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In 2006 the Wallowa County Natural Resource Advisory Committee (NRAC) began its second watershed assessment, focusing on the Lower Joseph Creek Watershed (LJCW). This assessment is the latest effort by Wallowa County to implement the Wallowa County-Nez Perce Tribe Salmon Habitat Recovery Plan, written in response to the listing of the Snake River Chinook salmon in 1992. The LJCW is a comprehensive watershed evaluation prepared through a collaborative process including the US Forest Service, Wallowa Resources, several state agencies, and tribal and environmental group representatives. The LJCW assessment objectively examines conditions on the ground, and identifies opportunities to restore and improve healthy watershed function. The process covers 177,929 acres of public and private lands, at a cost of $350,000. It includes a review of the forest, range, riparian, wildlife, cultural, economic, roads and recreation resources. In 2013, the Wallowa Whitman Forest Collaborative selected LJCW as one of two priority projects. The five eastern Oregon collaboratives supported it as the first project under the USFS Eastside Restoration Strategy. A dedicated interdisciplinary team was appointed by the USFS to develop forest restoration projects with increased size and in a timely manner. Scheduled completion is January 2015. The assessment identified over $80 million of forest restoration, range improvement and road and recreation maintenance over the next five years. These activities include commercial harvest over 16,000 acres that could produce over 100 million board feet of timber. The current federal land harvest level is approximately 4 million board feet per year in Wallowa County. Implementation of the watershed restoration activities will give a boost to the local economy, by reducing the fire risk, opening up stands for improved range conditions and grazing opportunities with fencing and water developments.