Steelhead benefit in water pact

PRESCOTT, Wash. – Endangered wild steelhead have a little more water in the Touchet River, thanks to the collaboration between a Prescott farmer and a conservation trust.

Up to 3 cubic feet per second, or about 1.9 million gallons a day, of water has been protected permanently for steelhead and other fish, and landowner Melvin Talbott will keep growing wheat on his 385-acre farm under an agreement arranged by the Washington Water Trust.

The effort is the largest purchase of water for instream flow restoration in the Walla Walla Basin, said Amanda Cronin, project manager for the nonprofit trust.

Washington Water Trust works to restore rivers and streams in the state, designing in-stream water projects that allow for continued agriculture and address habitat improvements, she said.

It targets projects in creeks where low water flow can limit fish passage and habitat, water quality, agriculture and more.

Talbott, who had irrigated his wheat, now grows in dry land. In exchange, he was paid $232,380 for the permanent protection of about 387 acre-feet of water annually through money from the Washington Department of Ecology and the Bonneville Power Administration via the Columbia Basin Water Transaction Program, Cronin said.

“I’m getting to the point in my life where I was getting tired of changing hand (irrigation) lines, and I thought if I could help the stream out and help the fish and make out OK financially, I might as well do it,” said Talbott, whose property borders the river for about two-thirds of a mile about 4 miles west of Prescott.

Wild steelhead primarily will benefit from the increased streamflow, but the Touchet also holds wild bull trout – a threatened species – and reintroduced spring chinook salmon, Cronin said.

The increased flow will be particularly important during the spring migration of juvenile fish downstream and adults heading upstream to spawn, particularly during periods of low water flows and higher temperatures, she said.

“It will benefit fish all the way to the mouth of the river,” Cronin said.

Extra water could be even more beneficial this year because of the prospects for a large steelhead run. Biologists are finding big increases in numbers of adult steelhead returning to tributaries of the Snake River, said Glen Mendel, district fish biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“We’re running 6 percent to 8 percent survival rates – much, much higher than we’ve seen in the past,” Mendel said.

The number of steelhead could be “in the 900 to 1,000 fish range” in the Touchet River, based on the number already counted at fish traps near Dayton and on Coppei Creek, Mendel said. And most of the steelhead already counted were wild.

While the additional instream flow provided through the agreement with Talbott may not be huge, it will help fish, he said.

Other landowners along the Touchet may not follow Talbott’s lead, although Cronin said she is hopeful.

Washington Water Trust has been working in the Walla Walla Basin since 2001 and has done smaller water purchases and leases.

A few of Talbott’s neighbors “ribbed me a bit about it, but most of them have not said much one way or the other. The fishermen probably have liked it more than my neighbors, and that’s fine,” he said. “Every little bit helps.”