir. Headwater sub-populations of Bull Trout within the Upper Yakima basin are often isolated from one another on a local and regional scale due to the construction of dams without fish passage in the early part of the 20th century. Many of these adfluvial Bull Trout populations, including the Upper Kachess population, persist at chronically low levels and are at high risk of local extirpation.