• Fish Accord Partner: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

    A floodplain created when the CTUIR made improvements to Russell Spring Creek, prime steelhead and spring chinook spawning and rearing habitat in the Tucannon.  Read more about this project here.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
     

     

    Meacham Creek, pictured here, was relocated with a series of levees after a railroad was built in the mid-1800s. The CTUIR moved a one-mile stretch of the creek back to its historic riverbed and added boulders, cottonwood trees, native plants and grasses. The restoration cools water temperatures in this stretch of the creek, providing a better habitat for steelhead, bull trout, white fish and rainbow trout.

     

    Meacham Creek before

     

    Meacham Creek after

      Another shot of Meacham Creek, with meanders restored. The CTUIR continue to work on additional sections of this important spawning and rearing habitat.
     
     

    Working with many local, state and federal partners, the CTUIR added meanders to this once-straightened channel in Catherine Creek. The meanders help add length and habitat complexity to this prime reach for Snake River Chinook summer rearing habitat.  A riparian easement protects the restoration into the future.  

    In addition to important habitat for fish, the project demonstrated how building partnerships that leverage different agencies’ individual skills and authorities can result in a more comprehensive restoration. Among the CTUIR's many partners on this project were the Grande Ronde Model Watershed, the Union Soil and Water Conservation District, the Bureau of Reclamation, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Bonneville Power Administration.

    Success breeds success. Another consecutive eight landowners upstream that are in the conceptual design process of similar efforts on their properties. 

    Catherine Creek.  

        

     

  • Watch a video on the Umatilla Tribes' projects
    About the Umatilla Tribes and their Fish Accord

    The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) is a union of three tribes: Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla. The Umatilla Indian Reservation, located near Pendelton in northeast Oregon, and is about 172,000 acres (about 273 square miles). In 1855 the three tribes signed a treaty with the US government, ceding over 6.4 million acres to the United States in what is today northeast Oregon and southwest Washington. In the treaty, the tribes reserved rights to fish, hunt, and gather foods and medicines within the ceded lands. Tribal members still exercise and protect those rights today.

     

    The CTUIR is annually implementing 19-plus Accord contracts for work related to habitat enhancement, fish passage improvement, hatchery supplementation and monitoring & evaluation.  The goal of these projects is increased spawning success, rearing capacity, smolt escapement and adult holding in CTUIR project areas of the Umatilla, Walla Walla, John Day, Grande Ronde, North Fork John Day, and Tucannon Basins. In addition, the CTUIR seeks to contribute to achieving healthy watersheds (DNR River Vision) and to provide sustainable harvest opportunities for aquatic species of the first food order by protecting, conserving and restoring native aquatic populations and their habitats.

     

     

    Link to Umatilla Tribes' Website

    Link to Treaty Tribes/CRITFC Accord

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    Locations of Umatilla Tribes' Fish Accord projects.

    Click here for larger view.

    The Fish Accord Partnerships

    The Columbia Basin Fish Accords, first signed in 2008, establish a historic partnership among three federal action agencies (BPA, the Corps and Reclamation), six Northwest tribes and three states. 

     

     

    They provide firm commitments to hydro, habitat and hatchery actions, greater clarity about biological benefits and secure funding for 10 years.

     

    Under these agreements, the federal agencies, tribes and states work together as partners to provide tangible survival benefits for salmon recovery by upgrading passage over federal dams, restoring river and estuary habitat, and through scientific hatchery management