Blue Sky Habitat

County: Clackamas

Watershed: Sandy River

Description: The Freshwater Trust and U.S. Forest Service will lead this project on behalf of the Sandy River Basin Partners (the Partners). The project will address primary limiting factors by increasing off channel habitat, floodplain connectivity and large wood abundance on three high priority salmon and steelhead reaches in the upper Sandy: Zigzag River, Camp Creek, and Still Creek.

The project is part of a collaborative, multi-year effort to accelerate recovery of naturally functioning conditions within prioritized stream channels and riparian areas of the Sandy River basin. Data shows that past work is restoring ecosystem processes so that high quality habitat is self-sustaining..

Native fish benefited: Lower Columbia River Coho Salmon; Spring Chinook Salmon; Winter Steelhead

County: Lincoln

Watershed: Siletz-Yaquina

Description: MidCoast Watersheds Council is working collaboratively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore tidal wetland habitat at the Lower Drift Creek Unit of Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Estuaries and tidal wetlands are essential habitats for ESA threatened Oregon Coast Coho and other salmonids, as well as other fish and wildlife species. This project (Phase II) will restore 32 of 80 acres of tidal wetlands on the Kangas tract through establishment of sinuous channels, filling of perimeter drainage ditches, placement of large wood, management of invasive plants, seeding and planting to restore native species, and establishing topographic diversity to support spruce swamp, scrub-shrub, and native marsh vegetation.

These restoration actions will restore sediment accretion process to build marsh surface elevations to increase resilience to sea level rise, absorb flood waters, and sequester carbon in wetland soil.

Native fish benefited: Oregon Coast Coho Salmon and Steelhead (smolt and juvenile); Chinook Salmon; Pacific Lamprey

County: Crook

Watershed: Lower Crooked River

Description: Ochoco Preserve is home to the confluences of Ochoco Creek, McKay Creek and the Crooked River.

The Preserve is undergoing a multi-year restoration effort that supports the reintroduction of spring Chinook salmon and summer steelhead. This project is designed to allow Ochoco Creek and the Crooked River to access historic floodplains by constructing stream channels, off-channel habitats, wetlands, floodplains, and uplands across about 86 acres of the Preserve. The length of Ochoco Creek and the Crooked River will nearly double. Much of the increased length will include complex habitats suitable for Chinook and steelhead rearing.

Native fish benefited: Middle Columbia River Spring Chinook and Summer Steelhead; Redband Trout

County: Clatsop

Watershed: Lower Columbia River

Description: This project will help salmon grow and increase their survival rate as they journey from their spawning grounds to the Pacific Ocean and back. Threatened Columbia River salmon need special places to rest and forage for food before they enter the ocean as well as once they return. Because of habitat loss, available tidal foraging habitat along the Columbia River represents only 13% of what historically existed.

This project focuses on restoring access to one of the last remaining large off-channel foraging and rearing habitats for out-migrating salmon before they encounter the hardened shoreline of Astoria and enter the ocean phase of their life cycle. The area is a 45-acre parcel of tidal wetland next to the Lewis & Clark National Wildlife Refuge and within the Twilight Eagle Sanctuary. The railroad that passes through this site constricts the natural flow of water and prevents salmon from reaching the high-quality tidal habitat just beyond the railroad.

The comprehensive restoration plan will address this by creating new openings in the railroad embankment, allowing water and fish to move freely once again. Specifically, this project involves: creating two new fully fish-passable openings underneath the railroad, reducing velocities at the only existing opening to facilitate fish passage, planting native plants in tidal wetlands, and restoring unrestricted access to essential rearing habitat for juvenile salmonids.

Native fish benefited: Lower Columbia River Chinook and Coho Salmon and Steelhead; Columbia River Chum Salmon

County: Hood River

Watershed: Mid-Columbia Hood

Description: The Hood River Watershed Group, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, and Columbia Land Trust have prioritized habitat enhancement projects on the mainstem Hood River along the Powerdale Corridor, a former hydroelectric project site whose dam was removed in 2010.

The goal of the project is to improve aquatic habitat and ecological functions that support ESA listed salmon and steelhead populations, as well as other native fish that utilize the mainstem. Specific restoration actions include restoring off-channel rearing and spawning habitat and reducing peak flows in the mainstem by reestablishing floodplain and side channel connectivity.

Native fish benefited: Lower Columbia River Spring and Fall Chinook Salmon, Summer and Winter Steelhead, and Coho Salmon; Pacific Lamprey