Using Assessments to be Strategic: Developing and Implementing a Strategy to Protect and Restore Critical Chinook Salmon Habitat on Ohop Creek in the Nisqually River Watershed, Washington

Over the last ten years the Nisqually Land Trust has completed seven transactions between 2001 and 2008, conserving 272 contiguous acres in the Ohop Valley.  On this protected property, the first one mile restoration construction phase of a plan to restore 5 miles of a ditched portion of Ohop Creek was completed in 2010 by the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group.  The restoration transformed an agricultural ditch into a 1-mile, meandering stream that reconnects Ohop Creek with its historical floodplain in the valley.  This project was not a randomly chosen project by the project sponsors but instead was the outcome of a series of strategic assessments and a 10 year planning process with the local community led by the Nisqually Indian Tribe in partnership with many organizations.  These assessments identified the highest priority protection and restoration reaches in the Nisqually watershed and then gathered the information necessary to develop and implement a detailed design that was supported by the local community.