UPPER COLUMBIA FOCUS AREAS MAP
To make the best use of limited resources the Upper Columbia Partners Program has identified several focus areas where most of our funding and staff time will be spent over the next five years.
Methow River Sub-basin
This area is in Okanogan County in north central Washington. Partners Program projects will focus on benefits to native salmonids (steelhead, Chinook, redband, cutthroat and bull trout), bald eagles, and sharp-tailed grouse. Key project types include: Reconnecting floodplains to streams; increasing in-stream habitat quality, quantity, and complexity; removing fish passage barriers and/or improving fish passage; screening irrigation diversions; and improving and expanding riparian zones.
Lower Yakima River Sub-basin
This area is in south central Washington in Yakima, Benton and Kittitas Counties. Partners Program projects will focus on benefits to native salmonids (steelhead and bull trout), migratory birds (sage and sharp-tailed grouse, bald eagle, sage sparrow and sage thrasher), basalt daisy, northern leopard frog, and western gray squirrel. Key project types include: Fencing to protect streams, springs, wetlands and shrub-steppe; reconnecting floodplains to streams; increasing in-stream habitat quality, quantity, and complexity; removing fish passage barriers and/or improving fish passage; screening irrigation diversions; improving and expanding riparian zones; restoring wetlands, and restoring shrub-steppe.
Columbia Plateau
This area is in central Washington in Douglas and Grant Counties. Partners Program projects will focus on benefits to pygmy rabbit, sage and sharp-tail grouse, sage thrasher, sage sparrow, burrowing owl, Washington ground squirrel, northern leopard frog, and bats. Key project types include: Restoring shrub-steppe habitat through fencing, weed control, native shrub, grass and forbs planting, and native seed increase.
Pend Oreille River and Lake
This area includes all of the Pend Oreille, Priest and Lake Pend Oreille sub-basins, and the portion of the Clark Fork sub-basin that is in Idaho. The focus area is located in northeastern Washington and northern Idaho. Partners Program projects will focus on benefits to bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, northern leopard frog, bald eagles, and wetland and riparian dependant birds. Key project types include: fish passage; wetland restoration; riparian planting; in-stream habitat restoration; improving floodplain function; and reducing sediment sources.
Palouse Prairie
This area is in east-central Washington and northern Idaho in Latah and Whitman Counties. Partners Program projects will focus on restoring and reconnecting this grassland habitat to benefit Spalding’s catchfly, Jessica’s aster, Palouse milkvetch, Palouse thistle, Palouse goldenweed, broad-fruited mariposa lily, grassland birds and possibly the giant Palouse earthworm. Key projects types include: Weed control; native grass and forbs planting; native seed increase; restoration of prairie remnants; conversion of agricultural fields to native prairie; and fencing.
National Wildlife Refuges
This area covers four National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) in eastern Washington and northern Idaho including Kootenai, Turnbull, Little Pend Oreille, and Columbia Refuges. Partners Program projects will focus on benefits to migratory birds, native fish and rare and declining mammals and amphibians. Key project types include: wetland, upland and riparian restoration, weed and grazing control; and in-steam habitat and fish passage improvement.
Other
The Service will consider projects outside these focus areas that provide extraordinary benefits.
