He foster creek mccartney creek watersheds have been impacted by historic land use that resulted in high susceptibility to erosion events and streambed incision

This $165,000 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program (CFDA 15.631) provides funding to Pheasants Forever, Inc. to implement habitat restoration and conservation activities in the Foster Creek and McCartney Creek watersheds in Washington. Key project components include:

• Upland shrub restoration (sagebrush and bitterbrush) in areas impacted by recent wildfires to benefit mule deer habitat
• Riparian and wet meadow restoration, including low-tech in-stream process-based restoration and beaver-assisted regeneration
• Early detection and rapid response monitoring/treatment of noxious weeds and invasive plants
• Outreach and technical assistance to private landowners to enroll in the Sage Grouse Initiative and other conservation programs

This 3-year project period runs from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2026. Pheasants Forever, a non-profit conservation organization, will be the primary implementer of these activities, with potential sub-awards to partners like the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy.

Funneling soil and water quickly out of these systems. Now the uplands in these areas are dominated by rangelands or cropland within the conservation reserve program, state acres for wildlife program, sage grouse initiative practices, grazing management plans and some are under conservation easements to ensure long-term protection by chelan douglas land trust or the nature conservancy. These areas of high density, quality sagebrush habitat have resulted in vast areas of native cover providing habitat for sagebrush obligate species. Since the adoption of conservation practices that have improved the habitat quality of the sagebrush uplands IT has become a priority area for columbia basin pygmy rabbit, sage grouse, and sagebrush habitat conservation in washington. These areas were identified as medium-high priority core area by the arid lands initiative. There are several leks within this area that have resulted in further conservation measures being implemented such as fence removal, fence marking, virtual fence, wet meadow restoration, spring development and spring restoration projects. Since the large-scale fires that occurred in 2020, several arid lands initiative and washington shrubsteppe restoration and resilience initiative partners have implemented further upland perennial bunchgrass and shrub restoration projects as well as other instream restoration and riparian planting projects. The riparian and wet meadow work will coincide with low-tech instream process-based restoration that is on-going in the system partially funded by FY 23 sage BIL funding, washington department of ecology, army corps of engineers, washington department of fish and wildlife and WA PFW. Plantings will be planned to add more structure to the system to restore habitat but also provide food for beaver to be able to colonize the area and eventually take over maintenance of the watershed. Plantings will also be strategic and focused in areas where planting certain species can outcompete or shade some of the weeds that have taken advantage of greater water availability following in-stream structure installation. Early detection rapid response work to monitor and manage weeds will be established completed where permitted on private lands including arid land initiative partners (the nature conservancy and chelan douglas land trust) to detect noxious weeds and or invasive plants early and follow up with immediate treatment. This dedicated capacity for weed management will allow for earlier detections and treatment before problems increase in scale. This work will also allow for identifying areas where larger scale treatment and resources may be required from partners to improve and or protect priority sagebrush core habitat. C)shrub restoration (sage and antelope bitterbrush) in the foothills of the cascades where sagebrush habitat has been impacted by several fires in recent years that have prevented adequate shrub recovery. These areas will include private and public lands within mule deer (state trust species) wintering range and migration corridors. Assist foster creek conservation district with expanded outreach to private landowners in anew priority area for msgcp enrollment and site plan preparation for new enrollees.