The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, in partnership with the Colville Tribe, intends to purchase fee title ownership, or conservation easements, from willing landowners along the middle reaches of the Okanogan River. This is a key reach that retains quality riparian characteristics and largely uninhibited floodplains. The primary project area lies between the towns of Riverside and Tonasket. The Okanogan is the northernmost anadromous fish-bearing tributary to the Columbia River. The project area supports spawning and rearing for steelhead and summer Chinook salmon, and supports reintroduction efforts for spring chinook. The project would protect natural riparian habitats, limited on the Okanogan, from potential negative effects of residential development. The project would also protect side channels and wetland sloughs from development. These off-channel features provide key habitats for many fish and wildlife species, including neotropical migratory songbirds, amphibians, anadromous fish and wetland mammals.