Category Overview
The State Lands Restoration and Enhancement category provides funding to two state agencies to help repair damaged plant and animal habitat. These grants focus on resource preservation and protection of public lands. Projects in this category help bring important natural areas and resources back to their original functions by improving the self sustaining and ecological functionality of sites.
Project Highlights
Washington Wildland and Recreation Program Grant 19-1979: LT Murray Teanaway Valley Unit Restoration Final Report Grant reporting deadline: 04/30/2024 Overall goal achieved: This restoration project rehabilitated floodplain, riparian, and meadow habitats on the recently-acquired 215 acre Teanaway Valley Unit of the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area, located on the mainstem Teanaway River in Kittitas County. Primary outdoor recreation opportunity provided: This project provides pedestrian access to all lands in the property. The property deed restricts motorized use to the developed parking lot. Primary type of habitat to be protected or restored: The project restores floodplain, riparian and meadow habitat, as well as instream seasonal channels. Priority species supported: The project area includes a 0.6 stream mile reach of the Teanaway River, and encompasses 1.5 stream miles of two seasonal tributaries, as well as 24 acres of undeveloped riparian forest, 41 acres of former riparian forest and coniferous forest in a former agricultural field, 17 acres of meadow and approximately 133 acres of upland forest. The Teanaway River is a Shoreline of the State, is critical habitat for federally listed steelhead and bull trout and is a focal watershed for Chinook salmon recovery efforts in the Upper Yakima Basin. This biologically diverse place bisected by the Teanaway River and contains acres of riparian, wetland, floodplain, meadow, and upland forest northeast of Cle Elum, Kittitas County. The riparian areas and uplands are used by beavers, Columbia spotted frog, neo-tropical songbirds, northern spotted owls, elk, deer, bear, cougars, and gray wolves. The property has 5 riparian related priority habitats as defined in WDFW’s Priority Habitats and Species or PHS documents. Cascades frogs and tailed frogs are both state monitored species and are present on this property. Riparian habitats in Eastern Washington, such as those on this property, have higher bird diversity than any other riparian habitat zone in the state. Mammalian diversity was also highest in Eastern Washington riparian areas like the ones on this property. This property supports all the major apex predators, including federally threatened wolves along with cougar and black bear. For example, a Teanaway wolf was observed immediately south of our project area and radio telemetry indicates wolf use and movement all around the property. Radio-collared mountain lion movements were linked to the Teanaway River and tributaries of this property. Research has shown that a healthy apex predator population helps maintain and restore healthy riparian ecosystems. Identify what was acquired, restored, developed, and/or designed with grant funds: • 65 floodplain acres, restored to floodplain vegetation • 0.6 miles of mainstem Teanaway River, replanted to floodplain forest • 2.36 meadow acres, including 1.6 wetland acres and 0.83 seasonal stream miles, treated for channel incision • 17 meadow acres treated for weed species • Of the 17 meadow acres, 1 acre was replanted with native grasses Miles of trail maintained, hours of education/outreach, etc.: No official trail exists within the property. The project did not explicitly include direct education, although the property is regularly visited by Central Washington University hydrology classes; the groundwater wells installed under RCO grant 18-2016 are maintained by two CWU hydrology professors and their students. An educational poster was included in the WDFW property kiosk. FINAL PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Please provide a detailed final project description that accurately reflects the work that was completed with this grant. Use past tense versus future tense. If there were cost or scope amendments to your project, or if the metrics you completed were significantly different than what you proposed, please explain. WDFW removed 2 culverts along John’s Creek, one low near the confluence of Fred’s and John’s Creeks, and one above Teanaway Road. Costs were evaluated to remove and/or replace a third, large culvert on John’s Creek downstream of Teanaway Road; costs for replacement of the culvert with a boxcar bridge or better-sized culvert, or moving the road, were too costly. In addition, the culvert is located partially on the landowner’s property; the landowner was interested in removing the culvert only if the road was moved and a new landowner access was created. WWRP funds are for use on state lands only, so this culvert removal was not considered further. The 41-acre floodplain was restored to native floodplain bunchgrasses in preparation for forest replanting. Weed treatment began in spring and summer 2020. The site was planted with native grasses in fall 2020, but a combination of work delays due to COVID and a record drought in spring 2021 resulted in poor germination. Site preparation weed treatment was completed again in spring and summer 2021, and the 41-acre area was reseeded with native grasses in 2021. Follow-up broadleaf weed treatment was completed in the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons, and hand weeding was completed when required by plant species and phenology. In preparation for replanting the riparian forest adjacent to the Teanaway River, where cottonwood forest had changed due to altered irrigation practices combined with incision of the river channel, in fall 2021, 240 pines and cottonwood were planted into 2.5 acres of the floodplain. This pilot planting was monitored for survival in 2022, which showed that cottonwood survival was extremely low, and ponderosa pine survival was 15% after 11 months. MCF determined the ponderosa pine was the optimal species for reforestation due to extremely deep groundwater (>8-10 ft depth during the summer dry season) and selected a high-density silvicultural-style planting to reestablish trees on the floodplain. In fall 2023, 3,210 ponderosa pine seedlings were planted in 14 acres to begin to restore large wood within the 50-acre floodplain. Beginning in early fall 2020, the 17-acre meadow (north of Teanaway Road) was treated each season for noxious weeds. In fall 2021, 1900 native grass plugs [mountain brome (Bromus carinatus), blue wildrye (Elymus glaucus), Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis), and bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoregneria spicata)] were installed into approximately 1 acre of formerly weed-infested area throughout the 17-acre meadow. Planning and permitting was completed to restore the center channel (east channel of John’s Creek) that is fed by springs at the wet meadow at the head of the channel. Permits included JARPA, Clean Water Act permitting, and a wetland delineation report. Construction planning for Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) to restore the channel and wet meadow was completed in 2021 and 2022. A tree thinning prescription was completed by WDFW, and planning to implement the thinning, to provide brush for the BDAs and channel, by MCF technicians was completed.