Vantage to Pomona FEIS Index 34 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Vantage to Pomona Heights Chapter 3 230 kV Transmission Line Project FEIS Affected Environment PAGE 3-247 Territorial Governor, Isaac Stevens, organized a council in Walla Walla with the primary purpose of extinguishing Native American rights to lands in eastern Washington. Native Americans in attendance, presumed to be representatives for their respective tribes, signed treaties under pressure effectively ceding half of eastern Washington to the federal government in exchange for reservation lands and retention of rights for fishing, hunting, and gathering. The Project study area is within lands ceded in the 1855 Treaty with the Yakama. The modern-day descendants of the tribes whose traditional territory spans the Project study area are the Yakama, Kittitas, and Wanapum peoples. The Yakama and Kittitas bands are members of the federally recognized Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The Wanapum Band of Indians, although not a federally recognized group, continues to live and work in the Project study area. A portion of the Project study area is also within the traditional use area of the Sinkiuse or Moses Columbia, members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Settlement, Irrigation, and Agriculture Although settlement was occurring on the eastern side of the Project study area during the nineteenth century, it was somewhat slower than to the west, largely due to environmental constraints. A few ranchers claimed bunchgrass rangelands north and east of the Columbia River and some farmers settled in the fertile river bottoms; however, most of Grant County remained sparsely populated from the late 1850s until around the turn of the twentieth century. The area was characterized by a dry climate and a shrub- steppe ecosystem suitable for cattle ranching and little else. Lacking a substantial irrigation system, the Columbia River bottom land was the only area that could be farmed with success. It was not until the inception of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project that significant strides were made to irrigate Grant County. The cornerstone of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project was the Grand Coulee Dam, constructed between 1933 and 1942. Hydropower produced by the dam was used to pump water from the reservoir into a complex network of irrigation canals. By the 1960s, almost 20 percent of all of the irrigated land in Washington was located in Grant County and a full 60 percent of its land was used for farming (Flom 2006). On the western side of the Project study area, in what would become Yakima County, settlement was largely dictated by the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the subsequent development of irrigation throughout the Yakima Valley. One of these early irrigation projects was engineered by Walter Granger in 1889. Hired by the Northern Pacific Railroad, Granger organized and managed the Washington Irrigation Company and the Yakima Canal and Land Company. Granger was tasked with building the Sunnyside Canal to divert the waters of the Yakima River. This was one of the longest canals in the Northwest when water was turned into the first 25 miles in 1892 (Becker 2006; Owens 2005). In 1905, Reclamation authorized the development of the Yakima Project, took over the operation of the Sunnyside Project, and purchased many of the smaller canals associated with it. A year later, Reclamation also began construction on new canals and three divisions: the Roza, the Tieton, and the Storage Units. The Yakima Project was one of the first and largest efforts undertaken by Reclamation and today nearly 2,100 miles of its irrigation canals supply the Yakima Valley (Becker 2006; Owens 2005; Reclamation 2011). The extensive irrigation system jump-started the agricultural industry in the western part of the Project study area. Although small-scale family farms and orchards were producing some fruit and vegetables for market during the late nineteenth century, it was the Yakima Project that allowed farming to evolve into a full-blown agricultural industry. Crops included grain and hay, potatoes, onions, beets, and several types of fruit. Early orchards consisted of a variety of fruit trees including apples, cherries, peaches, pears, and