Entiat-Chelan PUD Canal Juvenile Habitat Enhancement

 

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Project Sponsor:
Chelan County Conservation District

Funding:
Rocky Reach Tributary Fund

Project Location:
The project involves a phased restoration of a 1.2 mile reach at river mile 3.2-4.4 of the lower Entiat River.

Project Description/Purpose:
The Entiat Bridge-to-Bridge Restoration project was initiated by the Entiat Watershed Planning Unit in 2004.  The project involves phased restoration of a 1.2 mile reach (RM 3.2-4.4) of the lower Entiat River. This phase covers the costs for design, fabrication and installation of a water-tight slide gate for the irrigation canal. Incorporation of the new slide gate specifically addresses the primary limiting factor for salmonids in the lower Entiat River: juvenile off-channel, over wintering habitat. It will enable existing juvenile off-channel habitat to remain watered year-round, vs. only during the irrigation season, and provide approximately 500 additional feet of this critical habitat type in the lower Entiat River.

In addition to juvenile over-wintering habitat, this project will also increase the amount of available substrate and gravels for adult salmon spawning. Steelhead redds have been observed in the mainstem split channel area upstream of the canal intake, as well as within the first ~50 feet of the concrete walled canal. The new canal head gate will create flow velocities appropriate for emerging and juvenile salmonid use during the critical over-wintering period.

Final Report

 

                                                                                                                           


           New installed canal head gate

   


  Looking upstream from headworks towards canal intake
(l) return to mainsteam, (c) concrete headwall, (r) headworks                New canal head gate                             Adult steelhead (center) within the upstream
                                                                                                                                                                                                   portion of the concrete walled irrigation canal.
                                                                                                                                                                                      

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For more information, please contact Chuck Peven or Becky Gallaher at (509) 663-8121, or Tom Kahler at (509) 884-8171.

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