Eastern and Central Washington WHIP Priorities for FY 09

Washington State WHIP Priorities

Restoration of native vegetation on:

• Primary Habitats selected from the Priority Habitats and Species list of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW)
• Secondary Habitats identified by the State Technical Advisory Committee (STAC)

Habitat Improvement for Targeted Wildlife Species:

• Federal or State Threatened and Endangered Species and associated critical habitats
• Federal or State Candidate Species
• Species identified as Priority Habitat Species (PHS) by WDFW
• Beneficial insects and pollinators

 FY09 WHIP Priorities for Eastern and Central Washington  

 1. Priority Habitat Types:

2. Priority Treatment Activities:

    Primary Habitat Types for Eastern and Central Washington

 
Shrub-Steppe

• Restore or establish native shrub-steppe vegetative communities where they historically occurred.

Species that may be benefited:  black-tailed jackrabbit, pygmy rabbit, Washington ground squirrel, white-tailed jack rabbit, Brewer’s sparrow, burrowing owl, loggerhead shrike, sage grouse, sage thrasher, beneficial insects and pollinator insects.

Eastside Grassland

• Restore or establish native grass communities where they historically occurred (no shrub planting).

Species that may be benefited:  sharp-tailed grouse, burrowing owl, white-tailed jack rabbit, giant Palouse earthworm, grasshopper sparrow, beneficial insects, and pollinator insects.
 

Upland Aspen Forest

• Restore or enhance native Aspen forest
  
  Species that may be benefited: black-backed woodpecker, Lewis' woodpecker, pileated woodpecker and western bluebird.

Secondary Habitat Types for Eastern and Central Washington

Riparian

• Restore or enhance native plant community.
• Establish native trees and shrubs where woody vegetation historically occurred.
• Install fencing along perennial streams, springs, ponds or lakes to provide livestock management or exclusion. 
• Provide off-channel watering source when livestock are excluded from perennial water source.

Species that may be benefited:  bull trout, Chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead, westslope cutthroat, redband trout, wood duck, northern leopard frog, western pipistrelle bat (along Snake and Columbia Rivers), pallid bat, Yuma myotis bat, fringed myotis bat.

 Wetlands

• Restore or enhance native plant community.
• Restore or enhance natural hydrology.

Species that may be benefited:  coho salmon, northern leopard frog, Columbia spotted frog, wood duck, American avocet, dunlin, black-necked stilt, western sandpiper, least sandpiper, pallid bat, Yuma myotis bat, fringed myitis bat.

 Streams

• Correct human-made fish passage barriers through the removal and/or replacement with fish-passable structures.
  
  Species that may be benefited:  bull trout, Chinook salmon, coho salmon, kokanee, steelhead/rainbow trout, westslope cutthroat, redband trout.

 
Forest

• Restore or enhance natural diversity by underplanting of shrubs or other trees into a monoculture and/or by thinning to increase light transmission through the canopy.
• Pre commercial thinning for improvement in understory vegetation.
• Create snags.
• Reestablish cover on disturbed sites, using species beneficial to wildlife.
• Enhance or restore native Oregon white oak woodland.
  
  Species that may be benefited: black-backed woodpecker, Lewis' woodpecker, pileated woodpecker, western bluebird and western gray squirrel.
   

Agricultural Land

• Establish trees and shrubs on idle land (eyebrows, odd areas, expired Conservation Reserve Program, etc).    
• Establish hedgerows or shelterbelts.
• Establish perennial food plots.  (Note: annual food plots are not eligible for financial assistance).
• Establish habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators.

         Species that may be benefited:  burrowing owl, white-tailed jack rabbit, black-tailed jackrabbit, bats, beneficial insects
         and pollinator insects.

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