Category Overview
Conserving land along our waterways protects important habitat and helps keep our rivers healthy, clean, and more resilient to drought. Riparian Protection projects conserve and restore fresh and saltwater habitat while protecting fish habitat. In doing so, the grants help provide our families, farms, and fisheries with clean water across the state.
Project Highlights
The goal of this project is to acquire two separate but equally important Riparian Protection parcel areas.The first a 37-Acre parcel adjacent the Similkameen-Chopaka Unit of the Scotch Creek Wildlife Area and surround on all other sides by DNR property. The second worksite area is to acquire a the last remaining 16.5-Acre parcel on Eyhott Island, part of the Driscoll-Eyhott Island Unit of the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area. By purchasing these parcels WDFW protects critical riparian habitat, state imperiled Inter-mountain Basins Big Sagebrush Steppe and Ponderosa Pine Woodland as well as Savanna Ecological Systems . This habitat supports a diverse array of migratory neotropical birds and cavity nesting species such as wood ducks, hooded mergansers, and woodpeckers. The riparian habitat also supports our state-listed upper Columbia River steelhead as well as pacific lamprey, kokanee and a various PHS freshwater mussel species. By acquiring this last remaining parcel, management of the island will become more simplified through consolidation.