Fish Habitat Restoration in the Tucannon River Basin

The Tucannon River in Southeast Washington flows north out of the Blue Mountains into the Snake River and is the ancestral boundary between the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Nez Perce Tribes. The Tucannon watershed supports the only remaining population of Spring Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the lower Snake River.

While the Tucannon once produced thousands of salmon annually it currently produces only a few hundred adult Spring Chinook each year. In 1992, Spring Chinook were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act as runs declined to less than 200 adult fish.