Grays River Watershed Restoration Status Report 2007, May 1, 2007 - October 30, 2008.

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Project 2003-013-00, 'Grays River Watershed Restoration', began in FY04 and continues into FY09. This status report is intended to summarize accomplishments during the period 1 May 2007 through 30 October 2008. Accomplishments are summarized by Work Elements, as detailed in the Statement of Work (see BPA's project management database PISCES). The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is collaborating with the Columbia River Estuary Task Force (CREST) on implementation of the Grays River Restoration Project. The Grays River is vitally important to the recovery of Lower Columbia River (LCR) chum salmon because it currently has the most viable population remaining in the LCR region. The Grays River watershed is also important to the recovery of salmon and steelhead in the LCR ecosystem. Today, numbers of naturally spawning salmon and steelhead have declined to levels far below historical numbers because of habitat limiting factors that include but are not limited to the lack of habitat connectivity, diversity, channel stability, riparian function and altered stream flow conditions. The objective of this project is to restore habitat-forming processes to enhance salmon and steelhead populations in the Grays River, following recommendations developed during the FY04-06 BPA-sponsored Grays River Watershed Assessment (BPA Project No. 2003-013-00). Specifically, this project will be the first step in restoring channel structure and function that will increase instream habitat diversity, channel stability, and riparian integrity in the critical response reach upstream and adjacent to critical salmon spawning areas of the Grays River. The major component of this strategy is the planning, design, installation, and monitoring of engineered logjams (ELJ) that will rejuvenate historic channel and floodplain processes. Additional restoration measures include reforesting the riparian corridor to enhance future large woody debris recruitment and investigation of conservation activities within ecologically critical areas. These activities include land acquisition and levee removal to protect critical areas and reconnect floodplain areas. Finally, monitoring integrated with restoration activities is proposed to evaluate restoration effectiveness and allow for adaptive management of future restoration treatments in the project area as well as other degraded watersheds in the Lower Columbia River