The Entiat IMW: As Good as It Gets, and Still There Are Challenges

The Entiat River, a tributary to the Columbia River in eastern Washington, supports several salmonid species including ESA-listed spring Chinook and steelhead.  A majority of anadromy is concentrated within ~42 rkm of the mainstem where instream habitat has been heavily impacted by human actions and currently exhibits a lack of complexity, especially in wood loading and pool frequency.  The large survival gap identified for listed species and an engaged and supportive community led to the Entiat being selected as an IMW in 2011.  Implementation of restoration actions is guided spatially and temporally by an experimental design with the aim of actions creating a large impact in a short time over a focused area.  Actions were implemented in 2012 and 2014, with another round scheduled for 2016 and 2017.  Fish response monitoring includes seasonal PIT tagging, instream PIT tag detection arrays, and a rotary screw trap.  The Entiat IMW has adequate funding, mostly willing landowners, and an intensive monitoring program; however, preliminary results indicate low power to detect changes in fish abundance as a response to the first round of habitat restoration actions.  We continue to work with project sponsors on project design and are adaptively managing the monitoring design.