Kittitas County
Funding & Partners
Water quantity is a serious resource concern in watersheds throughout eastern Washington. The Yakima Basin Integrated Plan promotes efficient use of municipal and domestic water throughout the Yakima Basin using voluntary, incentive-based actions that focus on landscape irrigation, and other consumptive uses. Municipal and domestic usage includes water that is delivered by public systems, used by individual homeowners served by exempt wells; used by commercial or industrial facilities; and water delivered by irrigation entities for outdoor landscape irrigation in developed areas of the basin. It includes residential, commercial, industrial, and urban recreational uses of water such as parks, ball fields, and golf courses.
The Heritage Garden program provides a unique way to educate homeowners, municipalities and businesses about the water savings that can be achieved by converting from high water-use landscapes to lower water-use landscapes. Implementation of the programmatic elements outlined in the Heritage Garden Program provide an average water savings (Ellensburg) of 15.4 gallons per sq. ft. per year (672,893 gallons per acre or 2.06 acre-feet per acre) compared to growing a lawn.
Program funding for Heritage Gardens in Kittitas County is provided by a grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology through the Municipal Subgroup of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan.
What is unique about this county?
Climate Mapper allows users to map real-time conditions, current forecasts, and future projections of climate information for the area you select. The mapping interface provides climate variables, as well as variables pertinent to agricultural, fire conditions, and water resources. The dynamic mapping interface provides a straightforward way for scientists and decision-makers to visualize climate information. to find your precipitation and climate patterns on your site.
Example snapshot of precipitation in Kittitas County taken from Climate Mapper:
Web Soil Survey (WSS) provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It is operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world.
Below is an example soil survey of a Heritage Garden in Kennewick. Once you define your area of interest, WWS will provide a map, summary soil survey and a more detailed report of that area. Click on the map and legend for pop-up views.
Floral Diversity
Like soils and climate, each site is different and forms different plant communities.
Burke Herbarium Image Collection
Developed and hosted by the University of Washington Herbarium at the Burke Museum, this website brings together thousands of photographs and contributions from photographers and botanists. Below is an example map. This site also provides descriptive material and numerous photos of each plant species.
Burke's Quercus garryana County Data Map
Native Land Digital is a Canadian not-for-profit organization that is Indigenous-led. The map is a work in progress and does not represent official or legal boundaries of any Indigenous nations. They request input if you find errors.
Below is a still shot of the Native Land Digital's map of the area of Kittitas County. This map is interactive and best viewed online. Native Land Digital provides tribe identification with links to additional information.
Tribes identified for the areas of Kittitas County include those listed below the map. Click on each tribe's name to learn more.
Kittitas County Tribes