Save the Date!
AWRA-WA Ellensburg Dinner Meeting
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Please join us at The Pearl, Ellensburg, WA for a dinner meeting and guest speaker!
Location:
The Pearl Bar & Grill, 402 N Pearl St, Ellensburg, WA 98926
Registration Fees:
Registration details are coming soon.
Meet the Speaker:
Rebecca Wassell
Yakima Basin Program Director
Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group
Becca grew up in western Illinois, where the creeks are usually brown and it rains in the summer. She studied Wildlife Ecology (B.S.) and Limnology (M.S.) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, then followed salmon out to Washington. After six years as a fisheries biologist for the Cle Elum Ranger District, Becca joined Mid-Columbia Fisheries in 2008. She managed the Yakima Delta Restoration project from 2010 - 2016, and continued to support the project team through project implementation.
Presentation Summary:
Becca will speak on the Yakima Delta Restoration project. This project is a long-term effort to enhance habitat in the critical reach of the Yakima River near the Columbia River confluence, where a thermal heat barrier creates significant passage issues for salmon returning to the Yakima Basin. As climate conditions intensify, projects such this are more important than ever. This talk will be a good opportunity to learn about large-scale habitat restoration projects in general and this project at the Yakima Delta.
The event will also be an excellent opportunity to mix with the CWU AWRA student chapter and other AWRA membership in Eastern Washington.
An excavator breaches the Bateman Island causeway, allowing water to flow freely through the river channel for the first time in 85 years. Credit: Michael-David A. Bushman/Yakama Nation Fisheries
