DAYTON – A recent settlement with Warren Orchards will help make major environmental improvements to the Touchet River near Dayton, according to a press release from the Washington Department of Ecology. The department says the river provides critical habitat for threatened steelhead.

Warren Orchards was fined by Ecology for illegally watering their 100-acre apple and pear orchard along the river, after being ordered to stop irrigating during the state’s historic drought in 2015.

As part of the settlement, Warrens agreed to take 20 acres of orchard out of production and place them into a conse...