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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Yakima County recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Yakima River ecosystem restoration project.
The $12 million Yakima River Gap-to-Gap Ecosystem Restoration Project will restore ecosystem process, structure, and function in the river’s gap-to-gap reach.
It includes removing and realigning levees, removing spur dikes, restoring and reconnecting 320 acres of floodplains and reconnecting wetlands.
Phase one of the project includes three project areas: Sportsman Island, Blue Slough and Yakima Diking District #1. The work involves creating river side channels on Sportsman Island, near Yakima Sportsman State Park, as well as floodplain grading in the Newlands Ponds area east of the river and just south of SR 24.
Timing of phases two and three will depend upon progress with the first phase of construction and are expected to be complete in the next three years.