Similkameen Valley, Okanogan: Biodiversity hotspot

The Similkameen Valley is one of the most biologically, economically, and culturally diverse watersheds in western North America. It is the lifeblood for one of the three most endangered ecosystems in Canada and a top US and WA conservation priority.

The Similkameen Valley also provides unparalleled recreational values including world-class big game, furbearer, and waterfowl hunting and birding, and other watchable wildlife opportunities. Flooding the valley would directly eliminate these as well as several WDFW public access sites and planned segments of the Washington Water Trail and Pacific Northwest Trail.

Lifeblood to grasslands and rare interior desert

The Nature Conservancy has identified the transborder valley and the ecosystems it drains as a sensitive, high priority conservation area. According to their Okanogan Ecoregional Assessment, lands and waters along the Similkameen River are Terrestrial and Freshwater Priority Conservation Areas that contain:

• Highest breeding bird diversity recorded (according to the Washington Gap Analysis)
• One-third of British Columbia’s endangered (red-listed) species
• Critical connectivity/corridor for terrestrial and aquatic species between the dry grasslands of interior British Columbia and western US
• Critical bear spring range, including a potential recovering grizzly bear population
• Forty-seven species of global concern
• Habitat for the greatest diversity of terrestrial birds in Washington including, among others, nesting bald eagles and peregrine falcons, bobolinks, long-billed curlews, western screech owls, yellow-breasted chats, wintering sharp-tail grouse, and possibly yellow-billed cuckoos

• Important seasonal bighorn sheep range
• Critical mule deer winter and spring range, and white-tailed deer habitat, as well as important seasonal migration routes
• Foraging and roosting areas for many species of bats
• Habitat for a variety of reptiles and amphibians
• Home to beaver and muskrats
• Important habitat for shrub-steppe and dry forest dependent species such as badgers, golden eagles, burrowing owls, and white-headed woodpeckers
  

A new national park in the uplands, with the Similkameen Valley as the centerpiece, is also coming close to reality.