Naches Watershed

The Naches watershed is located in south central Washington state.  This watershed drains approximately 717,000 acres in the western portion of Yakima County located west of the city of Yakima.  Highways 12 and 410 go through the middle of the watershed.  Sub watersheds and drainage include the Tieton River, Cowiche Creek, Rattlesnake Creek, Upper and Lower Naches.  The southern border of the watershed is Cowiche Mountain and Northern is Cleman Mountain. The western border is the county line to Pierce and Lewis Counties at the Pacific Crest Trail in the Cascade Mountains.  A small portion of the watershed extends north into Kittitas County.

Physical Description
Draining the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, nearly 70 percent of the watershed landscape is covered with publicly owned commercial forests.  Approximately 156,000 acres within the watershed are eligible privately owned working agricultural lands, representing about 39,000 acres of cropland and 115,000 acres of pastureland and rangeland.  These working agricultural lands consist of three basic agricultural uses:

Irrigated Orchard Crops – This includes mostly apples, cherries, pears and peaches.  Irrigation water is supplied by Yakima-Tieton Irrigation District which is a pressurized system. Due to the pressurization, almost all of these crops are either irrigated with a sprinkler or drip system and maintain cover crops.

Irrigated Pasture and Hayland – These crops can be occasionally rotated with oats or wheat as a cleanup crop.  These acres are completely sprinkler irrigated mostly with wheel line systems.  Creek water supplies irrigation water to some of these acres. 

Rangeland – There are approximately 115,000 acres of rangeland in the watershed that is currently being grazed.  Precipitation is about 7-9 inches annually.  Native grasses and shrubs include Bluebunch wheatgrass, Sandburg bluegrass, big sage and rabbitbrush. Wildlife in this area includes a large elk population.

Map of Naches Watershed

Counties in Naches Watershed

• Kittitas
• Pierce
• Yakima
• King
• Lewis

Land Cover/Use

The Naches watershed contains approximately 572,000 acres of public lands.

Naches Watershed CSP Eligibility, Qualification and Application Steps   (PDF file 195 KB)

For General and Application Information, visit our national NRCS CSP home page.


 

Program Contacts

Chris Johnson - Watershed Lead
District Conservationist
Zillah USDA Service Center
Phone:  (509) 829-3003 Ext. 108
Fax:  (509) 829-3349
200 Cheyne Road
Zillah, WA   98953-9764

Dave Brown
Asst. State Conservationist for Programs
USDA  - Natural Resources Conservation Service
316 W. Boone Ave  Suite 450
Spokane, WA  99201
(509) 323-2971

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