County Receives Grant To Study Solutions For Woody Debris Issue In Lake Chelan

Officials with Chelan County have taken their first major step in mitigating the ongoing issue of woody debris in Lake Chelan.

This week, Chelan County Natural Resources announced it has secured a $130,000 grant to perform a comprehensive assessment of the problem.

The funding for what has officially been dubbed as the Lake Chelan Woody Debris Waterway Assessment is being provided through the Washington Emergency Management Division, which coordinates preparedness, response, and recovery efforts in the wake of natural disasters and other emergencies in the state.

The Assessment's goal is to identify the best immediate and long-term solutions to the issue of woody debris in Lake Chelan by the end of this year.

Lake Chelan is largest naturally-formed body of water in mainland Washington State, with a surface area of roughly 5,200 square miles, and shares its boundaries with several different private and public entities.

“I’m very grateful that Chelan County is receiving an important state grant to help assess Lake Chelan’s ongoing woody debris issues,” says Chelan County Commissioner Brad Hawkins. “This grant will help us bring various partners from the Lake Chelan community together to assess the impacts of recent natural disasters, including floods and wildfires, and to determine what steps may be taken to address the current problem and reduce impacts from future events.”

Although the presence of woody debris in Lake Chelan is nothing new, the sheer volume of it being seen this year is unlike anything historically, after a series of late autumn storms last December caused flooding and landslides that carried the debris into the lake.

There is also a literal backlog of woody debris along over 120 miles of Lake Chelan's shores, bays, and coves which has yet to enter the tributaries connected to the lake, largely created by flows of the material over burn scars on U.S. Forest Service lands impacted by the Pioneer Fire of 2024.

“In some ways, the December 2025 event was a wake-up call for the lake community,” says Mike Kaputa, director of Chelan County Natural Resources. “There is broad recognition that a coordinated and comprehensive understanding of woody debris must be developed, as well as the development of future mitigation and response.”

The newly-funded Assessment will be conducted by the Lake Chelan Collaborative, a multi-stakeholder group facilitated by Natural Resources that includes the numerous agencies possessing ownership and jurisdiction over Lake Chelan.

A draft of the Assessment is expected to be made available for public comment by next March, and be finalized by June, 2027.

Among the many goals the Assessment will outline are:

• Identify wood loading locations around the lake and select major tributaries.
• Map the current wood supply and identify likely wood movement patterns through the lake system.
• Identify the impacts on private and recreational activities on the lake.
• Develop a list of recommendations for wood management as well as future proactive flood effect mitigation efforts.

County officials say any future efforts to facilitate the removal of the debris or control its ability to flow into the lake will require additional funding.